DVD Review HTF Review: King Kong (2005). Very highly recommended (1 Viewer)

[Ray H]

I went and bought the 2-disc version yesterday. The price was pretty steep. I missed out on first week sales and went around looking for the lowest price. Oddly, I ended up paying the highest I came across. $25 - the same price I payed for each of the three 4-disc LOTR extended editions. Universal better not charge their usually high srp for the next edition.

Anyway. I saw the movie again yesterday night and had fun. It's long, but personally, it kept me intrigued for its entire run.

 

[ClaytonMG]

Patrick, I actually can't hear the glitch when all the channels are going, the only time I can hear it is when the center channel is taken out due to Kong's roar being so loud and covering it up. I only noticed the warble and was like "hmmmm.... that was odd" and then isolated the front 2 channels and heard the glitch. And I think you're right about the glitches not being on the master. I think there was only one pop I heard in the score in the movie (other during that one moment) that was on the CD. If I remember right, didn't James Newton Howard only have 5 weeks to write the score after Shore was rejected? It's funny that Shore is the conductor in the movie.

 

[Jay Pennington]

It's its progeny, its successor, so yes, it owes everything to the existence of stop motion. But it isn't the same thing.

 

[Ray H]

Forgive me for this. I just couldn't stop thinking of this missed opportunity.

So the two-disc set includes a feature called the "Skull Island: A Natural History" or something like that. It aired on the SciFi network prior to the disc's release and I was disappointed with it. It seems as though between the time Jackson made Forgotten Silver and this, he forgot how to make a good mockumentary. First of all, it's terribly obvious it's a hoax. The Forgotten Silver doc had the benefit of using acutal film historians and Hollywood producers to build the conceit. When all you have to listen to are Jackson and the WETA team, you know something's fishy. I think I also would've gone a different route with the history of the island - one that seemed more credible. It basically uses the whole Carl Denham discovered the island in 1933 thing. This is obviously untrue if you know anything about the history of Kong. I would've opted for a history that incorporated the original film. What if the island was discovered in the 1910s or 1920s by an explorer and due to shame at the ensuing chaos, he would not allow his name to be used for a film telling. Then Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack... Screw it. Who am I kidding?

 

[Antony James]

You mean Skull Island isn't real? Noooooo!

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, it's a little easier to sell the story of a forgotten silent filmmaker than the story of an island of dinosaurs and giant apes being discovered in the last 75 years.

 

[Sam Posten]

Me thinks thou doth protest too much )

 

[Jay Pennington]

I much prefer a mockumentary that knows it is, rather than it trying really hard to fool me. It's a bonus feature, not a hoax.

 

[Antony James]

Something of no consequence I noticed...
Check out the gorilla at 2m26s in the Skull Island 'doco'

That ain't no real gorilla at all. It's one of Baker's "Mist" gorillas. (Probably Digit, by the look of him.)

 

[Demis G]

Should I buy the Production Diaries now or should I wait for a "Director's Cut" version of the movie containing those as well?

Do we have any news on any future "ultimate/director's cut/uncut/super-duper" edition?

 

[TravisR]

Apparently Peter Jackson has said that the production diaries are not going to be part of any special edition. I guess if you wanted to play it safe, you could wait until the SE is announced (it'll almost definitely be out by the end of the year) and see if the production diaries are going to be on there.

 

[Travis Brashear]

Buy 'em now--as stated above, Peter Jackson made it clear those diaries would not reappear on any subsequent release (as a courtesy to those of us who shelled out $30+ on them when they first came out, I would assume, with my appreciation).

 

[Demis G]

Are the diaries any fun watching? or are they exclusively for the ones who are into the movie making wannabe experience?

 

[TravisR]

There's a few that are just fun and silly but the majority focus on specific departments working on the movie. In other words, they're almost all behind the scenes stuff.