Of course, if anyone else calls you "Beast," I'll rip their lungs out.

[rgallitan]

King Kong

I saw the film on opening day, but, having waited so long to write this review, I must now frame my words in the context of King Kong's surprisingly weak box office performance. Oh, it's nothing serious - $50 million on your first weekend is nothing to sneeze at, and the international gross is already in profit. But still, expectations

Comments

[mrbogey]

We might as well accept the fact that America cinema is dead. They have nothing new and they're as bad as TV execs at beating the same idea to death under the idea that people will continue to pay more every year for the same low quality service found at the typical movie theatre. The fact that they're all trying to release movies of decent calibre during the same exact period of time rather than year round is a testament to that. It's a sorry thing when a major motion picture studio produces 1 or 2 decent movies a year.

The movie going experience is dead.

[rgallitan]

Nah. Hollywood has always been a factory for crap - the Golden Age most of all. But the crap gets forgotten, so we tend to glorify the past.

I will say, though, that we are in a period of major transition, and the executives are flailing - looking for "sure things" in an uncertain world. The film school generation and the Star Wars era are coming to an end. When the next generation finds its identity, Hollywood will be back in form.

[rgallitan]

And it occurs to me all of a sudden how fitting it is that the Star Wars prequels were produced when they were. Star Wars largely defined the birth of the modern Hollywood era, and now it may come to define its death as well. We have gone full circle.

What a delightful thought.

[firecrest]

I liked king kong quite a lot. it was fabtastic (thats as indepth as my reviews get!)

but yes...american cinema is a pretty standard experience. me and lance begun watching foreign language films and actually I enjoyed them so much better. I think smaller budgets means they spend more time on the story.
a couple of films we really liked was "life is beautiful" (flawed but very good) and "nobody knows". (god forbid, you MUST see this for the sake of art!)

Hello.

[duckie_monroe]

I found your journal by way of irishgypsie

This post was very interesting, thought provoking and all around a great read. My two cents is that Kong is THE man! It rocked my socks. I didn't care of the length. Although, for some reason I didn't understand all that Ann did. I felt very annoyed with her for not staying where Kong put her. There just didn't seem to be a purpose for her drive to keep climbing. Maybe because she was climbing forever and ever and it just got boring after a while. Again, you're a very good writer. I look forward to reading more reviews if you are so inclined to do them.

Re: Hello.

[rgallitan]

I think you nailed it - I didn't understand anybody's motivations at the end of the film, and I think a weak ending is part of what makes a film feel too long. I recall with A.I., several times it would seem like it was getting to the end, and then go off in a whole new direction, and I kept thinking, "This is really great stuff, Steven, but you're going to need one hell of an ending to pull it off," and it just wasn't there.

Anyway, thanks for the comment. More reviews will come, and there are plenty in my archives if you have the patience to look for them.