Product Description
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Epic remake of the adventure classic from accled director
Peter Jackson. In Depression-era New York, unscrupulous filmmaker
Carl Denham (Jack Black) is desperate to find a leading lady for
his new picture. After a chance encounter, naive actress Ann
Darrow (Naomi Watts) takes the role, and travels with Denham and
sensitive scriptwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to the
mysterious Skull Island, deep in the Indian Ocean. There the
filmmakers discover a secret, savage civilisation that time
forgot, and that worships a terrifying, gigantic ape called Kong
(a motion-capture performance from Andy Serkis). When Ann is
captured to be sacrificed to Kong, the ape becomes obsessed with
her. Denham uses this obsession to help capture Kong and
transport him back to New York, where he hopes he can make a
fortune from exhibiting the creature. But after Kong escapes, the
ape unleashes his awesome power against the city in an attempt to
find Ann, the woman he truly loves, leading to a tragic
conclusion atop the Empire State Building.
.co.uk Review
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Movies don't come any bigger than Peter Jackson's King Kong, a
three-hour remake of the 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 falls
for her, Jackson creates a movie spectacle that matches his Lord
of the Rings films and even at times evokes their fantasy world
while celebrating the glory of '30s Hollywood. Naomi Watts stars
as Ann Darrow, a vaudeville actress down on her luck in
Depression-era New York until manic filmmaker Carl Denham (a game
but miscast Jack Black) entices her with a lead role. Dazzled by
the genius of screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), Ann
boards the tramp steamer S.S. Venture, which she--and most of the
wary crew--believes is headed for Singapore. Denham, however, is
in search of the mythic Skull Island, hoping to capture its
wonders on film and make a fortune. What he didn't count on were
some y natives who find that the comely Darrow looks like
prime sacrifice material for a mysterious giant creature....
There's no point in rehashing the entire plot, as every movie
aficionado is more than familiar with the trajectory of King
Kong; the challenge facing Jackson, his screenwriters, and the
phenomenal visual-effects team was to breathe new life into an
old, familiar story. To that degree, they achieve what could be
best called a qualified success. Though they've assembled a
crackerjack supporting cast, including Thomas Kretschmann as the
Venture's hard-bitten captain and young Jamie Bell as a plucky
crewman, the first third of the movie is rather labored, with too
much minute detail given over to sumptuous re-creations of '30s
New York and the unexciting initial leg of the Venture's sea
voyage. However, once the film finds its way to Skull Island
(which bears more than a passing resemblance to LOTR's Mordor),
Kong turns into a dazzling movie triumph, by turns terrifying and
awe-inspiring. The choreography and execution of the action set
pieces--including one involving Kong and a trio of Tyrannosaurus
Rexes, as well as another that could be charitably described as a
bug-phobic's nightmare--is nothing short of landmark filmmaking,
and a certain Mr. Spielberg should watch his back, as Kong trumps
most anything that has come before it.
Despite the visual challenges of King Kong, the movie's most
difficult hurdle is the budding romance between Ann and her
simian soulmate. Happily, this is where Jackson unqualifiedly
triumphs, as this unorthodox love story is tenderly and
humorously drawn, by turns sympathetic and wondrous. Watts, whose
accessibility balances out her almost otherworldly loveliness,
works wonders with mere glances, and Andy Serkis, who digitally
embodies Kong here much as he did Gollum in the LOTR films,
breathes vibrant life into the giant star of the film without
ever overplaying any emotions. The final, tragic act of the film,
set mostly atop the Empire State Building, is where Kong earns
its place in movie history as a work that celebrates both the
technical and emotional heights that film can reach. --Mark
Englehart, .com