Production Year: 2005 - Action/Adventure - Director: Peter Jackson - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jack Black, Colin Hanks, Kyle Chandler, Thomas Kretschmann, Andy Serkis
Despite his origins as a low-budget filmmaker with a taste for the unsavoury side of life, Peter Jackson has turned into an event filmmaker someone who can conjure up a movie on a... more
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1933 classic that marries breathtaking visual prowess with a surprising emotional depth. Expanding on the original story of the blonde beauty and the beast who fall...
1933 classic that marries breathtaking visual prowess with a surprising emotional depth. Expanding on the original story of the blonde beauty and the beast who fall...
King Kong
James Newton Howard reportedly got the King Kong gig as a last-minute replacement for
... more
Howard Shore (who of course had worked on King Kong director Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings series). The good news is that Howard still managed to write an honorable score; the bad news is that it's no more than honorable. For some, the biggest disappointment may be that Howard didn't find more inspiration in the film's 1930s setting. Once in a while he inserts a vaguely jazzy flourish (the brief clarinet passages in "Defeat Is Always Momentary" for instance) but the period detail is kept to a minimum. Having more may have helped give the score a shot of much-needed individuality. Action scenes, for instance, are set to the opulently orchestrated, frantic percussive rumble that is Hollywood short-hand for, well, action scenes. "Head Towards the Animals" and "Beauty Killed the Beast III" are just the most typical examples of that style: Howard gives these bravura numbers the requisite pounding intensity, but can we be blamed for feeling that we've heard them dozens of times before? Similarly, the composer sticks to the expected when he needs to get more contemplative, as on "A Fateful Meeting" (soothing strings, soothing clarinet) or "Beautiful" (flutes to suggest the exotic locale). In short, this album is everything you expect it to be. Which sometimes isn't quite enough. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Advantages: Great special effects - particularly Kong Disadvantages: Overlong
The original 1933 King Kong movie is still one of the greatest fantasy films of all time, with the mixture of great imagery, camerawork and acting making it an unmissable film, particularly with Fay Wray as the pretty Ann Darrow, who falls into the clutches of Kong. It is a gripping film that can still thrill people today, even if it is over 70 years old. When it was announced that a remake of this timeless classic was to be made, with Lord Of The ... ...Denham.
Thankfully Peter Jackson's King Kong does have many plus points, but is still not a patch on the original. The story is set in 1930s depression hit New York, with down and out actress Ann Darrow's (Watts) luck changing when she meets overly ambitious filmmaker Denham (Black). Along with a number of explorers and documentary filmakers, Denham, Darrow and young playwright Jack Driscoll (played by The Pianist's Adrien Brody) travel to Skull ...
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Advantages: The most human Kong with phenomenal special effects Disadvantages: overlong: opening act starts to drag and New York scenes feel sterile
...rating: 12A
In completing King Kong Jackson both fulfilled a childhood dream and showed just how valuable a well-timed remake can be, even if the original is as iconic a masterpiece as this. Another combination of Andy Serkis' acting skills with Weta technology, we are granted an utterly real Kong, visually rather than just by drawing us into the fantasy world as with the previous films.
We follow struggling actress Ann Darrow [Naomi Watts] as ... ...by creditors, he hires her as the lead for his picture, setting sail for the undiscovered Skull Island by following a map he has received. Scriptwriter Jack Driscoll [Adrien Brody] has also been tricked into joining them for the voyage. Once they reach the mysterious island, Ann is captured by the natives and offered to Kong, a gigantic ape. The ship's crew mount a rescue mission across this prehistoric world to save Darrow and escape.
Most will ...
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Actor(s): Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jack Black, Colin Hanks, Kyle Chandler, Thomas Kretschmann, Andy Serkis
Director(s): Peter Jackson
Genre: Action & Adventure
Classification: 12 years and over
Production Year: 2005
Running Time: 2 hours 59 minutes
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK; UNIVERSAL MUSIC OPERATIONS
Release date: 10/04/2006
No of Discs: 2
Catalogue No: 824 245 6
Barcode: 5050582424560
Screenwriter: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens
Featured: Peter Jackson
Producer: Peter Jackson, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Fran Walsh
Languages
Main Language: English
Subtitle Language: Arabic, Icelandic
Hearing Impaired Language: English
Technical information
Special Features: Introduction To Peter Jackson, Post Production Diaries, Kongs New York 1933, The Natural History Of Skull Island
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Award information
BAFTA: Best Achievement In Special Effects 2005 (Joe Letteri, Christian Rivers, Brian Van't Hul)
OSCAR: Best Visual Effects 2005 (Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers)
DVD Description
Despite his origins as a low-budget filmmaker with a taste for the unsavoury side of life, Peter Jackson has turned into an event filmmaker someone who can conjure up a movie on a scale unlike anything we've seen before. KING KONG is his sprawling, epic remake of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1933 movie of the same name, and it is as big as the gorilla that runs riot through Jackson's rendering of Depression-era New York. Keeping the simple yet effective plot intact a film crew travels to the mysterious Skull Island, picks up Kong, and brings him back to New York City Jackson expands on this basic premise by drawing on the jaw-dropping talents of his special effects team to satisfy his thirst for the grand spectacle. The movie posits Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, the starry-eyed blonde beauty whom Kong falls for; Jack Black as Carl Denham, a low-rent Orson Welles look-alike who drags the crew to the island to make his movie; and Adrian Brody as Jack Driscoll, a hack playwright who battles Kong both physically and for Darrow's heart. As the men struggle against Kong and the lumbering dinosaurs of Skull Island, Andy Serkis, who made the character of Gollum so believable in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, steps in to form the facial features of the mighty gorilla, lending a real emotional sucker-punch to the scenes between Darrow and Kong. But it's the final third of the movie where Jackson really delivers; his 1930s New York is stunning, and when Kong breaks free from his shackles and stampedes on a lovelorn trek through the city, then iconically climbs the Empire State Building with his sweetheart, it's impossible to not be swept away by the sheer beauty and sadness of the moment. While its three-hour length may prove daunting to some, the payoff in Jackson's KING KONG is ultimately worth it, proving once again that he is a director of breathtaking vision.
Professional reviews
Review: A witty comment on the darkness at the heart of adventure stories, a bazillion-dollar spectacle that reserves the right to question the morality of spectacles, and, mostly, a tender love story about a melancholy girl and her tragically misunderstood monkey (Los Angeles Times, )
Jackson succeeds through a combination of modesty and reckless glee, topping himself at every turn and reveling in his own showmanship (New York Times, )
Once in the lost world, Jackson reproduces the breathless pacing of the 1933 film, tipping from one huge set-piece to the next (Sight And Sound, )
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