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Awix (3310 KP) rated King Kong (1933) in Movies

May 21, 2020

King Kong (1933)

1933 | Adventure, Fantasy

8.2

(44 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Landmark pulp adventure provides everything you want from a monster movie and almost nothing you don't want. Surely everyone knows the plot of one of the most famous films of all time? Blonde, island, gorilla, tall building, biplanes.

The reason King Kong has endured and been endlessly remade is simply because there's barely a duff bit in it (although Bruce Cabot comes close as the juvenile lead): even the bit with them getting to the island, which could be filler, is smartly filled with brazen foreshadowing of the rest of the plot. From then on it's rampaging and dinosaur fights all the way. Slightly eccentrically structured, in that the whole New York sequence almost feels like an afterthought to the rescue of Fay Wray on the island itself. One also wonders if there was an actual decision to make Kong so sympathetic at the climax, or whether this was a happy accident: if Kong was really intended to somehow be an anti-hero, it's odd that his chief tormentor not only survives but goes on to star in the rush-job sequel. Nevertheless, a groundbreaking classic and the wellspring of an entire genre.

Kudos

The Mark of Zorro

Johnston McCulley

9.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Timid Don Diego Vega grows faint at even the mention of bloodshed and would rather read poetry than...

AdventureBooks ClassicBooks ClassicLit

The House of the Dead: Overkill

7.1 (20 Ratings) Rate It

Video Game Watch

The House of the Dead: Overkill charges you with mowing down waves of infected, blood-thirsty...

Awix (3310 KP) rated Kong: Skull Island (2017) in Movies

Mar 18, 2019

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

2017 | Action, Sci-Fi

7.3

(120 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Considering no-one has managed to make an entirely satisfactory King Kong movie since the early 1930s, and also bearing in mind that the same company's Godzilla movie left a bit to be desired, my expectations for this one were low, to put it mildly. Government survey team, aided by semi-unhinged Vietnam veterans (the setting is the 1970s), fly off to unexplored tropical island and discover all manner of weird wildlife awaiting them, including the greatest of great apes.

Truth be told, ostensible stars Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson feel a bit surplus to requirements (Sam Jackson, John Goodman and John C Reilly chew the scenery quite satisfactorily), but in all other respects this is a hugely enjoyable pulp monster movie that isn't afraid to relax and have some fun. It does feel a bit odd to do a Kong movie entirely set on the island, but the story hangs together well, there are some interesting creatures, and the set-up for the next Godzilla movie is well handled. Doing a monster movie in the style of a Vietnam film is also an inspired touch. Raises the bar for the rest of the films in this series; highly entertaining stuff.