King Kong (2005)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 257
Fresh: 215 | Rotten: 42
Featuring state-of-the-art special effects, terrific performances, and a majestic sense of spectacle, Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong is a potent epic that's faithful to the spirit of the 1933 original.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 45
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 9
Featuring state-of-the-art special effects, terrific performances, and a majestic sense of spectacle, Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong is a potent epic that's faithful to the spirit of the 1933 original.
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Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 32,176,971
My Rating
Movie Info
One of the greatest adventure stories in Hollywood history gets a new interpretation in this action drama from Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson. In the early 1930s, Carl Denham (Jack Black) is a daring filmmaker and adventurer who has gained a reputation for his pictures documenting wildlife in remote and dangerous jungle lands; despite the objections of his backers, Denham plans to film his next project aboard an ocean vessel en route to Skull Island, an uncharted island he
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Cast
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Naomi Watts
Ann Darrow -
Jack Black
Carl Denham -
Adrien Brody
Jack Driscoll -
Thomas Kretschmann
Captain Englehorn -
Colin Hanks
Preston -
Jamie Bell
Jimmy -
Evan Parke
Hayes -
Lobo Chan
Choy -
Kyle Chandler
Bruce Baxter -
Andy Serkis
King Kong, Lumpy the Co... -
John Sumner
Herbert -
Craig Hall
Mike
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All Critics (258) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (227) | Rotten (43) | DVD (45)
It clocks in at over three hours, but Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic is gripping nonetheless.
It takes a while to get everybody to Skull Island, about 70 minutes, but it's time extremely well-spent.
Kong is a showy, state-of-the-art popcorn movie, faithful to the spirit of the 1933 original but generously adrenalized with the best effects money can buy.
Our response to the ape's doom, once touched by authentic tragedy, is now marked by relief that this wretchedly excessive movie is finally over.
Top CriticKong has heart, and he's willing to show it in a movie made with wit, excitement and moments of visionary beauty.
Jackson took a huge risk with King Kong. But the movie that no film lover wanted him to make is sure to become the blockbuster that everyone is going to want to see, and with good reason.
As it is a remake, it doesn't have the shock Lord Of The Rings possessed upon its release, but this is a beautiful beast of a B-movie, thrilling and touching.
The movie is a good cautionary example of what happens when its maker is too close to the material, who can't see the forest for the trees, the story for the ape.
Fails to match the simple, handmade artistry of the original
With great computer imagery, a fun story, amazing action, and wonderful human drama, it's a very good remake. But Kong 1933 is still King, baby.
Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic is a loving homage that recreates and updates many of the familiar sequences... Unfortunately, the recreation leaves one wondering what, exactly, the point of the film is, other than indulging the director...
Every now and then, an undertaking like Kong comes around, and it underscores the truly extraordinary accomplishment of directing a film.
Kong is not without its flaws, but sometimes you just have to throw your hands up in the air, wave them like you just don't care, scream at the top of your lungs and just go with the rollercoaster ride, that's what this film is.
Boisterous, spectacular remake of 1933 classic.
Overlong by half, hedonistically animated and decadently self-indulgent King Kong is beastly to be sure, but there is little beauty here.
A bit more time in the editing room could've lifted it into great blockbuster territory. instead we've got a sporadically entertaining escapade that never captures our hearts like it so desperately wants too.
I wish Jackson would shake off his addiction to gigantism, his apparent need to punch everything up three times as much as it needs to be.
Mr. Jackson not only improves on the original, he somehow seems to create the film that King Kong was always meant to be.
funny, frightening, romantic, nostalgic, moving and grimly fatalistic, it races along, like its central character, with a speed and grace that utterly belies its great size.
A phenomenal popcorn movie that eclipses the original in several respects, but inevitably owes a huge debt to the powerful imagery and innovation of the 1930s landmark.
Audience Reviews for King Kong
Super Reviewer
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- Carl Denham: Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.
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- Carl Denham: Fay's a size four.
- Preston: Yes, she is, but she's doing a picture with RKO.
- Carl Denham: Cooper, huh? I might've known.
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- Carl Denham: Bring the tripod and all of the film.
- Herbert: Want to switch to the six-inch lens?
- Carl Denham: [considering Kong, who only he has seen] The wide-angle will do just fine.
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- Lumpy the Cook: [seeing a footprint that Kong has left] There's only one creature capable of leaving a footprint that size. The Abominable Snowman.
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- Hayes: We could not understand because we were too far and could not remember because we were traveling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign - and no memories. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could look at a thing monstrous and free.
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- Carl Denham: I keep telling you, Jack, there's no money in theater. That's why you should stick with film.
- Jack Driscoll: No Carl, it's not about the money. I love theater.
- Carl Denham: No you don't. If you really loved it, you would've jumped.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Better or worse than original (question 2:better or worse than 1976 version?) | 38 days ago | 7 |
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Foreign Titles
- King Kong (DE)
- King Kong (UK)
Jackson wisely builds the brooding mood for the first hour, but once the things get really going, it never stops. Sure the whole idea of giant gorilla somewhere in the heart of the lost island, is nothing more than a complete fantasy, but if you are willing to go with the story, then you are in for a wild ride. And let me tell you, this ain't nothing like those other big budgeted Hollywood-trash flicks like Transformers, Independence Day or Godzilla. Those films had nothing in them. Peter Jackson instead has a vision as a director and with lenser Andrew Lesnie, he creates a magical, haunting and even nightmarish images of a lost world and the creatures it hides.
It takes a true talent to adapt screenplay this ambitious to a big screen without any problems, but ultimately Jackson and his team mostly succeeds in that task. There are few things to complain here, but overall can you really ask a more entertaining film than this? I think not.
If there is a part in you that loved those old adventure films which took you away to a another world when you were a child then this film will take your breath away. Forget Jackson's uneven and overrated Lord of the Rings-trilogy, this is his most accomplished film along his The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey, so far.