Film Reviews

King Kong

• Rating:
• Director: Peter Jackson.
• Starring: Adrien Brody, Jack Black, Naomi Watts, Jamie Bell.
• Details: US, 180mins, 15s

In an attempt to save his movie from impatient Hollywood producers, guerrilla (ahem!) director Carl Denham (Black) packs a small film crew onto a tramp steamer and sets sail for the mysterious Skull Island to finish his picture. On arrival at the eerie island, the crew, including writer Jack Driscoll (Brody) and actress Ann Darrow (Watts), are set upon by natives and Darrow is captured as a sacrifice to the island's terrible secret - a 25-foot ape called Kong. However, the normally vicious Kong is drawn to Darrow and instead of eating her, protects her from the island's other horrible inhabitants - dinosaurs and massive insects. With his film plans in pieces, Denham decides to capture Kong and take him back to America to recoup his losses - but Kong won't go without a fight. With King Kong, Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson confirms his place in the pantheon of contemporary epic filmmakers with his latest opus. Jackson, knowing that once Kong appears he'll steal the show, uses a lengthy set-up to build the characters but this normally boring practice is put to good use as Jack Black's one-liners and his hook-or-by-crook attitude to film-making carries the movie until the action reaches the island - where Jackson goes into entertainment overdrive with the Rings-esque fight scenes and monsters (the natives are far scarier than any Orc). The relationship between Watts - who gives Fay Wray, the original Kong scream-queen, a run for her money with the best throat-warblers heard in recent cinema - and Kong is excellently portrayed as both can only communicate with their eyes, and there is a feeling of a genuine affection between beauty and beast. Creepy, terrifying and with little pause for a breather (not easily done at three hours), Kong is a non-stop action romp with heart - and how often can you say that?

Review by Gavin Burke