King Kong (dir. Peter Jackson)

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I also think that the movie will do well in the long run. It doesn't really have to make all of its money opening weekend like a summer blockbuster does (where a shiny, new, blockbuster opens practically every week) it can make steady bank for a few uninterrupted weeks. Obviously, Universal wanted a huge opening weekend, but the timing and length of the movie seems to be the real thing undermining that. I see a TON of movies and because of final exams and Christmas obligations, I haven't been able see it yet, but I definitely will. It just didn't happen opening weekend. I guess/hope quite a few people are in the same situation.

[workgeordie]

I watched the movie yesterday afternoon(!) and I believe that Peter Jackson did an awesome job with the strong material that is King Kong. I always thought that the original movie was too short and that the story was not properly developed. 3 hours is the max but I couln't see much either where they could have cut to save running time.

Naomi Watts must now surely be my favourite female actor and the way they managed to bring over a real atmosphere of New York of that time - I'll never know. That was genius.

All in all the movie is good and comes recommended.

[pistachioofliberty]

Saw it tonight. I'm no LoTR fan, but I do appreciate all the work that must be involved in this genre. I was happily surprised. I thought the era was brought to life realistically (not that any of us would know), and am in the minority of those not checking my watch while they were at sea .

Funny - at one point I thought, "Huh. This kid who plays the rough stowaway reminds me of Jess from Gilmore Girls. But he seemed WAY to clean and genteel for that character. Wrongwrongwrong. I wonder how they came to cast HIM? WTF?" It's clear now; obviously I have never seen Billy Elliot or his other films. Anyway. Oh and the ship's captain had Lyle Waggoner smile. I do happen to live near a working port, and even with today's dental technology and higher standard of living, professional seamen are SO much way grodier than those onscreen. The ship's interior and exterior were nicely aged, though; kudos to the art directors and their minions.

This film does have heart. If you subtract all the well-executed Jurassic Park/Raiders/Spiderman, there's still a great chick flick left. I wonder if it struck anyone else that as this sweet blond mascot pleaded for the life of an anilmal targeted for profit, they were watching the final scenes of The Misfits?

[GinFizz]

I've had a mini-crush on Kyle Chandler ever since the awesome early 90s series Homefront, so I'm glad to see he's finally got a part in a decent movie- after such gems as "Sleep Baby Sleep" (he played the evil husband who stole Tracy Gold's baby) and Rob Lowe's most recent bomb TV show. Oh Kyle, how I have suffered for you.

One episode of Homefront involved his character taking a screen test in 1940s Hollywood- KC really looked the part of the matinee idol. Wonder if Peter Jackson got a gander at that?

[Deleted]

I love Kyle Chandler and I was pleasently surprised that his role was that big. It was an interesting role for him, I'm used to seeing him play the nice guy so it was cool to see him play the arrogant movie star.

One thing I like to do with movies like this is guess which characters are going to die, and I was mostly right on this one:

SPOILER: Click to show

Hayes, Lumpy the Cook, his Chinese friend, the sound guy, the camera guy, plus the sailors who went on the island whose names we never found out. I was wrong about Preston though, I thought surely he'd die saving his boss or something.

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[forever1267]

While I did think it was very good, it also seemed like all- CGI, all the time. With my fear of heights, I should have been squirming

SPOILER: Click to show

in the climax on top of the Empire State Building.

Instead, everything looked beautiful and stunning, but not realistic. Movie-ish, but not real-life-ish.

Kong himself gave the best performance in the film. They really need to create an Oscar for voice-over/performance artists.

[proper stranger]

Wait. Kyle Chandler is in this movie? Looks like I'll be spending 3+ hours in a movie theatre. ;D

[lpatrice]

I am going to see it on Christmas day! I am really excited, my mother who never pays to see movies, at the movies, suggested that we all go as a family...awwww.

[huntergrayson]

Wow. 50 million over the weekend, 67 since Wednesday. That's not horrible, but not great either. The running time was blamed, along with some crazy analysts saying women didn't want to see a damsel in distress movie (WTF?). But good word of mouth, jump, 47% of the audience on Sunday was female, etc, etc.

I hope it makes money over time. I am so over opening weekend as the be-all, end-all of a film. Especially since it's not summer and it's as entertaining of a film as one could hope for.

[Ripley]

I saw this today with TTMR, and I really enjoyed it. It was very entertaining and beautiful, and it made feel sympathy for a 25 foot ape.

I hated the scene with the bugs. I had to cover my eyes because I have Insect Issues.