The Dino De Laurentiis-produced remake of King Kong is a beautifully aged 1970s gem, uniting old-fashioned spectacle and contemporary concerns.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2024

It's a romantic adventure fantasy -- colossal, silly, touching, a marvelous classics-comics movie.

| Jan 22, 2024

The funny thing is, the love story works! What isn't funny is that all the horror has gone out of it; to make Kong lovable, they've made him too human, the most three-dimensional character in the story.

| May 9, 2023

Kong is attacked with flame throwers and military helicopters, evoking Vietnam War imagery that had been playing out on America’s small screens till its end in 1975 – and that had divided audiences in their sympathies for ‘our side’ and ‘the Other’.

| Dec 13, 2022

...an excessively erratic blockbuster...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 24, 2022

Lange shouting Good monkey and Chauvinist ape will have viewers in stitches.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 13, 2022

There is a freshness here, however, that is as welcome as it is unexpected. King Kong is a hit all over again.

| Nov 11, 2021

Aims for spectacle and updated villainy, and it works for the most part, always most compelling when digging into the mystery of King Kong, not showcasing full body displays of him.

| Original Score: B- | May 29, 2021

It's big. It's overblown. It doesn't quite hold up effects-wise because it's 45 years old, but it is a neat production because it has spectacle.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 15, 2021

A ham-fisted version of the venerable yarn, replacing the excitement and gravitas of the 1933 original with a jokey attitude that borders on camp.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 25, 2021

This revisitation presented the opportunity for grander spectacle and greater excitement, yet the direction turned instead toward calculated campiness and outright comedy.

| Original Score: 1/10 | Aug 30, 2020

What we get then, is (with apologies to Patty Hearst), an urbane gorilla who would, if he could speak above an occasional growl, say "Please" before making off with a screaming and scantily-clad Jessica Lange.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 3, 2020

It's a remake that was a good idea, because it's bigger newer and better than the old one.

| Oct 25, 2019

This new version looks more like a Japanese monster movie than its famous predecessor. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jul 23, 2019

If this is what bleeding-edge, Oscar-worthy effects work looked like in 1976, it's no wonder that Star Wars made such a gargantuan splash in 1977.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 18, 2017

The special effects are marvelous, the good-humored script is comic-bookish without being excessively campy, and there are two excellent performances

| Mar 14, 2017

However much we laughed, I resented the film's tendency to nudge and wink at us.

| Mar 14, 2017

It's madness to try to remake a myth, but even so, John Guillermin's jokey, low-camp film seems awfully inadequate.

| Mar 14, 2017

The then unknown Jessica Lange plays the Fay Wray role with a valiant attempt at empathy, while Charles Grodin brings comic glee to the exploitative oilman. It's colourful, noisy and fun.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 14, 2017

A remake that lacks the magic of the original, but is as camp and entertaining as any other disaster movie of its time.

| Mar 14, 2017