Rating: 
Summary: THe original is still the best
Review: I cna't add to what others have said. This movie is terrific, combining power and pathos, fear and love, beauty and ugliness, bravery and cowardice, into one of the best movies ever made.
It contrasts the simple, brave, powerful and beautiful King Kong and his actions with the ugly, modern, selfish, destructive modern man.
Rating:
Summary: 70 YEAR OLD CLASSIC STILL MAKES THE WORLD GO APE!!!
Review: "King Kong" is one of the truly great classics of our time. No matter how sophisticated our movie special effects become, nothing will ever top the craftmanship of Willis O'Brien's cast of prehistoric animals. Fay Wray's gutteral screams, along with the "hard-boiled ballyhoo" approach to both movie acting and dialogue of the early 1930's, make this film a classic of all time. This film deserves full and complete DVD treatment, hopefully from Criterion, with a pristine print, detailed commentaries and loads of extras. Only an A class treatment would do justice to one of the movies' true "movies". A note of purported Hollywood trivia: when James Cameron supposedly offered Fay Wray the role of old Rose in "Titanic", he told her that she would be a part of the biggest movie of her long career. Her priceless reply was supposedly, "I don't need "Titanic"- I have "King Kong"!" Indeed she has, and so do movie audiences, for ALL TIME!
Rating:
Summary: It Was Beauty That Killed the Beast
Review: ...and isn't that event just as rare as a hen's tooth, kids? King Kong is the stick by which ll monster movies are measured. With its classic story (boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy dies because ofgirl. That's Romeo & Juliet, too, you know.) and high adventure, King Kong lets you relive those old matinee days of heroes and damsels in distress--with the welcome twist. King Kong is a pivotal, must see film for any movie buff, but any sci fi or adventure fan has to be well versed in it as well. There are many imitators, but only one 8th Wonder of the World! King Kong is a must for any movie fan's library.
Rating:
Summary: AN ISLAND JUNGLE OF DINOSAURS
Review: King Kong remains, in the true sense of the word, a romance of the highest order. It is a definite product of its era which adds to its enjoyment. Even by 1933 standards, the acting suffers at times but does not hurt the film. I have never witnessed a progression of action with music like that in the log scene. From the time the raft is tipped over through Kong dumping the log into the ravine, the last clinging sailor screaming in terror, I was held absolutely spellbound. As for herbivorous dinosaurs attacking, we need to look no further than rhinos, African water buffalos and even moose. It's a romantic fantasy adventure in the best story telling tradition.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest monster movie of all time
Review: On October 9th, my dad and I went to go see King Kong at a theater in Anaheim Hills. It made me only appreciate more just how great of a movie this is, and that's considering I must have seen it at least half a million times before. Of the dinosaur movies that came before and after King Kong, Kong is still the best one. The Lost World (1925) even today has impressive visual effects and is highly entertaining. It's only problems are a poorly written love story and the fact not everyone enjoys silent movies silent movies. The Godzilla films, while entertaining, had cheaper special effects and often times [the plots were not as good]. Jurassic Park (1993), which some consider the best dinosaur movie, has spectacular Special Effects and is very entertaining. But it is slow at times. King Kong, however, is both highly entertaining and, more importantly, is able to tell the film without a wasted scene or dialogue. I felt as if I was in the theater for only half an hour! If only all movies could do that. But no film is made perfect by accident. This film had a top-notch technical cast made up of the best in the world at that time: Production designer Mario Larrnagia, Film Composer Max Steiner, Marcel Delgado, who built the dinosaur models and Willis O'Brien, who animated them. Some have questioned as to why plant-eating herbivores like the Stegosaurus or the Brontosaurus would attack humans. Perhaps, the humans were trespassing into their territory and would you defend your property if someone tried to invade it? Also, how many humans living today have seen a live dinosaur in the wild? Then again, some might say this was done by the producers to provide entertainment and suspense. I can agree with that. But do not criticize King Kong for this. It's an adventure movie, not a documentary. While the film is largely about Kong and the dinosaurs on Skull Island, the rest of the film is able to avoid being overshadowed. While I have seen movies that have better acting, this film's cast isn't too bad. At least they are able to conceive realistic characters. Even Jack Driscoll, the film's hero, gets afraid when he talks to Fay Wray. Some also find it annoying that Fay Wray only screams in the scenes where she is in Kong's presence. Well what would you do instead? Tell Kong in a polite, calm english voice to let you down? I am surprised that this film is not yet on DVD. I am sure thought that one must be in the works.
I hope that when it does come out that it will be worth the wait and include a lot of extras, like the Citizen Kane DVD. Overall, King Kong is a masterpiece that will be enjoyed for countless generations to come.
Rating:
Summary: King Kong is an amazing achievement!
Review: Whilst watching this movie I was amazed of how the director and special effects team were able to convey the special effects with primitive means. This was more 70 years ago and if one had told the people involved that 70 years away people would be able to recreate entire buildings like in Gladiator they probably would have thought that one was trying to fool or lie to them. Since, they had very primitive means their accomplishment is much more remarkable. The story is more cerebral then most of the monster movies today (when the special effect seem to have more president then the actual story). I especially like it when the director tells the young actress how she should react the first time see sees Kong. He says "Now you see it. You're amazed. You can't believe it. Your eyes open wider. It's horrible, but you can't look away. There's no chance for you. No escape. You're helpless, helpless. There's just one chance, if you can scream. Throw your arms across your eyes and scream, scream for your life!".
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST
Review: KING KONG! Just taste that name. It s t i l l is a household name. I`m gonna be brief: 2 think that it is made 5 years after Hollywood was transformed 2 sound is amazing. The camera moves, the sound is good(as are the soundeffects), the music, the story and most of the actors are all good. The production values? Stunning. Compare it with CLASH OF THE TITANS from 1981 if u don`t believe me. Fay Wray i s a good screamer but not that much as an actress. After numerous videotapes I now own it on DVD. Of course it is great but it DOESN`t include the "making of". Hmmm. Last friday I watched JURASSIC PARK III and went straight home and saw KONG. Well. Hello? In 1933 they at least had something called WRITERS and story developers. A job that may be overlooked by Hollywood these days. KING KONG? A forever treat though his first appearances is difficult to frighten of these days. PLEASE REMAKE IT a`la Gus Van Sant`s "PSYCHO". I`ve heard a remake is on the way for years. Truth in that?
Rating: 
Summary: Though it's dated, King Kong is still wildly entertaining.
Review: Since it's release, King Kong has remained one of the greatest, most influential adventure/monster films ever made. The direction is atmospheric but quite typical for this time period and for a film of this sort. Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper's use of a `Beauty and the Beast'-type storyline is quite interesting. The film provides a unique take on the classic tale. The acting is very melodramatic, as it is in many films released during this time period, but in a way that makes the film fun. Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot are so hammy that they are, at times, comical to watch. Frank Reicher is quite convincing as Captain Englehorn. Fay Wray is good at playing the damsel in distress. Max Steiner's grand musical score suits the magnitude of the film nicely. Ted Cheesman's editing is great. Though the film has a short running time of only 100 minutes, it does stay interesting throughout. The legendary special effects are clearly dated by today's standards but it's easy to see how believable they would have been in 1933. King Kong is not the groundbreaking film it was when it was released but it still manages to be a wonderfully enjoyable movie.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the very defineitive monster films ever made.
Review: Early Science Fiction classic based on a short story by Edger Wallace, of a giant ape found on a prehistoric Island and then taken to New York where he escapes and makes a final stand atop the Empire State Building. Was followed by a sequal, Son of Kong, which actually turned out to be fairly good, ignore the 1976 remake and it's sequal, as well as Kong's two apperances in the Godzilla films.
Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking horror movie?! Yes!
Review: Before seeing this movie myself, I used to think that people who described King Kong as a Christ-figure were just trying to be outrageous. Far from it! They understood what the filmmakers meant, and the symbolism is hardly subtle. Denham, the explorer who has brought King Kong to New York (after allowing the gorilla to trash a native village that had coexisted with him just fine up until then) gloats that "In his native land, he was a king! A GOD! But we bring him to you as a captive!" And the curtain parts to show King Kong chained to a crucifix-shaped scaffolding. You'd have to be rather dense not to recall that the same thing happened to someone else's God, too. But what really raises this movie above the level of mere action-adventure is the expressions on the creature's face, especially in the final, famous Empire State Building sequence: anger, pain, tenderness, sorrow -- he's much more "human" than the macho idiots who captured him. The only other movie creature with such a wonderfully expressive face that I've ever seen was Steven Spielberg's E.T. One might also point out that King Kong goes on his final rampage in New York not to save himself, but to rescue his beloved Fay Wray when he thinks she's being attacked. Denham, looking utterly unrepentant for all the trouble that he's caused, says at the end, "It was Beauty killed the Beast," but like Adam, when he said "The woman tempted me!" he's passing the buck.
|
