King Kong (1976)

Not worth it whats so ever!

This movie sucks! The other versons of King Kong are great and classic. But for King Kong (1976) & King Kong Lives, the producers were obviously not thinking straight. I mean King Kong climbs up the National Trade Center rather than the Empire State Building. Jack Driscoll looks like Jesus Crist. Ann's name is Dwan? Carl Denhem dies by getting squshed by King Kong. So no "The Beauty killed the beast" unless it was said by someone else!!! So don't give this one a chance but go see the other ones. It's with it :) May 30, 2008

Amazon's critic M. Fine should be fired!

King Kong '76 was one of my favorite movies as a child, when I saw it for the first time I tought it was phenomenal. Now as an adult I can see the movie has many flaws, mainly Jessica Lange's acting, but to be qualified as utter trash as Mr. Marshall describes it, it is just plainly unfair, this movie has many qualities: great cinematography, great music score, natural sets, an atmosphere that only 70's movies possesed and the monster itself while not great, is better than any CGI garbage. I prefer this movie a 1000 times than Peter Jackson's fiasco, he is one of the most overrated movie directors ever, that movie has bad acting all over and doesn't look real to me (I'm not a big fan of CGI). I think movie critics are biased most of the times and not objective, I think this movie deserves a chance to be seen. April 21, 2008

Enjoyible

Like the first time I saw it.
He saves her, big monkey wants her back. April 5, 2008

Man in cheap ape suite behind blue screen

This movie was total garbage. Annoying enviro wacko themes and unneccesary anti military scenes, Jeff Bridges character cheering on Kong as he attacks the military.
Shows the fool De Laurentis is since Merian C Cooper was a WW1 veteran and a blue blood American and helped create the original 1933 Kong.
This movie inslults him as well as his work on KK 1933.
Movie shows viewer it was made on the cheap. Jungle is NOT convincing. Looks like the fake jungles from soap operas. No other creatures except a rubber snake.
You could see the seams in KK's costume.
Bad effects + annoying characters + anti capitalist/anti military themes =
BOMB. February 20, 2008

REISSUED DVD WITH LESS SCOPE THE SECOND TIME AROUND

And still no bonus features. The original dvd release is presented in 2:35.1 panavision widescreen. The second release is presented in 1:78.1 widescreen. That means alot of the scope has been taken away. I don't know if the picture quality has been improved because of this, but that really doesn't matter because I'm a stickler for the maximum width of the picture over enhanced colors. Now let's talk a little about the movie. First thing is the music John Barry's score was at times brilliant and led up to great crescendos, but that wierd keyboardy stuff detracted from the intensity of the film. Especially in the opening title sequence. Now, who came up with that ridiculous name DWAN? Did Tony Orlando have a copyright on the name Dawn? Or did the studio think the movie going public was too stupid to differentiate between the blonde girl in Kong's hand and the two non-blonde female back-up singers. The ape suit looked very good, but as stated by another reviewer Rick Baker the designer and wearer of the suit was told to walk upright against his better judgement to walk more apelike. But then again would he have moved about like a real ape as portrayed in Peter Jackson's KING KONG or would it have been a Planet of the Apes slouch. The tribal chant leading to Kong's first appearance is the best in this version. Even if they didn't want dinosaurs in the movie a few other animals for Kong to fight would have been a good idea. The mechanical King Kong that the publicity machine boasted about which only appears for 4 seconds should have been completely deleted. I also remember reading articles that extras were needed for the final scene and that they were going to drop a large stuffed Kong from the World Trade Center building. I couldn't make it into the city that day, but you can see the New York skyline pretty good from our local beach. Well that drop never happened. The only thing was a giant styrofoam Kong lying in the middle of Kong's impact point. Amazing how so many people were duped into making an okay movie look more epic by being tricked into appearing in a film they weren't entitled to get paid for. Sometimes the island scenes looked like they were shot on a stage. I don't mean a soundstage. I mean a stage like a school auditorium stage. Time magazine ran an article on this movie with a photo that reveals a topless Jessica Lange in Kong's hand. Unfortunately this did not appear in the actual film. But you can get a little compensated. Look for the scene when "Dwan" is first rescued from King Kong and puts her arms around Jeff Bridges. I remember how horrible I felt for the next couple days after leaving the theater when King Kong got shot up pretty bad by the helicopters' guns. This by far was the most gruesome and emotionally impacting Kong death on film. February 2, 2008

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