King Klong & The Island of Monsters
- Title: King Kong
- IMDb: link
See what happens when you reward a director for 4 hour CGI heavy movie! King Kong is a maddening film. Peter Jackson has been dreaming of making Kong for years now. Who would have thought his dream would become our nightmare? There are some good moments and acting but it’s all been hidden beneath so much CGI that you can hardly see it. I preferred the remake of Mighty Joe Young with Charlize Theron or the 1976 King Kong with Jeff Bridges to this monstrosity.
The story in a nutshell is this… Filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) along with his writer (Adrien Brody), stars Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) and his crew travel to the mysterious Skull Island to film a movie. After about a third of the film’s running time they arrive on the island and Miss Darrow is taken captive by a aborigine tribe of pole jumpers (who mysteriously appear and disappear completely in the film) who plan to sacrifice her to Kong (voice by Andy Serkis). While trying to save Ann the group encounters every kind of CGI monster you can imagine including numerous bugs, velociraptors, T-Rexes, oh who gives a crap, there’s a bunch of monsters okay? After saving Ann, Carl decides to capture Kong and take him to Broadway to make his fortune.
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Alright, I admit it. I’ve never read a Harry Potter book. Somehow I’ve managed to avoid this intense cultural phenomenon which has swept our nation like a very excited case of hepititis. The avoidance is not intentional, I just don’t happen to read very many books that aren’t about rock and roll. I did, however, see the second Potter movie in the theater a few years ago and I wasn’t thrilled. Well, lemme tell ya, I enjoyed this one pretty well. As a movie, with no connection to a book or any other part of the story, it stands as a very entertaining piece of 21st century computer-generated eye candy.
It’s time for Harry to start doing things on his own. The Goblet of Fire gives the audience a look to things to come with Harry, Ron & Hermione. The 3 characters are now teenagers and begin their journey into self-acknowledgment and how they fit into the scheme of things. Harry is entered into the Triwizard Tournament completely by surprise and this chore makes him compete on his own, which leaves out the dynamic trio’s group effort to save the day. Ron & Hermione’s relationship starts to evolve through their little arguments. Hermione lets out a little secret to Ron during the Winter Yuletide Ball about her true feelings and how he should have asked her to the ball before somebody else did. The old-timers, Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, and Snape, usually concern themselves a great deal with Harry and his well being, but in The Goblet they didn’t have much to do with him. There were a few moments between Harry and the professors, but overall they were side notes in the whole scheme of things.
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth entry and, if we believe the author, the next to last book in the Harry Potter series. So how does it rank? Well I have enjoyed the series for the most part, but was disappointed with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which seemed hastily written to appease the publishers and fans rather than craft a good story. After reading this installment however I was once again happily transported back into the world of witches and wizards, goblins and house-elves, and a wonderful school for magic. The book recaptures the magic and mystery as we are thrust once more into the world of Harry Potter.