King Kong (Widescreen Edition)

Peter Jackson has followed up his wonderful "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with an astounding remake of of King Kong that will leave you spellbound. Jack Black stars as Carl Denham, a movie producer who is going to make a movie aboard a ship. However, he secretly wants to find the uncharted Skull Island. Unfortunately for Carl, his leading lady has disappeared, leaving his movie venture up in the air. Naomi Watts stars as Ann Darrow, a struggling vaudeville actress who has just lost her most recent job due to the closing of the club where she was working. By chance, Carl and Ann meet, and Carl offers the job of his leading lady role to her. Ann accepts, and soon the members of the movie crew, including script writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) are on the S.S Venture bound for Singapore; or at least that was the plan. Filming starts on Carl's movie, but while on board , the ship's captain receives a message that there is a warrant for Carl's arrest. He is to change his course and head for Rangoon. However, the ship encounters a dense fog bank and it slams into the rocky coast of an island. Skull Island. Carl, Ann, Jack, and the others set off to explore the island. Soon, they run across some blood-thirsty natives who succeed in killing several members of the party. The ship's captain comes to the resuce in the nick of time, and everyone heads back to the S.S. Venture to prepare to set sail once high tide frees them from the rocks. But, the natives manage to board the ship undetected and kidnap Ann. Ann is bound and tied to a wooden rack and offered as a sacrifice to an amazing and mythical creature; a huge gorilla called King Kong. Kong scoops up Ann in his huge hand and bounds away. The others aboard the S.S. Venture soon realize that Ann is missing and head back to the island to rescue her. But, Ann soon realizes that Kong doesn't intend to harm her. In fact, she begins to like him as well. But the determined crewmembers are intent on getting Ann back no matter what the cost. Fierce fighting breaks out on the island as Kong fights against crewmembers and creatures alike, including three T-Rexs who try to kill Ann. The fight sequence between Kong and the dinosaurs is one of the best sequences of the entire film. Jack, having had his movie camera smashed to bits during one of the chases, comes up with another idea. He wants to capture Kong and bring him back to the mainland and make a fortune on admission fees. With the help of the remaining members of the Venture's crew, they manage to sedate the mighty Kong and bring him back to New York City. Soon, Jack is standing before a packed auditorium with the curtain drawn. The curtain goes up, and there is Kong, shackled with heavy iron chains. Kong is still sedated, so at first he doesn't do too much. But when he realizes that the girl brought onstage is not Ann, he goes beserk, rips off his chains, and goes on a rampage through the streets of New York. Meanwhile, at a nearby club, Ann hears the commotion in the streets. She sees one of Jack's promotional flyers blow by her window, and she immediately knows what's happening. She walks out into the night to find Kong. Once together, Ann and Kong somehow end up on an ice skating pond, with Kong laughing and playing on the ice. However, this carefree moment is short-lived, as the New York National Guard finds them and begins shooting artillery at Kong. Scooping Ann up in his hand, Kong heads for higher ground, namely, the top of the Empire State Building. Kong, seeming to know what his ultimate fate will be, scales the building until he reaches the top, all the while carefully carrying Ann in his hand like a newborn. Once on top and having suffered numerous hits from the guns of airplanes buzzing around them, Kong and Ann share a final, tender moment. This is a tremendous film, and it deserves much more than five stars. The special effects are simply out of this world. The scenes on top of the Empire State Building are the best in the movie, with Kong swatting planes out of the sky like mosquitos. But beyond the special effects, the story is very good, and touching as well. The relationship between Kong and Ann is very moving, and you can see how much Kong cares for her by the way he protects her from danger throughout the movie. The final scene on top of the Empire State Building is probably the most moving scene in the film. Kong, resigned to his fate, makes sure right up until the very end, that Ann is safe. I give this movie my highest recommendation. The special effects will blow you away, but what will keep you watching is the touching and genuine relationship between a beautiful woman and a large but caring gorilla. Enjoy.

Personally think this is one of the best movies of king Kong. Good storyline good actors and actoriist bit long but well worth watching

If this movie wasn't filmed in 4K UHD? Kudo's to doing a fantastic job upscaling it. I have purchased recently new released at theaters the past few of years 4K UHD HDR movies and none of them match the picture quality this 2005 adaptation of the original 1933 King Kong. No grain or noticeable grain even up close in the darker shades in the movie and the color is fantastic. I do really wish the film industry would pick up their game though and film more in 4K UHD and do it at 60 FPS instead of the standard 24 FPS they are still using today. That way motion blur won't be seen especially on big screen TV's which everyone is going to these days due to being more affordable. All Blu-ray editions as well as 4K and future 8K movies should be filmed and printed with at least 60 FPS. Although, due to this is a 2005 release, what motion blur you do see during fast pace action scenes is not as noticeable as you are absorbed in the action due to how good the quality is printing this gem in 4K UHD HDR. This is the best version of King Kong made and is legend in the film industry. Keeping it in the year 1933 like the original and the story line is better detailed. Long movie but it had to be to do it right. Of course, watch only the extended cut. It's the best way to see a movie. Unlike the 1976 version, which was always like a B rated movie to me, set in 1976 instead of 1933 didn't feel right either. Definitely a 4K UHD HDR gem in your movie library.

I’ve always loved the idea of this movie, if it wasn't for what I’d consider a pacing problem towards the end of the third quarter of the movie, it would be up there with LOTR. The picture is not as 4K-ish as other 4K native scans, maybe thats because from my research it is only an upscaled presentation and it looks fine for the most part, just not as glossy as native 4K scans. The cgi is obviously a bit outdated, though the title character looks realistic and doesn’t look out of place too much. The same can’t be said about the dinosaur stampede. Audio is awesome. Comes with DTSX no Atmos, but I only have DD/DTS- in 5.1. The special feature will literally pummel you to death. Theres a dedicated disc filled with hours of special features, I believe they are all ported over from Blu-Ray Disc, so nothing new there.

I saw this in the movie theater back in 2005. This was around the same time I was beginning to watch older movies that weren't the Wizard of Oz or the Sound of Music. I remember liking the 1933 film, and being in awe by the special effects for the 1930s. When I saw the trailer for this remake, I was excited. This movie is an example of a remake done right. With love and care for the source material, while adding some new elements into the story. I highly recommend watching the Extended Cut version, while it is a tad longer, there are scenes included that were from the 1933 film, like the swamp and first dinosaur scene. There are also some great special features as well, Peter Jackson mentions he owns some original King Kong props that were placed as Easter eggs within the 2005 film. The original 1933 film is the reason why Peter Jackson became a filmmaker. Naomi Watts is a perfect Ann Darrow for this remake, not only does she look similar to Fay Wray, this version is more empathic toward Kong as the movie progresses; however she has to work for that by using her abilities as a vaudevillian actress to fight for her life. Jack Black's take on an Orson Welles type for Carl Denham is interesting, and he showcases his dramatic chops in a few scenes. Adrian Brody as Jack Driscoll, now a playwright instead of the first mate, is also an interesting take on the character. Andy Serkis plays the dual roles of both Kong and the ship's cook, Lumpy; this movie and Gollum from Lord of the Rings showcase his acting abilities phenomenally. He has mastered showing emotion and thoughts through the eyes of his characters. Everyone at Weta Workshop and Digital deserve recognition for the hard work they put into the movie, from the miniatures used for certain scenes, to digital special effects work for background scenes, the dinosaurs and Kong himself. Working on Lord of the Rings and this film, they have definitely earned their go-to status for digital effects in future films like James Cameron's Avatar, the Marvel and DC comics movies, the reboot Planet of the Apes trilogy, and so much more. If you have your schedule cleared for a day or weekend, definitely watch this movie as a back-to-back with the original film.

Fun movie to watch with grandkids.

The new "King Kong" is one of the most epic action/adventure movies ever, a mega-budget blockbuster done the way mega-budget blockbusters oughtta be (but often aren't): that is, involving great characters (human or otherwise) in a great high-octane story that's fascinating, emotionally powerful, and completely engaging on many levels. This is, without question, the real deal. Set in the Great Depression, a number of struggling and/or out-of-luck actors, actresses, film crewmen and a playright, and an oceangoing ship's crew, all find themselves cajoled, persuaded, conned or otherwise weaseled by shifty but humorous filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black, who alternates masterfully between being the underdog-with-a-dream you want to root for and the pompous, manipulative, pretentious little schmuck you want a giant gorilla to come along and stomp on) into sailing across the world to an uncharted island. On this mysterious island whose location Denham has somehow become privy to, he plans to film his latest masterpiece, a work that he's certain will bring him worldwide fame, vast wealth and immortal respect, as certain as he was with each of his previous movies which went by with moderate (at most) success each time. His enthusiasm for his project isn't shared by the studio he tries to get financing from, so he secures their support by setting sail in the dead of night before the studio has a chance to pull their technicians and film equipment from the boat where they were staying when the studio was actually thinking of funding Denham's film. A good portion of the film's early going is taken up with odd but effective humor, but things change when the ship comes upon Skull Island itself, where the characters - and in particular Ann Darrow (brilliantly played by Naomi Watts from "The Ring" and "The Ring Two") find themselves encountering the ruins of an apparantly once-thriving and possibly quite advanced civilization, the remnants of the island's human population, a plethora of live dinosaurs (including a race of predators the size of tyrannosaurs with the speed and agility of velociraptors), ferocious giant bugs, and of course the most jaw-dropping titan of them all, the one the island's survivors fear and worship: Kong. You probably know a lot more of what happens next if you saw even a sliver of the ad blitz that engulfed everything in the months before the movie's release (MUST they show So much in the previews?) but in case you're like me and try to avoid seeing too much in advance I won't get too much into specifics of the rest of the movie. Just a few generalizations: there are epic confrontations, scenes of tremendous beauty and tenderness, mountain-sized thrills and scares, more strange humor that somehow manages to work with the huge nature of the film instead of throwing a monkeywrench into it, and a fair bit of insight into mankind's quest for wonder and awe, and the dichotomy between that quest and the way man often ends up corrupting or destroying the dreams it does attain. And mention must be made of the outstanding effects, particularly on the King himself. You can read Kong's emotions and state of mind brilliantly through facial expressions and body language, to an extent where it's hard to believe it's not all real. All this in one movie, one of the biggest and boldest and best ever.

One of my favorites. A Great Movie. DVD disc works fine.