King Kong (1976)

Last night, I was finally able to finish my children’s writing assignment, as well as, American Horror Story Asylum. Needing some type of mindless horror to help pass the afternoon, I decided to watch something from my childhood. Plus, seeing Jessica Lange in a more relaxed role was cool. My selection for the evening was the 1976 creature feature, King Kong.

Plot/ A petroleum exploration expedition comes to an isolated island and encounters a colossal giant gorilla.

It had been a long time since I had visited this edition of King Kong. For me, it was my introduction into the mythos when I was young, but looking at it now, I can see that the hype with the marketing was much better than the movie itself. While not a terrible movie by any means, it definitely suffers from many flaws once Kong arrives and the effects take over. Over all, the movie has some solid performances, some comedic moments, and an outstanding cast. Unfortunately, between the rough effects, some head scratching dialog, and uneven chemistry, the movie never quite reaches its potential. In the end, it was a nice change of pace to sit back and revisit something from my youth. While it may not have held up as well as some movies, it is also better than most of the creature features being pushed out today. If you are in the mood for a creature feature, give it a shot.