I'm not very sure if you can screw up a remake worse than Dino De Laurentiis did King Kong. Not only were the special effects a complete disaster, even for 1976 (though in one of the most stunning moments ever, they won an Oscar), the campy feel destroyed the soul of the 1933 classic. A oil comany (led by Charles Grodin) picks up Kong and brings him back to New York for publicity purposes. In a shocking moment to audiences worldwide, Kong escapes and ends up on top of the World Trade Center. The acting (especially Grodin) is abysmal and the only saving grace is Jessica Lange for obvious purposes.
A very early DVD release, King Kong offers little in the way of anything DVD worthy. The widescreen print (2.35:1) is filled with scratches, compression problems, and color bleeding. It's fairly clear, but all this does is make the already painful effects look even worse. The new 5.1 mix is hardly worth the time. The early jungle sequences have some nice ambient sounds, but the final showdown on the top of the Towers is absent of any surround speaker usage. Not even the subwoofer is challenged. Sub-par print + even more dissapointing sound = Bad disc.
The only "feature" is the theatrical trailer. I'm sure for such an over-hyped movie there's something out there on the making of the film. Production problems were countless during filming and it's a shame their not covered on the disc. Hopefully Peter Jacksons upcoming remake will promt Paramount to release a nice set chronicling the troubles of this film, but until then, this is a disc better off staying on the store shelves at any price.
Originally posted at Breaking Windows.
Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
I had a difficult time telling the difference between Jeff Bridges and King Kong in this film, since they both pretty much looked the same.....
I also remember Universal got into a huge bidding war with Paramount over the rights to this story. Universal was going to use its Sensurround effect with the movie, which frankly, would have been far-fucking-out fantastic......Unfortunately, Paramount won and we are stuck with John Barry's shitty musical score.....
Can you imagine?! Universal Presents King Kong in Sensurround, starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and George Kennedy!
Well, come to think of it, maybe that wouldn't have been such a good idea.....
2 - Steve
I get the feeling that because the movie was only a middling success, that the studio has decided not to throw more money on the DVD release. Shame really, I didn't think it was that bad.