The Big Ape

I just saw the Big Ape. After a brutally long night on flood watch, Kim and I needed to get away and stop thinking about the wrecked house. So we spent 3 hours looking at a CGI ape going... welll... APE! Now, I grew up with King Kong. On my birthday, my parents would rent a projector (yes, I'm that old) and get some films from the library. I saw a great deal of silent pictures this way (Lon Chaney was a favorite), and I saw King Kong quite a few times. It really captured my imagination as a youth. The climb to the top of the Empire Sate and the dinosaur fight are burned into my memories. Then, I saw the seventies remake with my dad. I remember joining the film halfway and then staying through to see the beginning at the next showing. From what I've read, that used to be pretty common. Hitchcock's idea of "no one will be admitted to the theater once the program begins", actually was a big deal at the time. Imagine coming in halfway and not realising that the first half had you thinking it was a crime drama with Janet Leigh as the star. So my memory of seventies Kong is how we came in late. Oh, and how Kong never straddled both towers like he did in the movie poster. It was a bit of a letdown. Can they even show that flick now that the Trade Towers are sanitised our of our media? This new one is pretty damn good. It doesn't really feel like three hours and it certainly doesn't drag. Naomie Watts is great, the digital Kong made me cry all through the last 45 minutes, and there is some serious dinosaur fightin' going on. I firsrt saw Watts in Mulholland Drive where she blew me away with her acting. And, not just during the hot lesbian sex. If you haven't seen it, please do. You'll see why she gets so much work. I'm not really a fan of big hollywood movies, but Jackson makes some damn good ones. His films are big, long, and expensive. I usually prefer bad stop-motion to CGI, but Kong was a living, breathing character. Jackson is a talented director who has respect for his source material. I uasually dread remakes. Hollywood relies on this far too often. Good new ideas are rare and more rare in corporate hollywood. Go see Kong. You'll laugh, you cry. Really. It's got action, horror, humor and heartfelt emotion. It's the best film I've seen since Sin City.