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King Kong DVD


Rick

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Anyone buy this yet ? I bought the 2 disc set at Best Buy yesterday despite reading mixed reviews on other forums. I have expectations of at least a descent movie with a great soudtrack and good special effects. I am a little dissapointed there is not a DTS track though. Any opinions?

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Anyone buy this yet ? I bought the 2 disc set at Best Buy yesterday despite reading mixed reviews on other forums. I have expectations of at least a descent movie with a great soudtrack and good special effects. I am a little dissapointed there is not a DTS track though. Any opinions?

I enjoyed the movie enough to buy the single disk widescreen, but thought the deluxe edition was not worth it considering that Jackson is probably coming out with a DTS extended version in November. If you like the extras go for it, otherwise wait and the extended version will be out in November. There are scenes shown in trailer that aren't in this release . . . does this sound familar. [:D]

Right to my point from this URL

"Ok, I'll ask the obvious, where are the rest of the special features?

No deleted scenes. No commentary. No useless DVD games. A trailer for

an unrelated movie. The "special" edition contains production diaries

that aired on the Web, a 30-minute TV documentary that aired on basic

cable, and a documentary on 1930's New York? It's almost as if they are

holding back for something."

You guys looking for low prices....Target 2 disk for $20.99, CircuitCity 1 disk widescreen $13.99 [6]

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Well I watched it last night. It was an entertaining but certainly not a great film. Some of the special effects were a little over the top. Naomi Watts sure looked gorgeous though!! While it will never be one of my favorite discs I will surely get it out at least once a year to watch or use it for a demo disc. Worth at least a rent.

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Yea, I'l agree with that. I wasn't thoroughly impressed myself. Don't get me wrong, it was a great movie, just not close to LOTR. I had expected more from all the hype surrounding it... but afterall it was a remake, I guess they could only do so much??

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Ugh. Once again I was sorely disappointed with a new movie.

The good?

The special effects were great. The visuals were stunning--I loved seeing old New York City, and the jungle was very well done. Kong himself was wonderfully expressive and realistic.

The bad.... every single scene felt like it was drawn out to twice as long as it needed to be. The longing looks between Ann and Kong were too much and too sappy.

Note to Peter Jackson: Less is More!

Of course, I had the same problem with LOTR. It's probably just me and my short attention span [:)]

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The bad.... every single scene felt like it was drawn out to twice as long as it needed to be. The longing looks between Ann and Kong were too much and too sappy.

Note to Peter Jackson: Less is More!

Of course, I had the same problem with LOTR. It's probably just me and my short attention span [:)]

I bet Amy your really going to avoid the new improved extended version this November of King Kong. haha [:D]

In reality LOTR fans appreciated the fine details added in their extended versions (like the deal with the dead scenes in Return of the King) because of the books depth, but with King Kong what can you add but really the part where Kong is packaged on the ship and taken back to New York.

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Long movie...Too long...

consider it in 3 acts... and the first 2 are way too long each...

Should be watched...but you must watch original first or have watched it first IMO..

Rent this one unless you have a child who likes monkeys...hehehe

I could go on and on about the bad points...but ...it is worth a single watch...

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I bought the single disk version also. I believe the extra disk was the one that was available while the movie was in theaters, wasn't it? Not worth the extra cost IMO.

I, too, was disappointed with the lack of DTS. No doubt about it, Jackson and the studio folks cheaped out on this DVD to try to recoup some of the extra costs associated with Jackson's excesses in making the film.

I certainly am not interested in buying an extended version of the film at an inflated price. If PJ is thinking "LOTR" extended version, he'll be sorely disappointed with the sales. I'd be more interested in buying an edited version !!!! While the extended versions of the LOTR series are welcome and have a lot of added detail that makes the story and characters even more interesting, King Kong is essentially a 1930's special effects thriller. Although Jackson tries hard, the characters are fairly one-dimensional and extending action sequences ad nauseum doesn't make up for the simple characters and story line.

Best things about the movie:

Naomi Watts, Evan Park and Thomas Kretschmann.

Simply stunning color palette and landscapes by Andrew Lesnie, Grant Major, Simon Bright and Dan Hennah.

Scariest native baddies of all time. Makes up for all the white people in blackface and coconut bras in all the old serials.

Some amazing 3D CG artwork. If Peter Jackson had cut this film down to 118 minutes and produced it in IMAX 3D, they would have had to put pooper-scoopers in the theaters.

The artistic touch of Alan Lee. You can see his fingerprints all over the design of Skull Island.

Worst things about the movie:

Jack Black and Adrian Brody. The Jack Driscoll character is written as a caricature of Peter Jackson (and Orson Welles) at their most obsessive. Jack Black simply can't carry it off. Adrian Brody is miscast, knows it, but apparently needed the money and wanted to be able to kiss Naomi Watts.

Long, grinding, unnecessary action sequences. Multiplying a good thing by 100 doesn't make it 100 times better. Four T-Rexes aren't necessarily better than one, especially when our logic tells us that one should be dining on ape meat within about 20 seconds. While you can get away with this stuff in an alternate universe like the Matrix, this stuff gets boring real quick when it's drawn out. Hit the fast forward, please.

Jerry Bruckheimer-style violation of physical laws. We wonder why Naomi's arms didn't come off when Kong pulls her off the sacrifice altar. The ropes are so big we can see them from 1/4 mile away, yet her sockets are stronger. Add to that the extreme shaking and pounding from being slapped around by a monster ape and you end up with distracting disbelief.

A cheap, third-rate DVD release with zero extras.

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Saw it in the theater, once was enough...I'd actually say that this is one of the most over-rated movies ever.

Some of the action sequences were great, but some were laughable (Brontosaurus stampede with Brody's character kicking raptors in the head...TWICE???? I thought I was watching Jurrasic Park 2 again).

The beginning was too long, they developed way too many characters that we don't end up caring about, the scenes with Naomi and Kong were too many, too long. And the ice scene at the end....that just about made me walk out...I couldn't believe my eyes.

I think it would have been much better had it been properly edited. To think that they are going to release an extended version of this makes my head hurt...

BTW, loved all 3 extended editions of LOTR series, so it's not my attention span that's the problem here....;)

King Long

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I'll take the 1933 edition for now, it's a Classic. My wife bought me the huge metal case Collector's Edition with a copy of the opening night Grauman's Theatre program and the miniature movie posters, it's quite nice problem is it won't fit in my DVD case standing up. I'm going to wait for the Extended version of the 2005 one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bought the 2 disc set at Circuit City Saturday for $19.99. Tried watching it tonight and only made it half way thru. Totally lost interest in it. Even the special effects couldn't carry it for me . The same thing happened with the 1st LOTR movie... which I couldn't get thru either. Not sure what the big thing is about this director, but I have now tried to watch 2 of his movies and couldn't get thru either one. I'll give it a big yawn...

Mike

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