King Kong

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King Kong

PG-13

2005

2h 59m

Adventure

Action

Fantasy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

84%

Tomatometer

267 Reviews

50%

Popcornmeter

250,000+ Ratings

Peter Jackson's expansive remake of the 1933 classic follows director Carl Denham (Jack Black) and his crew on a journey from New York City to the ominous Skull Island to film a new movie. Accompanying him are playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) and actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), who is whisked away by the monstrous ape, Kong, after they reach the island. The crew encounters dinosaurs and other creatures as they race to rescue Ann, while the actress forms a bond with her simian captor.

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Critics Consensus

Featuring state-of-the-art special effects, terrific performances, and a majestic sense of spectacle, Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong is a potent epic that's faithful to the spirit of the 1933 original.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

05/29/2011

It clocks in at over three hours, but Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic is gripping nonetheless.

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David Ansen

Newsweek

11/01/2007

Kong is a showy, state-of-the-art popcorn movie, faithful to the spirit of the 1933 original but generously adrenalized with the best effects money can buy.

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Kim Newman

Sight & Sound

09/28/2006

Despite admirable chest thumping and Watts' wonderfully enhanced scream, there is still only one true king.

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Andrea Thompson

Inverse

Dec 18

Gleefully reveling in the three hour runtime, the 2005 King Kong builds up its human cast, giving each of them backstories and arcs that each of us get invested in, however unwilling we are in some cases.

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Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

09/27/2023

4.5/5

Peter Jackson draws on the original 1933 classic in his 2005 remake of King Kong and the film is every bit the epic that one would expect.

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Arnold Wayne Jones

Texas Triangle/TXT

05/07/2023

3.5/4

The visual effects are glorious -- a circus of cliffhanging suspense sequences that go on and on and on. But rather than just padding the story with gummy exposition and silly action, Jackson delves deeply into the psychology of the characters.

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prawnda S

6d

decent cast besides jack black. the biodiversity and creature design is quite nice as well. i think that the sound and visual direction can be inconsistent, though. many of the scenes with kong are all motion blur and grunting and screaming, and this makes the scenes everyone came to see the worst part of the film, hands down. when the pace is more stable and focused on the humans, it's much more enjoyable. the cgi holds up unless it comes to interacting with real cast members: chase and fight scenes constantly include creatures gingerly tiptoeing around actors or running at ludicrously slow speeds in ways that just dont physically make sense. if you want your cast to narrowly dodge a giant foot stepping on them, they have to react to their circumstances so that the creature can look threatening, but this is so obviously green screened. to compare to lotr: the cave troll and oliphants had basically no such issues.

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Zeazy-Z Z

@Lorenzo420 Jan 31

First mysterious, then thrilling action with all sorts of forsaken monstrocities, and then, surprisingly touching ending. Emotional, great epic story, easily one of the better movies made

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Will D.

@WarMageWill Jan 9

Brilliant plot, exceptional performances, and a pleasant depiction of “the monster with feelings” trope that I’ve come to hate.

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DZ E

@Ziggy88z Jan 4

85/100 that's a big ass monkey.

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Forat A

@DKCountryYT67 Dec 28

King Kong has RETURNED, this movie holds a dear place in my heart as this movie shows the world King Kong has life in CGI and the skull island was amazing as well, The bug scene shows the horrors and makes a nod to the 1933 film as it was cut from the original 1933 film. And Jack Black was killing it, like how those planes were killing King Kong.

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Kevin D

@Kevinizon Dec 5

Dreadful. Long, repetitive, terribly plotted. Thin characters. Just a painful, drawn-out affair, wrapped up as Peter Jackson Genius. Its not. Its a slog.

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Peter Jackson

Director

Naomi Watts

Ann Darrow

Jack Black

Carl Denham

Adrien Brody

Jack Driscoll

Thomas Kretschmann

Cap. Englehorn

Colin Hanks

Preston

King Kong: Official Clip - Giant Bug Attack

2:57

King Kong: Official Clip - Human Sacrifice

2:59

King Kong: Official Clip - Dinosaur Stampede

2:56

King Kong: Official Movie Clip - Kong Battles the T-Rexes

2:57

King Kong: Official Clip - Kong's Rampage

2:54

King Kong: Official Clip - Climbing the Empire State Building

2:17

King Kong: Official Clip - The Fall of Kong

1:45

King Kong: Official Clip - Kong Rescues Ann

1:42

King Kong: Official Clip - Ice Skating in Central Park

1:34

King Kong: Official Clip - Kong Battles the Airplanes

2:39

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Synopsis

Peter Jackson's expansive remake of the 1933 classic follows director Carl Denham (Jack Black) and his crew on a journey from New York City to the ominous Skull Island to film a new movie. Accompanying him are playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) and actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), who is whisked away by the monstrous ape, Kong, after they reach the island. The crew encounters dinosaurs and other creatures as they race to rescue Ann, while the actress forms a bond with her simian captor.

Director: Peter Jackson
Producer: Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Fran Walsh
Screenwriter: Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace, Philippa Boyens
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (Some Disturbing Images|Frightening Adventure Violence)
Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 14, 2005, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $218.1M
Runtime: 2h 59m
Sound Mix: Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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