Kong Review: Jaw-droppingly Brilliant

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

A very long review.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/bazbamigboye.html?in_article_id=370370&in_page_id=1794&in_a_source=

Just over a year ago, Oscar-winning film-maker Peter Jackson stood on the 
mammoth Skull Island set he had built on a peninsula in New Zealand and 
told me why he loved King Kong.

Speaking about Merian Cooper's classic 1933 movie, Jackson said: "The 
original Kong is a wonderful blend - probably the most perfect blend - of 
escapism and adventure, mystery and romance. It does everything an 
escapist movie should do: it takes you places you are never going to see 
and gives you experiences you are never going to have."

Jackson's words came back to me as I sat in the back row at the Loews 
Cinema complex on New York's West 68th Street this week, watching the 
first screening of his new version of Kong.
...
And he has made a picture I can only describe as jaw-droppingly brilliant: 
the most entertaining blockbuster movie this year.

But all this monkey business wouldn't amount to a hill of beans if the 
movie didn't have a heart, and boy, does it.
...
There's a beautiful moment with Kong sitting on top of a mountain, Ann in 
the palm of his hand, both watching the sunset. I actually heard one tough 
broad of a movie executive sobbing. Jackson evokes such a sense of empathy 
for his beast that Kleenex should be sold along with the popcorn.
...