King Kong

King Kong - 2005

Universal Pictures/Big Primate Pictures/Wingnut Films - 187/200 min.
DVD UPC # 025192994524; 025193167927; 025192626029; 5050582485349; 5050582427240; 025192008283(Blu-ray); 5050582597295(Blu-ray); 5050582610680(Blu-ray)

Cast: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Andy Serkis,
Evan Parke, Jamie Bell, Lobo Chan, John Sumner, Craig Hall, Kyle Chandler.
Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson based upon a story by Merian Cooper and
Edgar Wallace; Director of Photography: Andrew Lesnie; Original Music: James Newton Howard;
Editing: Jamie Selkirk; Costume Design: Terry Ryan; Production Design: Grant Major; Art & Set Direction:
Dan Hennah; Special Effects Production Manager: Gayle Munro; Visual Effects Supervisor: Scott E. Anderson,
Joe Letteri, George Murphy, Ben Snow; Producer: Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson,
Fran Walsh; Director: Peter Jackson. - Highly Recommeded.

Censor Rating: M - Review rating: B+

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 1930's, 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 one board the ship she strikes up a romance with Jack Driscoll (Adrian 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 twenty-five-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 Sirkis, 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 - All Movie Review

AVAILABILITY OF VHS OR DVD COPIES

It is available as a single disc or a two-disc package. The price of the "extras lacking" single is under $10us. The two-disc set contains 3 hr. 20 mins. of extras. The feature is presented 2.35 widescreen anamorphic and 5.1 dolby digital sound. The extras are presented 1.8 widescreen and 2.0 digital stereo. The feature disc also contains a 2 minute, behind-the-scenes look of a VW Toureg commercial and a one minute "Wish You were here" New York City Commerical. The second (Extras) disc contains 152 minutes of "Post Production Diaries", a conclusion of the production diaries that were shown at the "Kong is King" website, during the film production. Also included on the second disc is a 28 minute featurette of 1933 New York and a 17 minute mockumentary, 'Skull Island: A Natural History'. R1 2-disc prices are about $10us. R2 pricing is about 6# or 16eu. R4 2-disc pricing is about $12au or $15nz. R1 subtitles include: English, Spanish and French. UK R2 subtitles include: English, Arabic, Icelandic.

On 14 November 2006, Universal released the Extended Edition version of King Kong. It is a three-disc set which includes 13 additional minutes more than the theatrical version. It is 2:35 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 surround. The R1 version has English, Spanish and French language tracks with English, Spanish and French subtitles. The R2 and R4 versions have English, French and German language tracks with English, French, German, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles. All versions have an optional feature commentary track with Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens. Expect the U.S. price to be about $20us. In New Zealand it sells for about $40nz. The R2 versions are about 7# or 9eur. There is also a gift-set version that contains a King Kong figurine, selling for about $50us.
The extended 3-disc organisation is as follows:
Disc One: Feature Part 1 - 87 min.
Deleted Scenes Introduction by Peter Jackson - 3 min.
16 Deleted Scenes - 37 minutes, with optional introductions - 9 min.
'The Eight Blunder of the World' Featurette - 19 min.
'A Night in Vaudeville' Featurette - 12 min.
'The Mission Production Diary' - 8 min.
Disc Two: Feature Part II - 115 min.
'The Present' - An original short film made by cast members - 10 min.
'Weta Collectables' Featurette = 5 min.
Pre-Visualization Animatics:
* Arrival at Skull Island - 4 min.
* Bronto Stampede - 6 min.
* T-Rex Fight - 10 min.
* Empire State Building Battle - 10 min.
DVD ROM: 1996 and 2005 Scripts
Trailers: Teaser, Theatrical and Cinemedia.
Disc Three: Extra Features
Peter Jackson Introduction - 3 min.
Recreating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong - 186 min.
* Peter Jackson tease Introduction
* The Origins of King Kong - 16 min.
* Pre-Production Part 1: The Return of Kong - 42 min.
* Pre-Production Part 2: Countdown to Filming - 16 min.
* The Venture Journey - 22 min.
* Return to Skull Island - 30 min.
* New York, New Zealand - 26 min.
* Bringing Kong to Life Part 1: Design and Research - 48 min.
* Bringing Kong to Life Part 2: Performance and Animation - 26 min.
Conceptual Design Galleries - 41 Min.
* The 1996 King Kong - 10 min.
* The Venture - 4min.
* Skull Island - 16 min.
* New York Video - 4 min.
* Kong - 7 min.
DVD Credits - 5 min.

As of December 2009, the all-region Blu-Ray version is $15-20us, $40nz, $40au, 12# and 17eur. It contains both the 187 minute theatrical cut and the 200 minute extended cut. They contain English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. The German version has additional subtitles in German. Audio options are: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French DTS 5.1, Spanish DTS 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0. The German version has additional DTS 5.1 audio options in German, Italian and Japanese. It has an audio commentary by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens on the extended cut only. It also contains a "U-Control" interactive experience: Picture-in-Picture video commentary and "My Scenes" bookmarks and sharing. Of course it is presented 2.40:1, 1080p 24fps. None of the extras that were included with the extended 3-disc dvd are included on the Blu-ray version.

DVD Movie avi Download - as low as $2us - depending upon size/quality. Also free 2-3 minute preview download and stills from the film. No special program needed to view - no viewing limit.

SOUNDTRACK ON AUDIO CD

Click for King Kong CD Details

REVIEWS

At The Movies - Review by Margaret Pomeranz

Ebert and Roeper video review

MichaelDVD HD PAL Review

DVD Authority Review

Moria Review

DVD Town HD Version Review

Digitally Obsessed HD Version Review

Blog Critics HD Version Review

High Definition Digest HD Version Review

Dominic Corry review at TVNZ

Metacritic consolidated reviews

DVD Talk Review of Extended Edition

DVD Times review of the extended edition dvd set

Monsters and Critics review of the extended edition dvd

Currentfilm.com review of extended edition 3-disc dvd set

DVD Compare's Review

IMDB User Comments - 2578 entries

Michaeldvd Region 4 Reviews

328 Movie Review Query Articles

TRAILER & MISC

Official Trailer

Information at IMDB

Kong is King - Official Fan Club

Seven sample insight videos from Weta Digital

Wikipedia King Kong Info

AWARDS

2006 - Academy Awards (Oscars)
Best Sound Editing - Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek
Best Sound Mixing - Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn
Best Visual Effects - Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, Richard Taylor

2006 - Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror - Saturn Award
Best Actress - Naomi Watts
Best Direction - Peter Jackson
Best Special Effects - Joe Letteri, Richard Taylor, Christian Rivers, Brian Van't Hul

2006 - American Film Institute
Best Picture

2006 - British Academy Awards (BAFTA)
Best Visual Effects - Christian Rivers, Brian Vant Hul, Richard Taylor, Joe Letteri

2006 - Empire Awards
Best Film

2006 - Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association
One of the Top Ten Films of 2005

2006 - Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards
The Vicent Koehler Award for Outstanding Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horro Film

2006 - London Critics Circle Film Awards
ALFS Award - Actress of the Year: Naomi Watts

2005 - National Board of Review
Outstanding Achievement in Special Effects

2006 - Phoenix Film Critics Association
Best Production Design: Grant Major
Best Trailer
Best Visual Effects: Joe Letteri
Top Ten film of 2005

2006 - San Diego Film Critics Association
Best Picture

2006 - St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association
Best Cinematorgraphy: Andrew Lesnie

2006 - Toronto Film Critics Association Awards
Special Citation - Andy Serkis

2006 - Visual Effects Society Awards
Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture:
Andy Serkis, Christian Rivers, Atsushi Satop, Guy Williams
Outstanding Created Encvironment in a Live Action Motion Picture:
Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, Matt Aitken, Charles Tait
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture:
Joe Letteri, Eileen Moran, Christian Rivers, Eric Saindon

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