King Kong enters the Oscar Race- Page 5

[broadway86]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:42pm

she replied "What the hell do I need that for?" and breezed right past her.

Are you serious? What's her problem?

[DAME]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:43pm

i wonder what it was.

[robbiej]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:47pm

I had NO IDEA you were Beaverhausen...and was wondering where Beaverhausen went!

I thought maybe you were someone else...perhaps even the Hateful Sow.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:49pm

Well - I have never been referred to as a hateful sow, although I have been known to be a pig...

The gift in question was a Teddy Bear. The poor woman just stood there.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:51pm

Oh well then I don't blame her. Teddy bears are cute, but where the hell do you put them!?

[DAME]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:52pm

I believe it. Andin a way ( only in a way ) .. good for her.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:03pm

I mean I love that story, but part of me thinks that Mme. Maclaine could accept the damn thing graciously, hand it to an assistant and later give it to a grandchild, niece or nephew (Bening keeps popping them out all the time) or donate it to a children's hospital or something... but then on the other hand, what the hell was that fan thinking giving Shirley Maclaine (or anyone over the age of 10) a damn teddy bear? She's just lucky Cruella Maclaine didn't bite its head off and spit the stuffing in her face.

[robbiej]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:07pm

I'll never forget the night I saw Shirl in a bodega on 55th Street with cuts and bruises on her face, buying a box of Cascade. A rubberband kept her unruly, old and decrepit wallet together.

Why was she buying Cascade at 11:30 at night?

Why did she look like she had gone 8 rounds with Oscar de la Hoya?

And why did that bodega burn down a few years later? Hmmmmmmm...

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:10pm

U hos are funny!

I agree that Shirley should have taken the bear and been nice.

I am learning to aspire to the WWCJD? or WWPRD? school of stage door star behavior.

[DAME]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:14pm

Or given the teddy to one of her dogs or something.

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:48pm

a less than glowing review from towleroad:

In Search of the Greatest Ape
REVIEW: King Kong


WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Buried somewhere within the three hour CGI spectacular that is King Kong may be a masterpiece, but like the search for the uncharted Skull Island, it'll take some careful navigation to find it. There are some great things to say about the film, but unfortunately, it has some flaws that are difficult to overcome (and might have been overcome in the editing room).

This film presents the greatest evidence so far that human actors may one day be replaced with CGI, for the giant gorilla's performance in this film carries more emotional depth and humor than that of any of the SAG card holders.

The first act of the film is far too long and filled with unnecessary subplots that are devoid of any emotional power and later just killed off (literally) as more important plot points take over. A subplot revolving around young shipmate Jimmy (played by the adorable Jamie Bell) could have been left on the cutting room floor and not hurt the movie at all. I realize the necessity for some exposition before reaching the island but it's not until that happens that this movie truly starts.

There are also some conflicts that are answered too easily. When the film crew reaches Skull Island they are met by a very fierce and angry tribe of cannibals, murderous enough to have killed many explorers before them, yet the small crew conveniently makes them disappear with the use of guns even though they are obviously greatly outnumbered. They very conveniently never reappear.

Adrien Brody may be a wonderful character actor but he's certainly not the type of leading man that this film demands. My relationship with his character fluctuated between repulsion and annoyance. In one scene, as he climbed up a steep, vine-draped ravine, I could have sworn it was Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

Jack Black's line delivery is embarrassingly bad and the last line of the movie, meant to be a grand da-dum moment, is such a horrific cliché I could hardly bear to hear him utter it, for it all but ruined the dazzling array of moments that led up to it. Wait, and cringe.

Naomi Watts, whom I love, has, however, mastered the gazing-wondrously-into-Kong's-eyes facial expression. Unfortunately, we are forced to revisit the same gaze again and again and again.

The soundtrack by James Newton Howard is good but too overbearing at points. It's all hills and few valleys, majestic but not reflective enough, and it left me longing for something from John Williams.

The film borrows steals generously from Titanic in several places. As they boarded the ship I half expected to hear James Horner's energetic soundtrack kick in. Skull Island's wall emerging from the fog could very well have been a giant iceberg, and King Kong's last moments descending from the heights of the Empire State Building as Ann Darrow watches him fall to the street below are a direct echo of Rose pushing a dead, frozen Jack into the bottomless, icy seas as they cling to the wreckage from the sunken ship. It's hard not to watch and feel as if you've seen it all before.

The best scene in the movie by far is a scene that takes place in the bottom of a deep ravine where the party searching for Ann Darrow is overtaken by dozens of giant cockroaches, millipedes, scorpions, and a group of disgusting wormy creatures that can only be described as enormous uncircumsized penises with teeth. Trust me, you'll be squirming in your seat when you see what happens. It's the only scene in the film which I felt I hadn't seen before.

The dinosaur sequences are thrilling and Peter Jackson does Jurassic here better than Spielberg. This is edge of your seat action.

The other completely knockout scene is the climactic gun battle atop the Empire State Building - true genius CGI work here. It ranks among the most visually exciting moments I've seen on film ever. Kong's moments are the best in the movie. When he breaks into Times Square and begins picking up every blonde he can find in search of Ann Darrow and chucking the rejects it's at once hilarious and terrifying. When he finally finds Ann and escapes with her to slide around on a frozen, wintry lake in Central Park the brief moment of peace is exhilarating.

King Kong is a behemoth of a film, and immensely watchable, but in this case, I think less could have been more.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:50pm

Another blogger though, yes?

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:52pm

bloggers have opinions too! this is andy towle who used to be the editor of genre.
Towleroad.com

Updated On: 12/6/05 at 03:52 PM

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:56pm

I am really looking forward to seeing this actually. I know it's not going to be great - but I expect to have fun. I remember standing in line for hours to see the DeLaurentis version where Kong falls off the World Trade Center after assaulting Jessica Lange!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:04pm

If we're posting reviews in this thread, here's the one from the Times in London:

------------

Film: King Kong
5 Stars

YOU’RE Peter Jackson. Your previous movie, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, scooped 11 Oscars. Your international box office tally is up there somewhere round the $3 billion mark.
So what do you do next? A low-budget ghost story? A Rings spin-off? No, you plough more than $200 million , including a hefty chunk of your own fortune, into a three-hour remake of a camp 1933 classic with B-list actors, a bucket-load of computer effects, and a giant gorilla. That Jackson’s King Kong upgrades the now hammy original with wit, heart and humour is a pleasant surprise. That it does so by reinventing the action blockbuster, in form and emotional impact, is nothing less than an act of cinematic alchemy.

[...]

Of course, the real star here is Kong. This Kong is a breathtaking testament to the power of cutting edge hyper-realism. Yet the real genius here is not in the realisation of Kong’s loping walk or expressive features but in his simple scripted character. Like Darrow, he is an outsider in his own environment.

What Kong craves from Darrow is not a chance to see her naked, but simple human companionship. So the queasy racial and sexual subtext (Kong as the libidinous native) that plagues the original and all subsequent Kong tales is eradicated. What we are left with is an outstanding film imbued with childlike wonder, both at the mysteries of human intimacy and at the seemingly limitless possibilities of the medium.

London Times

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:15pm

an entire review that does not mention acting prowess or performances. i'm not bashing the flick for being an action film or popcorn entertainment but it sounds like it may be just that, an action film.

this review hardly makes the case for oscar buzz...

Updated On: 12/6/05 at 04:15 PM

[DG]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:15pm

". . . disgusting wormy creatures that can only be described as enormous uncircumsized penises with teeth."

If there was any doubt that it was a former editor of Genre that wrote the review, that line obliterated it.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:23pm

But RobbO, this is an action flick. As great an actress as Naomi Watts is, does anyone really expect her to garner an Oscar nomination here?

The movie's not exactly purporting to be LORD OF THE RINGS.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:26pm

And, yet, there IS talk that Watts could be nominated.

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:28pm

wizard, i need you to focus. the whole point of this thread is talking about kong as a oscar hopeful which led to my comments about hoping that some other, smaller film gets the oscar noms.

are you high today?

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:33pm

I think the fact that KING KONG is being discussed as an Oscar contender is pretty remarkable. I love Jackson's work, but I didn't see this coming; when was the last time a monster flick got Oscar buzz?

Here's a review from Total Film (geek entertainment magazine) that mentions some of the performances:

------------

[...]

King Kong 2005 isn’t flawless, but it certainly isn’t another committee-driven, box-ticking, beige blockbuster. It’s the work of a visionary director with developing technical skill; pouring heart, soul and a slosh of independent spirit into a project which, under more mainstream control, would surely have imploded like a big-star supernova (Cruise as Jack? Jolie as Ann? Pitt as Carl? Cabin girl Dakota? Cap’n Morgan Freeman?).

[...]

With Black’s sly, venal turn as producer Carl, Jackson has channelled a character who jabs at all he finds distasteful about the Hollywood sausage-machine the New Zealand-dweller remains peripheral to. Carl’s presentation to the studio is met by a request that the film contain plenty of “boobies”. There’s a tweak for the sniffier reviewers (“Monsters belong in ‘B’ movies!”), a one-liner for industry screenings (“Trust me – I’m a movie producer!”), and even a nod to his own struggles, when he was close to being a jobbing director taking knock-backs for Bond movies (“Defeat is always momentary”).

For such a long-faced lightweight, Brody does a reasonable job of turning Jack from buttoned-up scribbler to an action badass with – yes! – a dirty white vest, and Watts is a wonder – all willowy and winsome with big, bright, haunted eyes. She captures the breathy ’30s-style beautifully. “You’re all I’ve got!” she tells a craggy mentor. If only some great alpha-apeman would come along and sweep her away…

[...]

The crucial Kong-Ann relationship has been carefully cranked to just the right level of tenderness and dignity. The scene where Ann tries to cheer Kong up with a spot of vaudeville (pratfalls raise a sn*, not too keen on the juggling) is a joy, but a later sequence where the two, er, go ice-skating is destined to divide audiences between dreamy sighs and unintentional guffaws.

[...]

Kong clunks when Jackson steps away from his ringmasterly command of sheer spectacle and tries a little too hard. Iffy flecks of pantomime-style comic relief – japes amid the apes – veer from funny to fussy. The teeming urban Art Deco production design (where everyone wears hats) feels stage-managed and sterile, with little sense of any real Depression biting into the Big Apple. There’s also an unwelcome artsiness creeping in to Jackson’s style (ropey literary nods, a forced big-up of the Arrogance Of ‘Civilisation’ theme, some queasy slo-mo and motion/sound blur…). It’s like Grandad over-complicating a sturdy bedtime story by dragging in a big bag of props.

But he never loses sight of the story’s essence: doomed romance. The dizzying finale still throbs with tragic majesty, as Kong conquers the highest man-made point – king of his captors’ world – before, with one last sparkle in his sage old eyes, he slides away, and the fall is a silent eternity...

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:37pm

are you high today?

No, but I'm incredibly bored. I'm procrastinating from doing my grad school applications, so please don't take offense from my posts.

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:40pm

just as long as you know that i'm nominating you for "most personalities in a single thread" and corine has won that one three years in a row...

Updated On: 12/6/05 at 04:40 PM

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:47pm

If I win, can I watch your avatar get it on with my avatar?

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:48pm

i'm not sure if my avatar is a fan of uncut men but i'll ask...