Movies From the Hat III – King Kong (1976)

This is my 1,976th movie review

Thanks to David for recommending this film to me!

“You know I had my horoscope done before I flew out to Hong Kong. And it said that I was going to cross over water and meet the biggest person in my life.” – Dwan

Number of Times Seen – 1 (2 Feb 2016)

Brief Synopsis – While searching for new sources for drilling oil, an expedition comes across a mysterious island in the South Pacific.

My Take on it – I’m actually surprised that I’d never seen this movie in its entirety before accepting this recommendation challenge.

Who hasn’t seen clips of Kong on the Twin Towers fighting off helicopters?

I enjoyed the original film from 1933, but always felt that it didn’t tell enough of the story in an engaging way, like this one attempted to do.

Peter Jackson’s epic version (that came out almost 20 years after this one) was so detailed and had great special effects, but the story just dragged on too much and was TOO detailed.

Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges are a great onscreen couple and you can feel their chemistry together.

The special effects of this movie were revolutionary for the time that this debuted, but when looking back on it from now, the effects look and feel so outdated.  It even managed to win an Special Oscar for Best Visual Effects

The running time is slightly more than 2 hours and feels as if it is moving along at a great pace throughout and it still gives us enough material to work with and doesn’t need 3.5 hours to get the story across.

Bottom Line – Perhaps my favorite of the 3 versions I’ve seen. Love Lange and Bridges here as the main couple.  The effects are slightly poor when comparing to what we have now, but for its time, it really was revolutionary.  Perfect length, not too long and not too short but just right for the story. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Employees of the Empire State Building expressed their displeasure at the producers’ decision to stage the remake’s climax at the World Trade Center by picketing the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building dressed in monkey suits. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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