It is 1933, and vaudeville actress Ann Darrow (Oscar nominee Naomi Watts) has found herself - like so many other New Yorkers during the Great Depression - without the means to earn a living. Unwilling to compromise and allow herself to sink into a career in burlesque, she considers her limited options while aimlessly wandering the streets of Manhattan. When her hunger drives her to unsuccessfully try to steal an apple from a fruit vendor's stall, she is rescued - literally - by filmmaker and multiple hyphenate Carl Denham (Jack Black). With his newly discovered star and coerced screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Oscar winner Adrien Brody) reluctantly onboard the Singapore-bound tramp steamer, the S.S. Venture, Denham's 'moving picture ship' heads out of New York Harbor... and toward a destiny that none aboard could possibly foresee...
Directed by
Peter Jackson
Written by
Fran Walsh (screenplay) & Philippa Boyens (screenplay).
Starring
Naomi Watts (Ann Darrow); Jack Black (Carl Denham); Adrien Brody (Jack Driscoll); Thomas Kretschmann (Captain Englehorn); Colin Hanks (Preston); Andy Serkis (Kong / Lumpy); Evan Parke (Hayes); Jamie Bell (Jimmy); Lobo Chan (Choy); John Sumner (Herb); Craig Hall (Mike); Kyle Chandler (Bruce Baxter); Bill Johnson (Manny (as William Johnson)); Mark Hadlow (Harry); Geraldine Brophy (Maude). Please contact SFC to add other cast members and characters.
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King Wrong!
Mark Banks (United Kingdom)
Opinion: Limited Recommendation
Sorry - I couldn't resist the British tabloid style headline to this post, but 'wrong' really is the word that sums up much of this production - starting with being wrong for even attempting to remake a fine film in the first place. Beyond that, King Kong (2005) is wrong in it's length of over three hours, wrong in its over-heavy sentimentality between Ann and Kong, wrong in its graphical use of zombies and other voodoo-type imagery, wrong in the inclusion of so many dinosaurs and wrong in its absence of any real sense of humour to link it all together. This all in all is a shame because the film started off well and showed much good potential; Jack Black, Naomi Watts and Adrian Brody all turn in commendable performances and the production values are all top-notch; though the special effects did get quite out of hand at times and went beyond the comical. I also felt Kong could have been a little less, well, 'moody', to be honest. A great chance to reach out to the younger generation with a good colour remake has been missed. My advice is for adults to stick to the original 1933 version, and wait until your children are old enough to be open-minded enough to consider watching a black and white film, before putting it on for them too.
