King Kong
1976
* * *
A greedy oil executive (Charles Grodin), joined by anthropologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) and a stranded actress named Dwan (Jessica Lange), heads for a mysterious island where there are supposedly huge oil deposits. Jack, however, is looking for something else: a legendary gigantic ape. And Dwan is also on the search for something else: love and adventure.
This film has been absolutely horribly maligned, mostly by lovers of the 1933 version. Of course, the movie is flawed. It's silly, doesn't sustain intensity for longer than a few minutes at a time, and doesn?t have the dramatic power it could have.
But that doesn't mean it's a bad film.
Actually, it's great fun on a mindless level. The Oscar-winning special effects aren't exactly dazzling today and are, frankly, pretty goofy at times, but they're usually adequate. Yeah, it's Rick Baker in a monkey suit, but it's a better monkey suit than the ones in, say, 2001. It looks good enough.
The biggest complaint lobbed at the film by the lovers of the 1933 version is that it?s poorly written, with bad dialogue, wooden characters, and the dumping of some of the best elements of the original. Clearly, these people have not watched the 1933 version very closely. You want bad dialogue and wooden characters, that one has them in spades. This script isn't especially bad. In fact, it's fairly good. The characters aren't especially deep, but they're developed well enough, and the performances make them work. Lange was shot to pieces by, well, everybody, for her performance, and none of the cast were really praised, but they get the right tone: the idea that it's all just silly fun. No, none of them do any attempt at real drama (except Bridges, who tries and succeeds with the little bit he's given), but they're all having a good time and are certainly good enough. And as for Lange, her performance is not a bad one. Now, Fay Wray's performance in the original is a bad one. It's over-the-top on those occassions when it isn't wooden. I mean, that is some seriously bad acting from Wray. It's an iconic performance, but not a good one. Lange, on the other hand, is convincing and likeable. No more, but she is that.
And the movie is really kind of charming in its own way. It knows it's a B-movie, and just has a good time doing it. It's fast enough and energetic enough to work. And while the tension is never sustained, and it can't even blink and eye to the intensity of the 2005 version, it does have some suspenseful moments and even a couple of genuinely edge-of-your-seat moments. (especially the log scene) And there are a few dramatic moments that work. The scene in the abandoned restaurant near the end, while not entirely logical, is actually pretty compelling.
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