King Kong revisted

[MA-Caver]

Here we go again but this time Peter Jackson is at the helm. My thoughts on this remake of the original 1933 version of the story written by Cooper/Wallace... was at first "oh well, he's got that pet project outta the way, now he can focus on returning to Middle Earth and start on the Hobbit"... the preview is fabulous though and seems to adhere to the original story line with a few minor changes.
The original King Kong has long been one of my all time favorites and hopefully Jackson will pay as much homage to the story as he did with his vision of Tolkien's epic.
Thanks to Speilberg the dinosaurs in this version are a lot better than the old stop motion ones, which were still very good considering the technology then.

Some scenes from the trailer... heh... (spoiler alert??.... nah... it's all good)

 

[OUMoose]

It looks promising, but am I the only one who is going to have a hard time taking Jack Black seriously in this role? The only other non-comedic role I can recall would be his small part in the Jackal. :idunno:

 

[MA-Caver]

I thought so too but he has done other non-comedy... Enemy Of The State is one that I can recall... But Black has shown himself to be quite broad in his acting range. So it remains to be seen. I for one have placed this on my "To See" list.
Andy Serkis (Gollum) plays Lumpy the cook AND Kong! Go figure that one.

 

[Kempogeek]

It will be interesting how this one will do at the box office. I've seen both the 1933 and 1976 releases but Im partial to the black and white one. Always felt that you can't beat the original. Case in point, The Honeymooners. Im so glad that the movie was a bust. This should be on the list of dumb ideas for movie version of classic tv shows like Sgt. Bilko, McHale's Navy, The Beverly Hillbillies and even though it's not out yet, The Dukes Of Hazzard.......Steve

 

[arnisador]

Doesn't look encouraging to me from the ads. I like Jack Black well enough, but there's a time and a place for everything--for him, "High Fidelity," "School of Rock," and "Shallow Hal" were those places.

 

[lonecoyote]

I saw the original 1933 version on a big screen a couple of years ago, (I had only seen it on late night TV ) and had a blast. A great, fun, movie, and changing reels allows you to go to the restroom too. Why remake it? Every movie is a remake. Don't really see the point. I also saw the remade Dracula, the one with Winona Ryder and after that saw the original Nosferatu silent film. Guess which one was better, scarier, or more fun. The original Nosferatu is a just flat amazing movie.

 

[Kane]

I think this is great! Movie looks much prettier now, but one thing I don't get. King Kong is a gorilla right? Where is the silver on his back? If this gorilla is not a silverback it is still a adolecent gorilla. Imainge how massive King Kong will be full grown then, lots of damage.

 

[Brother John]

I'm definitely excited!!!!!!!!! I'll be in the theaters a few times for this one.

Your Brother
John

 

[MA-Caver]

I think this is great! Movie looks much prettier now, but one thing I don't get. King Kong is a gorilla right? Where is the silver on his back? If this gorilla is not a silverback it is still a adolecent gorilla. Imainge how massive King Kong will be full grown then, lots of damage.

There are two species of gorilla in the world ... Silverbacks or Highland and Lowland Gorillas. Even if Kong was a Silverback which seems (from the photos) that he is, males do not sport the "silver" hairs until they reach a certian age. Much like humans and our greys.
Kong seems to be of the Lowland variety due to the shaggyness of his pelt.

Mighty Joe Young was an unusual gorilla in the sense that his size was attributed to a genetic defect found called Giantiacus <sic> which occurrs something like 1 in every 20K gorillas.

Kong I think is just a freak of nature... if he ever existed.

I saw the original version re-released on the big screen too... definitely more "gory" than the edited version on televison... this unedited version has Kong actually STOMPING on villagers and New Yorkers as well as biting heads off (spitting them out too ) and eating them... WAY COOL version. My dad told me of when he took a date to see the movie on it's opening night ... he said the girl freaked out! Hee hee. Gives an idea of what scary movies were like back then.

 

[Kane]

I just came back from seeing the movie. It was freaking awesome as hell! Very good job by Peter Jackson!

Anyone else here see it yet? How did you like it?

 

[mantis]

I just came back from seeing the movie. It was freaking awesome as hell! Very good job by Peter Jackson!

Anyone else here see it yet? How did you like it?

i think it was good
although at some point EVERYBODY at the theaters was gonna puke!
i hate those freaking ugly creatures dude...

 

[MA-Caver]

Watched the original 1933 version (again) tonight with my (dutch ) nephews and their father, that's on DVD.
The kids who had watched Jackson's version (first) actually liked the story line of the original version better than the newer one. Of course the special effects of today's Kong is infinitely better by far... yet the kids observed that they thought (the original) was "pretty good" but they saw it more as a comedy than a horror movie... "was this really a horror movie? I think it's funny."

My father tells me of how he took a date to the premire of the movie (in New Yawk) in '33 and he recalled women actually fainting in the audience and his date digging her nails into his biceps and burying her face in his shoulder during Kong's close-ups. (...he had one date faint on him during the unmasking of the '25 Phantom Of The Opera). But he said that everyone walked out of the theater with "WOW!" on their lips.
Kong was the first of the "Block-buster" movies with showings in the bigger cities of 24 hours at a stretch during it's first week.

If possible rent/buy the DVD of the original that has a second disk of bonus features. In it Peter Jackson has a featurette of how his LOTR team re-created the famous "Lost Spider Sequence" of the original that was cut soon after the premire release as being "too horrifying". Very fascinating to watch and amusing to listen to the computer geeks' admiration of the original FX wizards for the work they put in compared to their "hard-work" digitizing all of their effects.
There's also interviews and commentary by another stop motion wizard; Harryhausen. Willis O'Brien was the man in charge of the FX for this one.

I liked the 2005 movie and loved the bits of homage Jackson and his crew paid to the original throughout ... but I discovered I still LOVE the original movie.

Joe Bob says check it out. Both of them.

Trivia: it was both writers and producers of the original Kong: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack that were the pilot and gunner that fired the last shots that killed Kong.

 

[Kane]

Heh heh, I have never seen the original 1933 movie. Does anyone know a place I can download it?

 

[arnisador]

I just Tivoed it (off AMC, I think).

 

[arnisador]

Doesn't look encouraging to me from the ads. I like Jack Black well enough, but there's a time and a place for everything--for him, "High Fidelity," "School of Rock," and "Shallow Hal" were those places.

We saw it this past weekend, and I stand corrected. It was a good film, and Jack Black did a good job. It didn't seem overly long, though some of the dinosaur scenes went on too long.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I saw it this past weekend to and enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought that
the action scenes were great. The fight's between Kong and the Dinosaurs were awesome and the fights between the insects and humans
were just as awesome. My wife's pager went off (on vibrate) during the
insect/human battle and she jumped out of her seat. Definately
worth going to if you enjoyed the origional story.

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com