That’s what the giant citronella candles are for.
I’ll be the odd one here and say I love the 70’s version. It’s the one I grew up on. The new one bores me because once the special effects wear off I lose interest. The characters do nothing for me. Also, having the girl dance for kong was terribly cringe-worthy. I like the natives of the island better in the 70’s version too. I can’t really say why, I just do. Don’t get me wrong, the 70’s version was one of the cheesiest cheesefests I’ve ever seen, but I love it moreso because of that. I was pointing out all the cheese to my wife last night as we watched. I mean, how good can it smell to be blow dried by a giant wild ape who probably has a couple of dead antelope stuck in his teeth? I told her the next time I make love to her I’m going to stare at her the way Kong does when he looks at Jessica Lang by the waterfall with that wide-eyed-creepy-never-seen-a-boob-before lust gaze. Ahhh, such fun. And I do love me some sexy blonde bimbos. Lang was top notch as a sexy blonde bimbo and I don’t care how bad her acting was as long as I can keep staring at those exceptionally long legs. Pile on the cheese!!
I haven’t seen the original, just so you know.
Maybe Kong built the wall to keep the people out of his side, since they do seem to set all the other animals on edge.
Not one but two T-Rexes jumping down in a crevasse fileld with vines, desperately snapping at a tiny morsel. Ridiculous and totally pulled me out of the movie.
No, it isn’t. They were mobbed by armies of full-on carnivores. Everywhere. You can’t pack that many carnivores into that little space with regular creatures, much less giant killer monsters everywhere.
We saw that and it was it. However, there were mobs of predators everywhere they looked. Even normally herbivores creatures seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to eat the heroes. In Jurassic Park, they established there were large numbers of plant-eaters, and showed that they actually ate and showed the after-effects of said eating. We see none of that here. No ripped-up plants, just acres of carnivores.
Trivia: in the novelization of the original movie, it’s stated that Kong habitually avoided any regular trails through the island to avoid predator ambushes. Cinematically, it’s to have a dramtic shot of something huge and powerful coming toward you.
One thing I’ve never understood is the exact geography of the island. Specifically, how Driscoll and Anne get back to the gate from Kong’s lair. Wasn’t there a deep impassible gorge in the way?
The whole schtick of the Jackson remake is the conceit that it was showing the actual events that the 1930s movie was a bowlderized version of.
The 1976 version is fun if taken as intended: as tongue-in-cheek camp. Come on–the oil company is named Petrox–this was during the craze for Pet Rocks, so the reference was not unintentional or subtle. It’s a hoot, and everyone involved is obviously having a great time.
King Kong Lives was the sequel to the '76 Di Laurentiis film.
Speaking of Di Laurentiis, he apparently gave a famous quote in interviews about his Kong: “Nobody cried when Jaws died. But when King Kong die, everybody cry.” I don’t really remember crying about either one, actually.
I have a friend who had never seen either the original or the Di Laurentis versions. Her first was Jackson’s version, and she had no idea that Kong would die in the end. She cried for a couple of hours after seeing the movie because it was “So sad!”
They didn’t jump – they was pulled and pushed by Kong. They clearly weren’t after Ann, but they weren’t averse to taking an opportunistic nip.
I still don’t see what it has to do with ninjas.
Well, the first Rex clearly WAS after Ann, in fact, it was chasing her even though it had a lizard in its mouth many times Ann’s size. I have to admit, I didn’t find this very credible behavior … it’s like a lion that has just brought down a fulll-grown wildebeest dropping the wildebeest to go after a tiny rabbit.
The second Rex had a more legitimate predatory interest in Ann, as she practically lies down on its snout … she would have been an easy snack for it, if it had been able to do the quick snatch and gulp it was clearly planning.
I think in real life most predators would back down when faced with an adversary as large and capable as Kong, unless something like protecting offspring were involved. Which they clearly weren’t.
I still enjoy the hell out of watching that fight, though.
I will also stick up a bit for the 1976 version of Kong. Sure, as a movie it has its problems, most of which have been nicely articulated upthread but I think it has its charms. It has a lovely John Barry score, for example - a worthy successor to the original by Max Steiner in terms of quality. Beautiful and evocative throughout.
Personally, I found the dinosaur sequence a slack, dramatic portion of both the 30’s and 00’s movie so I didn’t miss them one bit - to me their absence was a well chosen edit, leaving room for concentrating more on the exciting bits, ie. finding Kong and then Kong running around NYC.
I also think the movie is rather ahead of its time, strangely topical in its theme of energy shortages /concern for dwindling oil supplies. I think Charles Grodin delivers quite a fun turn as the Petrox executive keen to discover a fresh source of oil. (To tell the truth, I even like the Petrox pun (Pet Rocks) for the oil giant itself.)
Finally, the fact that WTC is used for the final showdown instead of the Empire State building means that time and events have lent the film a certain poignancy in my eyes.
Hmmn. You know, the more I think about it, whilst all three movies have their strengths and weaknesses for me, the 1976 version might actually be my favourite.
You misunderstand me – I was saying that the T. Rexes didn’t go jumping into the crevasse after Ann, which is what smiling bandit clearly says. I don’t think he was paying attention to the movie.
The first T.Rex definitely was going after Ann, and I agree that it didn’t make a lot of sense, considering that he already had an entire MadeUpSaurus in his mouth. Maybe he wanted some dessert.
Once in the gorge, no predator would even consider for a blinding second of snapping at a prey of any kind. They’d be desperately trying to get out. The ninja-elements were the cough heroine, who of course climbed and slid and rappelled her way to safety. And the vines would never have held a T-Rex that size for a second.
SHort version: it was completely ludicrous and had no place in that movie.
What’s a cough heroine?
All kidding aside, the one thing about the 70s Kong I did think was effective and unsurpassed was it’s ending. When the Hueys approach and you see the mini gun track on Kong with Jeff Bridges’ heartfelt gasping plea on “No” along with Lang’s begging Kong, “please please hold on to me” was pathos in the extreme. I still can’t watch this scene. Then when Kong is dying and Dwan gets the attention she craved form the media she shuns it. A very sad ending that does not match the camp of the rest of the film.
Immediately after that is the one scene in the film I really liked. When Kong hits the ground all the sound goes out except the giant lumbering heart beat that eventually dies out and the rest of the sound comes back up. It has been a while since I saw it, but I remember this being done well.
I just want to say that any movie that featured actual ninja tyrannosaurs would, by definition, be the coolest movie ever made.
Nah. It would be trumped by one with pirate ninja tyranosaurs.
I didn’t think much of the character. In the original, she’s no supposed to be anything special, but it fits with the nature of the movie. She’s sort of an object more than a character. In Jackson’s, she annoys the urine out of my bladder. Her constant screaming gave me a headache, she’s a bland, uninteresting character, and she does very little of interest.
You’re wrong: it would be beaten hands down by a movie with robot ninja tyrannosaurs.