MoviesAlthough it’s a direct sequel to 1976’s KING KONG, the only character who actually returns after a ten-year hiatus is Kong himself (this time played by Peter Elliot), although Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange do feature in a snippet of footage from the end of the first movie, footage which looks like it might have ..
MoviesIt’s hard to judge this 1962 production fairly, because I was only able to get hold of the American cut of the film which bowdlerised the satire in favour of spoon-feeding the US audience with exposition provided by new scenes of a UN Broadcaster (Michael Keith) and a straitlaced scientist (Harry Holcombe). Originally envisioned as ..
MoviesOne of the real pleasures I’ve found in blogging about movies is the joy of discovery. Inevitably, blogging about movies leads you to a far broader range of genres and filmmakers than you might otherwise have encountered but sometimes, it’s the thrill of discovering films you simply never knew existed. SON OF KONG is one ..
HorrorOne of those classic movies that establishes itself and its themes so powerfully and skilfully that almost every aspect of the production has become iconic in its own right, KING KONG (1933) was a seismic event in the history of motion pictures, from which the aftershocks can still be felt reverberating today. When a film ..
MoviesThere’s something reassuringly predictable about GODZILLA vs KONG, an adherence to convention that lets you stop worrying about some out-of-left-field twist or clever subversion and just sit back, relax and watch the monster mayhem unfold on screen. I mean did anyone actually believe that Legendary would take their two biggest (literally) stars and throw them ..
MoviesIn an age of shared blockbuster universes which take themselves terribly seriously, “Kong: Skull Island” is a breezy and brazen breath of fresh air. Preposterous in its premise, it’s not afraid to embrace its silliness and, as a result, is more fun than any of its Hollywood kaiju predecessors. In the early 1970’s, an expedition ..
MoviesThere’s more than a hint of opportunistic JAWS cash-in the Dino De Laurentiis’ ambitious remake of the 1933 classic. With a script by then go-to screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr (best known, perhaps, for TV’s BATMAN), the 1976 KING KONG is, to date, the only telling of the original Kong story to have an entirely contemporary ..
MoviesThe second, superior, remake of KING KONG returns the story to the 1930s and also reverts to the filmmaker looking for a hit rather than the predatory petrochemical conglomerate of the 1970s. In doing so, Peter Jackson lavishes the potential of the original with everything that modern filmmaking technology can allow to produce an immersive, ..