"…it was the beauty that killed the beast." This ending line to this very good movie provided the overriding problem with Peter Jackson's epic tale, King Kong, Jack Black is not a dramatic actor. His acting was as painful as a sore thumb that you constantly hit when hammering a nail. I don't blame Black however, he has come along way since Saving Silverman, but he still lacks the risk taking and the skill required for such a role that was written by Jackson. Jackson's writing, editing were also major problems even though I feel he has cemented the fact that he has replaced George Lucas as the best fantasy story teller of our time, but he should have shaved thirty minutes of the movie to make it flow better. This is a good movie but Jackson made some mistakes that kept this movie from being great.

Jack Black (The School of Rock) is Carl Denham, a movie director looking to film the next great adventure movie on an uncharted island, during the depression era 1930's. He gets an out of work and hungry actress Ann Darrow, played by Naomi Watts (21 Grams,) to play the lead and once they get to the island, Darrow is kidnapped by the inhabitants and offered up as a sacrifice to "Kong," a 25 foot tall ape. The crew of the film as well as the ship must survive dinosaurs and large insects, as well as Kong, to try and save her. Denham also has vision of capturing the ape and taking it back to New York to get rich.

I totally bought the love story between Darrow and the Ape. No, I am not talking about bestiality, but it is best described as a love between a dog and the owner, if the dog was 25 feet high and you could ride him to work. There are many great scenes that show the bonding of the ape and the actress. Two stick out the most to me, one, is when they are in New York and the Ape had just escaped the show and was found by Darrow in the street. The ape and Darrow end up on a frozen lake in Central Park and there is a very touching scene with the ape sliding around on the ice holding Darrow, cementing the relationship that they have, also setting up the depressing ending that you know is coming. The other scene is actually a two scenes, but they show the relationship between the two come full circle. The first scene is on the island when Darrow is being stalked by one of the last T-Rex's and Kong' jumps on the other side of Darrow, staring at the T-Rex, and Darrow slowly backs into Kong. At that moment the trust between the two was established as well as the affection. The next scene that shows the reversal is at the end when Kong is on top of the Empire State Building and Darrow climbs the ladder to the top and gets in between Kong's legs and keeps the fighters from shooting at him. Putting themselves in harms way to keep the other safe is a great show of love, and I totally bought it.

Naomi Watts was very good as Darrow. Working with a bunch of green screens and being forced to do alot of physical stunts with a bunch of wires and whatever they do to make it look real must be very difficult, and to keep character like she did was impressive. She was a bright spot in the movie.

The other great thing about this movie is, of course, the special effects. The entire island sequence is phenomenal and every scene with the dinosaurs is amazing. I realized that in movies like this that I, as I call it, have to suspend my disbelief. Jackson again paid much attention to the detail of the action scenes, the fight with the bugs was very creepy and it could have been very easy to make the bugs look bland, but the detail on the crickets alone was enough to give me the shivers. Detail was also key in the movements for King Kong. In the 1970's version, it was obvious that it was a man in a monkey suit. With the use of computer animation, and the GREAT physical acting of Andy Sirkus, Kong looked like a 25 foot ape. Between King Kong and Golem (Lord of the Rings), Sirkus should get some kind of award because his physical acting ability is awesome.

One drawback to this movie is the length. It is clear that Peter Jackson wanted to tell a story and length be damned, he was going to tell it. The movie suffers because he wants to tell the story. Every scene could have lost easily five minutes. The first hour was the worst, providing back story to characters that die quickly, and just the build up to the island itself was slow. Now time flew once they were on the island. There was one scene that could have been cut, which by no coincidence, is also the scene that is the least believable in the entire film. A bunch of Raptors scare a bunch of Brachiosaurs and they run down this narrow canyon and in the process run over and around our heroes, killing a few of them off in the process. It was way to long to kill off what amounted to a bunch of "red shirts," and I can't believe any thing small, human and raptor alike, surviving a stampede of Brachiosaurs.

The biggest drawback was Jack Black. His acting ability was clearly outclassed by the part in which he was trying to portray. He was way to forceful on any dramatic dialogue and had the same look whenever the scene required an expression from Black. Be it looking at Kong or looking at Naomi Watts naked, he has the same look, dear in the head lights. His dialogue was an issue just because he didn't know how to deliver the lines. The last line in the movie which I mentioned at the beginning of the review is one example of many. I don't blame Black, he has never shown the range needed for a role like this. The blame falls on Jackson himself for casting Black. In an interview, Jackson said that he cast Jack Black because his kids watched his movie, School of Rock, and they loved him. Black has grown as an actor in my opinion, but he isn't ready for a part like this.

On the whole I can tell you to watch the movie. I found the romance very sweet and touching and the special effects a visual delight. Jackson is the new story teller for the next generation, but he needs to learn to save something for the DVD. He also needs to learn that he should not allow his children to make casting decisions.

Brian - the Naked Gun

It's long and it feels it, but this latest over-budgeted, over-marketed version of King Kong has some very cool sequences.

Set during the great depression, "King Kong" is about a young woman named Ann, played by Naomi Watts (Sweet and Lowdown), who is hired by a desperate filmmaker to shoot aboard a cargo steamer on its way to an undiscovered island.

Once there, the crew meet the natives and Ann is soon captured as a sacrifice to a 25-foot tall gorilla named Kong, digitally performed by Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings trilogy).

Ann soon falls for the monkey love, as Carl the director, played by everybody's favorite over-actor Jack Black (School of Rock), devises a plan to take the ape back to New York and exploit it. Once there, the ape breaks free and takes his anger out on the city, resulting in a climax atop the Empire State Building.

This version is extremely a lot like the original 1933 version of the movie. It is also far better than the 1976 remake. However, the latest picture runs 2 hours, 47 minutes and boy, does it feel it.

It takes an hour for the gang to reach the island in the first place. The story sticks in all this character bulls**t in the one-hour first act, which doesn't end up mattering in the end anyway.

There was a subplot with a steamer crewman, former a stowaway, who was reading Joseph Conrad's "Hearts of Darkness" and being mentored by the ship's first mate; however, the crewman, named Jimmy, played by Jaime Bell, doesn't amount to anything and there's nothing to learn. His subplot was a waste of screentime, and director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) should have had more tenacity during the story editing and film editing processes.

The producers of this picture should have had more integrity as to reign in Jackson's desire to make the film as long as it was. Instead, they kissed his a** and allowed the director to have his bottle.

Now, we're stuck with an almost three our version of King Kong, which could've easily been two hours. 30-minutes to get to the island, 60-minutes to get to New York, and 30-minutes to kill him off. It's not brain surgery.

Speaking of the second act, it brings me to the best part of the picture. The battle between Kong and three T-Rex dinosaurs was very thrilling, even though physically ridiculous, but HEY, we're talking about a 25-foot ape, so I HAVE to check reality at the door.

I also thought the New York rampage sequence was very cool, but once again Jackson seemed to want to spend 400-shots on seven bi-planes trying to shoot the ape off the state building. Jackson had a series of shots for the planes' approach which took FOREVER. It was painful.

The relationship between Ann and the ape was very good, as good as it could be in my opinion.

Jack Black was the weakest link of the cast, which is almost the case in every movie he's in; "Shallow Hal" excluded.

The biggest reason I'm upset with Jackson on this project is if he wanted to make a goofy comedy, he should have made a goofy comedy. If he wanted to make a down and dirty spectacle of "King Kong," he should have, but adding almost an hour of screen time so he could do both was extremely amateur and the picture suffers for it.

Overall, I think there is enough good aspects of this high budget Jackson carnival to pay the money to see it in the cinemas. I DO NOT see it as an award contender, but it should please almost anyone who pays money to see it. I just wish it was more concise with its material and slightly better cast.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?