King Kong

Theatrical Release Date: 2005 12 14 (USA)

UPC: 025192626029

Studio: MCA Home Video

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Violence, Adult Language, Suitable for Teens]

Summary: 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 discovered on a rare map. Correctly assuming his cast and crew would be wary of such a journey, Denham has told them they're traveling to Singapore, but before they set sail, his leading lady drops out of the project. Needing a beautiful actress willing to take a risk, Denham finds Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), a beautiful but down-on-her-luck vaudeville performer, and offers her the role; cautious but eager to work, Darrow takes the role, and onboard the ship she strikes up a romance with Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), a respected playwright hired by Denham to write the script for his latest epic. When Denham and company arrive on Skull Island, the natives react with savage violence, but they happen to be the least of their worries. Skull Island is a sanctuary for prehistoric life, and lording it over the dinosaurs and other giant beasts is Kong, a 25-foot-tall gorilla who can outfight any creature on Earth. The natives kidnap Darrow, giving her to Kong as an offering to appease the giant beast; Denham and his men set out to find her, with Driscoll bravely determined to save the woman he loves. Eventually, Driscoll finds Darrow and Denham outwits Kong, intending to take the giant ape back to New York for display. But Kong has bonded with Darrow, and his attraction to her proves to be his undoing. Andy Serkis, who provided the body movements for Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings pictures, performed similar duties on King Kong, studying gorillas so he could mimic their actions, which were then used as the basis for the special-effects crew's digital animation of the great ape. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Adventure

Awards: Best Picture – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Director – Broadcast Film Critics Association Outstanding Achievement in Special Effects – National Board of Review Best Director – null Best Original Score – null Top Ten Film – Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association Best Picture – San Diego Film Critics Association Best Actress – London Film Critics Association Best Picture – London Film Critics Association Best Director – London Film Critics Association Best Production Design – Phoenix Film Critics Association Best Visual Effects – Phoenix Film Critics Association Best Trailer – Phoenix Film Critics Association Top Ten Film of the Year – Phoenix Film Critics Association Best Picture – American Film Institute Best Picture – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Director – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Actress – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Original Score – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Cinematography – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Cinematography – St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Best Director – Online Film Critics Association Best Actress – Online Film Critics Association Best Score – Online Film Critics Association Best Cinematography – American Society of Cinematographers Best Production Design – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Visual Effects – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Visual Effects – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Visual Effects – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Visual Effects – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Art Direction - Period or Fantasy Film – Art Directors Guild Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Mixing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Mixing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Mixing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Mixing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: cc

King Kong

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 03/28/2006

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 188 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- King Kong
1. Opening - New York 1933 [3:03]
2. Vaudeville [1:17]
3. Theater Closed [2:23]
4. Denham's Screening [3:45]
5. "Defeat Is Always Momentary" [2:03]
6. A Fateful Meeting [1:44]
7. "A Woman Born to Play This Role" [3:22]
8. The Moving Picture Ship [2:44]
9. An Early Departure [3:47]
10. Jack's "Quarters" [1:42]
11. Bruce Settles In [:17]
12. Jimmy's Story [1:50]
13. Ann Meets Jack Driscoll [2:25]
14. A Moustache for Bruce [:39]
15. "We're Filming on an Island Now?" [1:59]
16. Filming a Classic Scene [1:06]
17. Romance on the Venture [2:41]
18. The Last Blank Space on the Map [2:49]
19. A Long Sea Voyage [1:21]
20. "It's in the Sub-Text" [1:24]
21. A Change of Course [1:14]
22. Skull Island [8:33]
23. Expedition Ashore [3:30]
24. The Inhabitants of Skull Island [6:16]
25. Ann's Abduction [5:25]
26. The Sacrifice [5:06]
27. Rescue Party [1:48]
28. The Killing Ground [3:24]
29. Discovering the Footprint [2:19]
30. Brontosaurus Stampede [6:37]
31. Playing Dead [:56]
32. The Party Is Divided [1:41]
33. Ann Disarms Kong [6:45]
34. The Log Chasm [3:43]
35. The T-Rex Battle [11:38]
36. The Insect Pit [5:42]
37. "Beautiful" [4:09]
38. Denham's Plan [2:32]
39. Jack Rescues Ann [5:44]
40. Captured [8:18]
41. "Eighth Wonder of the World" [1:54]
42. "Cry Havoc!" [1:50]
43. Carl Denham Presents Kong [9:12]
44. Kong in New York [4:30]
45. Reunited [4:32]
46. Under Attack [1:05]
47. The Empire State Building [2:20]
48. Kong's Last Stand [7:31]
49. "It Was Beauty Killed the Beast" [6:35]
50. End Credits [9:40]

Jeremy Wheeler

Peter Jackson's King Kong is a spectacle of big-budget adventurism that indulges in flashy childhood monster-movie fetishes while upping the original's sentimental quotient to new grandiose levels. Filled with furious action and exotic locales, the film gives Kong a much broader canvas to wreak havoc upon in this retooled version of the famed story. The big screen's largest primate has also been given more time to do so, with a three-hour-plus running time weighing heavily on the audience's shoulders as each act is expanded to mixed results. Needless backstories take center stage in the beginning, just as the middle tends to blur into one long chase sequence that is downright excessive in its scale and endless barrage of thrills. Viewers might find themselves caught up in the breathless imagery, but one senses that Jackson isn't flexing his storyteller muscles as much as he's fulfilling his own boyhood dreams of the prehistoric rock 'em, sock 'em material. In that way, the director momentarily ceases to involve his audience in the drama, opting instead to deliver fast-paced action with multiple icky, gooey, ferocious creatures filling the screen to dizzying degrees. Ironically, the picture's strongest moments are its quietest, as Kong and Naomi Watts build a sincere and touching bond that goes far beyond the creepy unrequited love of the duo in the 1933 original. It's this relationship that fuels the bravura third-act opening with a lavish and witty recreation of the villagers from the original, as dancers cavort Broadway-style in front of the broken and battered giant ape. What follows is a miraculous recreation of one of the most famous scenes in movie history that is as heartbreaking an experience as any. Time will tell how the film will be viewed years down the road, but one thing is for sure -- this isn't the King Kong that Peter Jackson would have made before Lord of the Rings (which was originally the plan). The film might benefit from the sensitivity gleaned from Tolkien's trilogy, but on the flip side of Hollywood's cursed coin, his unlimited power and success no doubt bloated what was once a slim tale of beauty and the beast and turned it into a personal journey of obsessive boyhood dreams come true, not unlike the film's monomaniacal filmmaker Carl Denham. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Cast and Crew: John Sumner  Actor 
Craig Hall  Actor 
James Newton Howard  Composer (Music Score) 
Peter Jackson  Director 
Peter Jackson  Producer 
Peter Jackson  Screenwriter 
Carolynne Cunningham  Producer 
Fran Walsh  Producer 
Fran Walsh  Screenwriter 
Philippa Boyens  Screenwriter 
Jan Blenkin  Producer 
Naomi Watts  Actor 
Jack Black  Actor 
Adrien Brody  Actor 
Thomas Kretschmann  Actor 
Colin Hanks  Actor 
Jamie Bell  Actor 
Evan Parke  Actor 
Lobo Chan  Actor 
Kyle Chandler  Actor 
Andy Serkis  Actor 
Andy Serkis  Actor 

Country: USA