King Kong Collector’s Edition review by Bobby Blakey
Shout Factory continues to bring the classics to the masses through their varying offshoot brands most notable Scream Factory. The latest getting the Collector’s Edition treatment is the 1976 remake of King King produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Guillermin starring Jeff Bridges, the late Charles Grodin and Jessica Lange making her feature-film debut. Could this take on the iconic Kong due him justice or will it not be worth his rampage?
King Kong follows a research ship that is sent to explore an island thought to be rich in oil and Paleontologist Jack Prescott sneaks aboard, having heard strange rumors about the island. En route, the crew rescues Dwan, the sole survivor of a shipwreck. When they arrive, they find native people living in fear of a monster called Kong. The natives kidnap Dwan and sacrifice her to what turns out to be an enormous ape known as Kong.
I haven’t seen this film in years and realized after watching it a bit I don’t think I ever saw the whole thing. I love all things Kaiju and especially Kong. Despite the flaws of many of the films, I still love anything that features the big gorilla and him wreaking havoc. That’s not to say that I don’t recognize the bad entries into the franchise and this is one that works more than it doesn’t but defiantly has issues.
Some of the issues are the product of the time with the over acting and visuals, but at the same time it’s part of its charm. The visuals with Kong himself are pretty impressive for the time outside of the gigantic bizarrely animatronic version that clearly isn’t overly mobile. Even with its silly look it still brings it all together to bring the big guy to life. There are some pretty creepy moments between Kong and Dwan that are cringe worthy, but fits the strange narrative of the tale.
If I have any big issue here it’s in the runtime. The film drags for the first
half with so many useless and strange elements that could have been trimmed down to move it along. Funny enough they edited it for TV for the extended cut but added more footage and made it even longer that is just not necessary. With all its silliness, strange direction and dragging run time I still love this movie and happy to add it to the Kong collection.
This release includes both the original theatrical cut and Extended TV cut of the film as well as plenty of bonus content including trailers, interviews, galleries and so much more. Grab your copy of the King Kong Collector’s Edition available now from Shout Factory.
For more information head over to www.shoutfactory.com