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

While certainly one has to give credit to the original 1933 film, I actually think this one succeeds in ways that one did not. Sure, some of it is cheesy (the ape suit is not very believable),but it brings the film to modern times. The oil company angle was interesting, and the references to "Deep Throat" were, um, interesting...

I know at the time there was a complaint that the Empire State Building was changed to the World Trade Center. Now, I guess there are two ways I can look at this. The part of me that prefers homages says that the Empire State Building was the only real proper choice. But now, seeing the film in 2011, I have to say that capturing the World Trade Center on film is a bit more historic -- though they could not have known that at the time.

Oscar award-winning Jeff Bridges is excellent as always, here playing a liberal archaeologist or anthropologist or something like that. He seems to be a jack of all trades, smuggling himself on board and being useful at countless moments (and yes, his name is appropriately enough Jack). The hair and beard give him that "Dude" look, and I can never get enough of that.

Last comment: Jessica Lange, what the heck? I have never before and will never again find her attractive. But here, she wins me over. And the rumor is that Barbra Streisand could have received the part? Yuck! Lange was the right choice, by far... and what a way to start a career.

King Kong (1976) King Kong was a huge hit back in the seventies--I know because I was there, I saw the frenzy, I remember the crowded theaters. Now, admittedly, it also had a huge pr campaign, which undoubtedly helped it garner a lot of that dough, but there was a lot more to the flick than just the hype. And it could have probably been an even bigger hit if the filmmakers had played it safe and hadn't gone out of their way to make a film so stubbornly odd. I mean this thing stomps over a gigantic swath of styles: panoramic spectacle, high adventure, pathos, romance, social commentary, absurdist comedy, thrills, and occasionally outright goofiness--all comprised in a slyly satiric package designed to tweak the noses of Kong purists. Lorenzo Semple Jr.'s ("Papillon ") screenplay is all over the place when it comes to style and tone, borrowing from whatever and whenever, almost as though it had been patched together from several different treatments--yet it still remains incredibly tight in terms of interesting, well-drawn, consistent characters, witty dialog, exploration of theme, and the forward momentum of the plot. King Kong 76 is a great example of anarchic postmodernism being perfectly wed to the staunch formalism of good storytelling. A contemporary example of this approach would be Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films.

The direction by veteran John Guillermin was absolutely fearless, pushing each of Semple's concepts to its limit, even at the risk of seeming silly. And he had a great cast to work with, especially young Jessica Lange in her first film role. Unfortunately, Jessica played the role of the vivacious, childlike, kinda dimwitted bubblehead blonde Dwan so incredibly well that most people wrote her off, assuming she was just a dumb blonde playing herself. But in actuality it is a bravura performance, one of the best in her career, and certainly a more individual, more fully-realized character performance than we get in most movies these days.

As big a hit as the disco era Kong was, however, there were a lot of people who were put off because they weren't expecting anything as freewheeling and insane as what they were given. They weren't expecting weirdness and satire. They weren't expecting to see Kong blowing a hot, wet blonde dry after a dip in a lake (metaphors anyone?),a scene simultaneously erotic and ridiculous. They weren't expecting to see the captured Kong turned in to a corporate shill--is there any scene in mainstream 70s cinema more surrealistically satiric than that of Kong being presented to the masses encased in a thirty story replica of a gasoline pump? They also were not expecting to see a big budget adventure film with a downer ending--the romantic leads ending up emotionally separated by their experiences instead of united. And they didn't expect to feel bad when the monster died.

So I put it to you all that not only was the 1976 Kong a financial success, it was also an artistic success. But you can't watch it as a remake of a classic film. It is no more a remake of the 1933 King Kong than Quentin's Kill Bill is a remake of Sonny Chiba's Streetfighter's Revenge. Watch the film for what it is, not what you think it should have been, or what you wanted it to be, and you will be better able to appreciate its cracked brilliance.

Oil executive Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) leads an expedition to a cloud shrouded island in the Indian Ocean. He thinks the cloud is from huge deposits of hydrocarbons. Primate paleontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) stowaway on the ship and tells them that the cloud is caused by an unseen creature. On the way to lock up Prescott, they rescue unconscious starlet wannabe Dwan (Jessica Lange) on a life raft. Wilson brings Prescott and Dwan on shore. They are confronted by a primitive tribe who then kidnaps Dwan to be sacrificed to the great ape.

I like the change of the expedition to oil exploration. However they kept Dwan as a flaky starlet. Jessica Lange is absolutely beautiful and she's funny at times. However she's way too flighty and I can see criticism of her acting. I guess it's impossible back in the day to have her be a scientist. Nevertheless it's stupid to have her be literally the damsel in distress. The special effects are basically an ape suit and well shoot cinematography. The giant ape hand looks way too mechanical. The best part is King Kong rolling the tree. While it's great to have the World Trade Center, the movie doesn't take full advantage of its height to instill fear. This is a passable light weight remake at best. It just has too many problems to be great.