King Kong (2005)

Starring Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, and Jack Black; Directed by Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson’s take on the King Kong story is entertaining, thrilling and surprising. He manages to make a movie that’s entertaining in its own right, and that’s tough when you’re doing a remake of a 1933 classic (that was previously remade in 1976). I worried before seeing this movie that a Kong remake would be a big letdown for Jackson after The Lord of the Rings. But Jackson makes a believer out of me. The movie has charm, beauty, and exciting action sequences, both in Manhattan and on Skull Island.

The movie is set in the Depression, and that time is beautifully evoked in New York City with vintage cars and clothes. This works much better than the 1976 movie with Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges, which was set in the 1970s. (Though to tell the truth, it was pretty cool when Kong jumped from one World Trade Center tower to the other.)

Kong’s relationship with The Girl is the center of this movie, and Jackson takes an hour to let us get to know hard-luck actress Ann Darrow (Watts), penniless playwright Jack Driscoll (Brody) and moviemaker Carl Denham (Black) before we meet the title character.

But the focus of the movie is that big ape Kong. This time around Kong looks like a giant gorilla, naturally hunching over and moving around on all fours most of the time. Andy Serkis (Gollum in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings) is an amazing physical performer, and manages to imbue Kong with a lot of personality. Kong is not just a mad beast, but shows a lot of heart once you get past his gruff exterior (assuming you survive the first encounter). His fights with various prehistoric beasts on Skull Island are amazing.

This movie has a cheerful, breezy B-movie feeling that carries us comfortably through most of the (pretty long) movie, though I had to cover my eyes briefly for scenes featuring prehistoric insect and worms. There’s an amazing action sequence on Skull Island in a deep ravine with a couple of hungry dinosaurs, Kong, The Girl, and a spider web of vines that has to be seen to be believed.