When Peter Jackson, flush with post-Lord of the Rings clout, finally got to birth his pet project in 2005 with his King Kong remake, the result was a trifecta of well-deserved technical Oscars … and 187 punishing, interminable minutes of a mess, suggesting a director’s self-indulgence left unchecked. Now, the big ape returns — Kong, … Continue reading Kong: Skull Island (2017)
No sane person can dispute the incredible craftsmanship of 1933’s King Kong … just as no sane person can hold its sequel, The Son of Kong, at any point near that level. Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack (later to helm the 1949 Kong imitator Mighty Joe Young, this brief, lame, poorly acted follow-up seems incredibly … Continue reading The Son of Kong (1933)
Hong Kong King Kong! This Shaw Brothers take on the giant-monkey-gone-ape story is so unintentionally hysterical that even joking about it in print doesn’t do it justice. In a remote jungle, an earthquake — simulated via unbelievably bad rear-screen projection — unleashes a giant gorilla from the mountain. If you’re fishing for an explanation as … Continue reading The Mighty Peking Man (1977)
What differentiates The Satanic Screen: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema is author Nikolas Schreck used to practice the Black Arts. That granted the original 2001 edition a seal of credibility, but this new, considerable update — courtesy of Headpress — allows him to cover dozens of titles that didn’t exist, like Megiddo: … Continue reading Reading Material: Short Ends 7/23/24
With a revisit of Godzilla 1985, the biggest question isn’t why it took Toho more than a decade to bring the king of the monsters back from retirement. The biggest question also isn’t why it ignores the 14 sequels following the 1954 original Godzilla. Rather, the biggest question is why the opening introduces some kind … Continue reading Godzilla 1985 (1985)