The premise of "Triple Frontier," (** OUT OF ****) Netflix's limited theatrical release about retired special-ops who rob a South American drug trafficker, sounded promising. "All is Lost" director J.C. Chandor and Oscar-winning "Hurt Locker" scenarist Mark Boal focus on a team of sympathetic, hard-luck, military types who should appeal to any red-blooded connoisseur of American action cinema. Furthermore, these heroes see this mission as their chance to start over. Despite their faithful military service to Uncle Sam, they received neither proper recognition nor sufficient compensation. Now, they embark on a campaign to plunder millions in blood money from a notorious narcotics honcho. Everything boils down to black and white simplicity. Our heroes are cut from the same clichés as Sylvester Stallone's far more seasoned cronies in the "The Expendables" trilogy, and they do come loaded for bear. Nevertheless, these guys behave like amateurs, compounding one mistake after another, and undermining their own best efforts. Since the good guys must be sympathetic, the villains must be repugnant. Cartel drug traffickers qualify as ideal heavies. Reviled in real life as much as on the screen, they kill without a qualm and hold nothing sacred. They deserve to die a thousand times. Our heroes should be virtuously white, while the villains should be shady as sin. Comparably, James Brolin led a group of amateurs on a similar mission in "High Risk" (1981), but everybody survived with their loot intact for a triumphant finale. "Triple Frontier" had potential, but it wastes its powerhouse cast (Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal) in a hackneyed hokum about the malevolence of greed. Like we don't know the corrosive nature of greed. Presumably, Chandor and Boal must have cut their teeth on the Humphrey Bogart classic "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) because "Triple Frontier" contains a similar storyline. Unfortunately, this escapist oriented, testosterone-laden tale turns sour in Chandor and Boal's hands. Imagine what "The Expendables" might have been if they lost, and you may pass up watching "Triple Frontier."
Technically, "Triple Frontier" is a crime movie instead of an adventure epic. Our heroes initiate a home invasion and loot a wealthy cartel mobster's premises. Initially, they search without success for his safe, until it dawns on them the house is the safe! Meantime, since the villain lives beyond the law, he cannot blow the whistle on them without running the risk of the authorities intervening. Greed enters the picture, and our heroes take too many duffels of loot. Until the 1970s, Hollywood maintained a strict censorship policy that crooks never delight in their ill-gotten gains. This policy was part of a larger rule Hollywood struggled to enforce: Crime must not pay! When the Clint Eastwood & Jeff Bridges heist caper "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot" (1974) came out, the studios gave these criminals greater flexibility, but not without the usual life and death consequences. In "Triple Frontier," we are rooting for our heroes to haul off millions when we realize they've completely lost their minds. Poor planning sabotages their heist. Indeed, they pull off the robbery, but pulling off the getaway is something else. Stallone and his "Expendables" cohorts would have gotten clean away, but these loose cannons must pay the piper. "Triple Frontier" takes a tragic turn around its 90-minute mark, and you have to ponder whether you want to shed a tear for this band of clowns-in-camouflage. Naturally, The character with the greatest amount to lose inevitably gets it. This kind of old-fashioned morality takes the joy out of what could have been an audacious adventure epic. During the getaway section, our heroes behave like trigger-happy amateurs. They find themselves against odds even more incredible than those of the cartel. Primarily, they find themselves at the mercy of the local population. The getaway occurs in sprawling, spectacular, mountainous scenery, with Hawaii standing in splendidly for Brazil. Our heroes exfiltrate in a wobbly helicopter with their ill-gotten gains dangling beneath it in a cargo net. Foolishly, they have loaded more than the chopper can accommodate and fly over the Andes Mountains. They disintegrate into their own worst enemy.
"Triple Frontier" gets off to a promising start as Chandor and Boal introduce the heroes and their particular predicament that has prompted them to commit a crime. The chief protagonist is Santiago 'Pope' Garcia (Oscar Isaac of "A Most Violent Year"), and he is a private military contractor who coordinates drug busts with the local authorities. Pope has a confidential informant, Yovanna (Adria Arjona of "Pacific Rim: Uprising"), and she knows the whereabouts of the local drug trafficker. She also knows that he has concealed millions in his walls. She provides Pope with everything he needs to know about this despicably murderous narco. Pope enlists four of his old service buddies and outlines a scenario that each of them could tote off duffels stuffed with multi-millions in cash. Eventually, Pope consults Tom 'Redfly' Davis (Ben Affleck of "The Town") and asks him to draft a combat plan. Reluctantly, Davis designs a scheme with a timetable. Pope persuades a pilot, Francisco 'Catfish' Morales (Pedro Pascal of "The Equalizer 2"), to fly them across the Andes to a ship on the coast. After Davis agrees to accompany them, William 'Ironhead' Miller (Charlie Hunnam of "King Arthur") signs on, and his little brother, MMA fighter Ben Miller (Garrett Hedlund of "TRON: Legacy"), joins them. Afterward, everything goes sideways. Greed overrides good sense, and one of the five takes a fatal bullet in the head. "Triple Frontier" never recovers from the tragic death of this character. In part, he brought it on himself. At this point, our heroes whine like knuckle-heads who bit off more than they could chew and are choking on their own greed. The performances are uniformly robust, but the filmmakers have given each actor little to work with to make their respective characters memorable, for example, like "The Magnificent Seven." If you're hoping for thrills and chills, "Triple Frontier" provides few.
CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.
Showing posts with label jungle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jungle. Show all posts
Monday, April 22, 2019
Thursday, May 10, 2012
FILM REVIEW OF ''THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU" (1996)
Sitting through “Prophecy” director John Frankenheimer’s
pretentious, half-baked, horror fantasy “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” (** out of ****) starring Oscar-winning actor Marlon Brando
and Val Kilmer, may be enough to turn anybody into an animal. Presumably, the financial success of genetic thrillers such as “Jurassic Park” and “Species” prompted producer
Edward R. Pressmen to reanimate H.G. Wells’ literary classic for its third
rendition. Ironically, this deeply
flawed but imaginatively updated version suffers a fate similar to that of the
genetic mutants created by the titular villain on his remote island.
The movie opens on three plane crash survivors who have been
adrift in the Java Sea for days. Two of
them are killed by a shark leaving our hero, Edward Douglas (David Thewlis of “Naked”),
a United Nations peace negotiator.
Douglas awakens to the sight of a sailing vessel hovering over him. He collapses from exhaustion and reawakens to
find Montgomery (Val Kilmer of “Tombstone”) attending him. Douglas is too weak to do anything more than
swoon. Eventually, the ship deposits
them at an exotic island where the research center of Dr. Moreau is
located. Montgomery persuades Douglas to
join him; on the basis that they have a telecommunications system on the island
that Douglas can use to contact the UN. As
we soon learn, however, Montgomery is lying.
The island is actually the home and refuge of Dr. Moreau, a brilliant
geneticist who was forced into seclusion due to his controversial experiments
on animals. Moreau has learned how to
transform common animals into human beings, or almost human beings.
Douglas finds himself trapped on the island, surrounded by
Moreau’s beastly creations. He tries to
escape several times to no avail. First,
he stumbles in on an ungodly birth scene, and then finds himself in a half-man,
half-animal zoo at an abandoned military airfield. Finally, Douglas meets Moreau. They argue about which way the scales of
morality should tilt and dredge up Biblical passages to support their
arguments. Moreau tries to explain how
his experiments will help mankind. He reveals
that he has discovered that the devil is a collection of genes. Moreau means to sort out those bad genes and
produce an ideal human. He is even
willing to accept a failure or two along the road to success, which accounts
for the vast number of beast-men. Moreau
keeps these ugly creatures under his thumb by means of implants which he uses to
shock them into paralysis. Meanwhile,
Montgomery keeps the creatures dazed and confused with narcotics.
A similar air of mystery surrounds Val Kilmer’s
Montgomery. Montgomery gravitates
between moments of extreme clarity and apathetic zombie like drug dazes. Either the script is purposefully vague or
(more realistically) the editors sheared Kilmer’s performance to reduce the
film’s running time to 90 minutes so they could squeeze in more showings and
parlay a quick profit. Ultimately,
Montgomery assumes a Lucifer-like character in his apparent rivalry with
Moreau. Again, the script doesn’t
clarify this part of the story. Is
Montgomery Moreau’s rival? We never know
for certain.
Audiences are meant to identify with the David Thewlis’
narrator. Incidentally, Thewlis replaced
actor Rob Morrow of CBS-TV’s “Northern Exposure.” As Douglas, Thewlis is required to make his
eyes bulge and to act in a manner that makes him appear ineffectually wimpy.
The Stanley & Hutchinson screenplay doesn’t allow Thewlis to cut the heroic
profile that Michael York did in the 1977 version of “The Island of Doctor
Moreau” with Burt Lancaster as the eponymous character. The best that Thewlis can do is fire
ill-aimed bullets at the rowdy beasts.
The trouble with this take on Wells classic is that movie
audiences may find themselves frustrated because the only sympathetic character
is a dud. Thewlis does hold his own in
his confrontations with Moreau as they argue about morality. Moreau alleges that they has found evil and
resolves to destroy it. In destroying
it, Moreau has recreated evil in his own warped image. The atmospheric photography by William Fraker
makes “Moreau” both fun and interesting to gaze at for long stretches. Fraker lensed the action on location in sunny
Australia. In fact, “Moreau” looks as god
as any movie that Frankenheimer has directed. The 66-year old director carved
out his reputation back in the 1960s with classics such as “The Manchurian Candidate,”
“Seven Days in May,” “Grand Prix,” and “Seconds.” In his 1979 thriller “Prophecy,”
Frankenheimer explored the theme of wildlife gone crazy because of polluted
streams so he brings considerably artistry and some knowledge about the
genetics in “Dr. Moreau.”
Sunday, August 8, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF ''RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, PART 2" (1985)
This explosive, high-octane sequel to "First Blood" (1982) qualifies as a brawny, action-adventure epic that finds our troubled, misunderstood hero pressed back into service to return to Vietnam and search for missing American P.O.W.s still reputed to be in captivity. Originally, director Ted Kotcheff's "First Blood" depicted the trials and tribulations that a former Green Beret encounters when he came home from Vietnam and clashes with an obnoxious, hard-headed sheriff. “First Blood” was derived from author David Morrell’s cult novel. Eventually, after a high body count, John J. Rambo surrenders to the authorities. Whereas "First Blood" emerged as largely tragic, "Rambo: First Blood, Part 2" is primarily heroic. The film generated some controversy during its release with its contentious subject matter about surviving American P.O.W.s left behind in Vietnam. Surprisingly, “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2” did not create the ‘free the American P.O.W.s. Ironically, the film that did create this niche genre was Kotcheff’s “Uncommon Value” that came out two years before “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2.” Nevertheless, this “Rambo” sequel attracted more attention. Moreover, this sequel is a lot more charismatic because the James Cameron & Sylvester Stallone screenplay based on a story by “Tombstone” scribe Kevin Jarre deals mostly in black and white with fewer gray areas of subtlety. Remember, this is a formulaic actioneer with titanic archetypical characters competing against each other. This time Rambo is the white-all-over good guy protagonist battling overwhelming odds amid fantastic looking scenery. He wields his trusty knife as well as throwing blades, RPGs, explosive-tipped arrows, and a helicopter. One scene sums up Rambo's ideas about weaponry. He states: "I thought the mind was the best weapon." The villains are appropriately treacherous and savage, especially British actor Steven Berkoff as the sadistic Soviet colonel who tortures our hero and George Cheung as the North Vietnamese officer who kills the heroine.
As "Rambo: First Blood, Part 2" opens, Rambo is shown in prison. At least, he assures his visitor and mentor Colonel Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna of "Catlow") that he knows where he stands behind bars. Colonel Trautman makes him a proposition that will get him out of stir and back into the real world. After Rambo returns to Southeast Asia for the mission, he doesn't like the head honcho, Marshall Murdock (square-jawed Charles Napier of “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”), because he doesn't trust him. Murdock claims that he served in Vietnam, but Rambo remembers Murdock's outfit being stationed somewhere else than where Murdock said. Before Rambo boards the jet that will take him to his destination, he informs Trautman that he is the only one whom he trusts. Afterwards, things go downhill rapidly. Rambo lugs an arsenal of sophisticated weapons aboard the jet. When he bails out, his parachute cord snags on the fuselage and jeopardizes his life. Consequently, our hero must resort to his razor-sharp knife to slash his way free of the plane. Of course, Rambo sacrifices that valuable, state-of-the-art arsenal, so he can survive and carry out the mission. Remember, he was instructed only to take photographs of the P.O.W.s. Incidentally, a similar plot complication occurred earlier in director Ted Kotcheff’s rescue-the-P.O.W.s-from Vietnam movie “Uncommon Valor” (1983) with Gene Hackman. The heroes lost their arsenal and had to improvise. At this point, Murdock wants to abort the mission, but Trautman won't let him. Meanwhile, Rambo makes his rendezvous after a little jaunt through the jungle and a brief encounter with a snake hanging from a tree. Rambo meets up with Co Bao (Julia Nickson of “Glitch!”) and she takes him to a river where pirates working for pay ferry them upriver. Since Rambo has lost his equipment, he cannot carry out his mission of photographing the P.O.W.s. Obstinately, Rambo slips into the camp and cuts loose one P.O.W. hanging from a rack. Our muscular protagonist hauls the P.O.W. off to the extraction point. Initially, Murdock is against flying in to retrieve Rambo, but Trautman puts up enough flak to convince him to go ahead with the flight. What happens next surprises not only Trautman but also Rambo. Murdock aborts the pick-up as Rambo and the P.O.W. stand on a hillside surrounded with Vietnamese soldiers. Predictably, Trautman is furious and calls both Ericson (Martin Kove of "The Karate Kid") and Banks (Andy Woods of "The Annihilators") "goddamned mercenaries."
The Vietnamese call in the Russians to interrogate Rambo. Little do they know that Rambo has been awarded a number of honors for his bravery, including two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars, four Purple Hearts, Distinguished Service Cross, and a Congressional Medal of Honor. Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky (Steven Berkoff of “Octopussy”) confines our hero to a massive set of bed springs and fries him repeatedly with jolts of electricity. To make this scene and its torture more visually palatable for audiences, Cosmatos uses the venerable prison movie tactic of showing the lights dim with each successive jolt of electricity. Podovsky wants Rambo to confess his crimes, but Rambo has other ideas. Interestingly, Podovsky is the only one of Rambo’s adversaries who speaks in English. Meanwhile, Co Bao infiltrates the prison camp posing as a prostitute. Earlier, before Rambo and Co Bao sneaked into the camp, they saw a prostitute on a motor scooter enter the camp, so she uses this as her cover to get inside the barbed wire and rescue Rambo. Rambo warns Murdock that he is coming after him and escapes with Co Bao. Tragedy strikes not long afterward when Capt Vinh guns down Co Bao. Rambo wipes out the killers and buries Co Bao, but he wears her jade necklace. No sooner has Rambo avenged Co Bao’s death than Sergeant Yushin shows up in a Huey with a fire bomb that he drops at the water fall. The skies turn orange with the explosions that send Rambo diving into the water. The Huey descends to strafe the water and Rambo surprises them. He leaps up out of the water and jumps aboard the chopper. The chopper pilot panics and takes the helicopter back up. Sergeant Yuskin and Rambo slug it out, but Rambo manages to throw the Soviet non-com out of the chopper. The Soviet chopper pilot bails out before Rambo can lay his hands on him. Rambo commandeers the chopper and flies it back to the prison camp. He riddles the camp with gunfire and explosives and then lands to nelp get the six P.O.W.s out. A Soviet soldier laying dead in the high grass is really playing possum. He whips up his assault rifle and wounds one of the P.O.W.s before Rambo finishes him off.
James Cameron has gone on record and said that Stallone rewrote his screenplay and added the political brouhaha about the missing P.O.W.s. Reportedly, in the Cameron version, Rambo was incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital rather than a prison, Jerry Goldsmith's splendid orchestral score puts sizzle into the action. Interestingly enough, “Exorcist” sound effects editor Fred J. Brown received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound Effects Editing for “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2.” Director George P. Cosmatos doesn’t waste a second in this trim 94-minute exercise in larger-than-life violence, while “Conan the Destroyer” lenser Jack Cardiff captures all the gritty, muddy, visceral action with his widescreen cameras. Cosmatos states on the “Rambo 2” commentary track that he tried to inject as much movement as he could into the action and his crane shots exemplified this strategy. According to Cosmatos, a hurricane halted exterior production sequences, so he holed up in the motel with his cast and crew and shot many of the close-ups that pervade the film. Indeed, there are numerous close-ups and Cosmatos claims that these close-ups give the film its impact and strength. Editors Mark Goldblatt of “Terminator” and Mark Helfrich of “Predator” were two of the five editors that assembled the film and made copious use of Cosmatos’ inserts and close-up shots. The close-ups and insert shots are seamlessly integrated into the action and provide a sense of visual rhythm that makes the film more engaging than it might have been. “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2” features many iconic scenes for this type of movie. The helicopter attack on the prisoner-of-war camp is an exciting, adrenalin-laced sequence with multiple cameras covering the action as our hero strafes the camp and blows up guards. Later, Rambo’s helicopter squares off with the chief adversary who flies an imposing helicopter. The most incredible scene, however, in “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2” is the scene aboard a river ferry where our battle-scarred hero kisses an Asian girl. Rambo never locked lips with anybody in either “First Blood” or any of the other “Rambo” sequels. According to IMDB.COM, the body count is The total body count of the film is 67, 57 of whom Rambo kills.
As "Rambo: First Blood, Part 2" opens, Rambo is shown in prison. At least, he assures his visitor and mentor Colonel Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna of "Catlow") that he knows where he stands behind bars. Colonel Trautman makes him a proposition that will get him out of stir and back into the real world. After Rambo returns to Southeast Asia for the mission, he doesn't like the head honcho, Marshall Murdock (square-jawed Charles Napier of “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”), because he doesn't trust him. Murdock claims that he served in Vietnam, but Rambo remembers Murdock's outfit being stationed somewhere else than where Murdock said. Before Rambo boards the jet that will take him to his destination, he informs Trautman that he is the only one whom he trusts. Afterwards, things go downhill rapidly. Rambo lugs an arsenal of sophisticated weapons aboard the jet. When he bails out, his parachute cord snags on the fuselage and jeopardizes his life. Consequently, our hero must resort to his razor-sharp knife to slash his way free of the plane. Of course, Rambo sacrifices that valuable, state-of-the-art arsenal, so he can survive and carry out the mission. Remember, he was instructed only to take photographs of the P.O.W.s. Incidentally, a similar plot complication occurred earlier in director Ted Kotcheff’s rescue-the-P.O.W.s-from Vietnam movie “Uncommon Valor” (1983) with Gene Hackman. The heroes lost their arsenal and had to improvise. At this point, Murdock wants to abort the mission, but Trautman won't let him. Meanwhile, Rambo makes his rendezvous after a little jaunt through the jungle and a brief encounter with a snake hanging from a tree. Rambo meets up with Co Bao (Julia Nickson of “Glitch!”) and she takes him to a river where pirates working for pay ferry them upriver. Since Rambo has lost his equipment, he cannot carry out his mission of photographing the P.O.W.s. Obstinately, Rambo slips into the camp and cuts loose one P.O.W. hanging from a rack. Our muscular protagonist hauls the P.O.W. off to the extraction point. Initially, Murdock is against flying in to retrieve Rambo, but Trautman puts up enough flak to convince him to go ahead with the flight. What happens next surprises not only Trautman but also Rambo. Murdock aborts the pick-up as Rambo and the P.O.W. stand on a hillside surrounded with Vietnamese soldiers. Predictably, Trautman is furious and calls both Ericson (Martin Kove of "The Karate Kid") and Banks (Andy Woods of "The Annihilators") "goddamned mercenaries."
The Vietnamese call in the Russians to interrogate Rambo. Little do they know that Rambo has been awarded a number of honors for his bravery, including two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars, four Purple Hearts, Distinguished Service Cross, and a Congressional Medal of Honor. Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky (Steven Berkoff of “Octopussy”) confines our hero to a massive set of bed springs and fries him repeatedly with jolts of electricity. To make this scene and its torture more visually palatable for audiences, Cosmatos uses the venerable prison movie tactic of showing the lights dim with each successive jolt of electricity. Podovsky wants Rambo to confess his crimes, but Rambo has other ideas. Interestingly, Podovsky is the only one of Rambo’s adversaries who speaks in English. Meanwhile, Co Bao infiltrates the prison camp posing as a prostitute. Earlier, before Rambo and Co Bao sneaked into the camp, they saw a prostitute on a motor scooter enter the camp, so she uses this as her cover to get inside the barbed wire and rescue Rambo. Rambo warns Murdock that he is coming after him and escapes with Co Bao. Tragedy strikes not long afterward when Capt Vinh guns down Co Bao. Rambo wipes out the killers and buries Co Bao, but he wears her jade necklace. No sooner has Rambo avenged Co Bao’s death than Sergeant Yushin shows up in a Huey with a fire bomb that he drops at the water fall. The skies turn orange with the explosions that send Rambo diving into the water. The Huey descends to strafe the water and Rambo surprises them. He leaps up out of the water and jumps aboard the chopper. The chopper pilot panics and takes the helicopter back up. Sergeant Yuskin and Rambo slug it out, but Rambo manages to throw the Soviet non-com out of the chopper. The Soviet chopper pilot bails out before Rambo can lay his hands on him. Rambo commandeers the chopper and flies it back to the prison camp. He riddles the camp with gunfire and explosives and then lands to nelp get the six P.O.W.s out. A Soviet soldier laying dead in the high grass is really playing possum. He whips up his assault rifle and wounds one of the P.O.W.s before Rambo finishes him off.
James Cameron has gone on record and said that Stallone rewrote his screenplay and added the political brouhaha about the missing P.O.W.s. Reportedly, in the Cameron version, Rambo was incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital rather than a prison, Jerry Goldsmith's splendid orchestral score puts sizzle into the action. Interestingly enough, “Exorcist” sound effects editor Fred J. Brown received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound Effects Editing for “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2.” Director George P. Cosmatos doesn’t waste a second in this trim 94-minute exercise in larger-than-life violence, while “Conan the Destroyer” lenser Jack Cardiff captures all the gritty, muddy, visceral action with his widescreen cameras. Cosmatos states on the “Rambo 2” commentary track that he tried to inject as much movement as he could into the action and his crane shots exemplified this strategy. According to Cosmatos, a hurricane halted exterior production sequences, so he holed up in the motel with his cast and crew and shot many of the close-ups that pervade the film. Indeed, there are numerous close-ups and Cosmatos claims that these close-ups give the film its impact and strength. Editors Mark Goldblatt of “Terminator” and Mark Helfrich of “Predator” were two of the five editors that assembled the film and made copious use of Cosmatos’ inserts and close-up shots. The close-ups and insert shots are seamlessly integrated into the action and provide a sense of visual rhythm that makes the film more engaging than it might have been. “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2” features many iconic scenes for this type of movie. The helicopter attack on the prisoner-of-war camp is an exciting, adrenalin-laced sequence with multiple cameras covering the action as our hero strafes the camp and blows up guards. Later, Rambo’s helicopter squares off with the chief adversary who flies an imposing helicopter. The most incredible scene, however, in “Rambo: First Blood, Part 2” is the scene aboard a river ferry where our battle-scarred hero kisses an Asian girl. Rambo never locked lips with anybody in either “First Blood” or any of the other “Rambo” sequels. According to IMDB.COM, the body count is The total body count of the film is 67, 57 of whom Rambo kills.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''JURASSIC PARK 3" (2002)
“Jurassic Park 3” (*1/2 out of ****) doesn’t take itself seriously like its predecessors and neither should you. Director Steven Spielberg and bestselling author Michael Crichton, who collaborated on the superlative “Jurassic Park” (1993) and its knockout sequel “The Lost World (1997), had something to say about scientists who play God and the dangers of cloning. (I’m not given to handing out high praise to anything Spielberg does, but the first two “Jurassic Park” epics, like “Jaws,” are exceptions to the rule.) Sadly, Spielberg and Crichton had nothing to do with this sequel, and former “Star Wars” art director Joe Johnston of “October Sky” (1999), “The Rocketeer” (1991), and “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” (1989) replaced Spielberg at the helm. You’d think Johnston’s experience on “Jumanji” (1995) where zoo animals stomped everything in sight, would have made him the ideal candidate. Unfortunately, it didn’t. You can count the major differences between Johnston’s “Jurassic Park” and Spielberg’s “Jurassic Parks” in minutes. “JP3” clocks in at about 90 minutes, while both Spielberg epics exceeded two hours. Although it isn’t as pretentious—we’ll say—as the first two movies, “JP3” relies far more on humor than horror to its detriment.
This lukewarm, less-than-savage installment in the cloned-dinosaurs-run-amok series makes references to its predecessors that only hardcore, nitpicking “Jurassic Park” fans could catch. The joke about Jack Horner was cute. The dinosaurs are just as menacing, even though bloodthirsty moviegoers may feel cheated. (Imagine what Italian gorefest cult director Lucio Fulci would have done with a “Jurassic Park” movie.) Missing this time around is ‘chaos theoretician’ Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum of “Independence Day”), who enlivened both the original and the follow-up with his sarcasm. Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill of “Jurassic Park”), who skipped out on “The Lost World,” returns as the dullest of dull heroes, while Grant’s former colleague Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern of “October Sky”) reappears in a welcome cameo. Grant visits her in the opening scene and finds her happily married to a U.S. State Department official with a toddler son and baby daughter. Before she waves goodbye, Ellie reminds Grant to call her if he ever needs her help. Predictably, freshman scenarist Peter Buchman, along with writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor of “Election” and “Citizen Ruth” don’t let her welsh on her promise. Film scriptwriting manuals classify this as ‘foreshadowing,’ setting up some future action so it doesn’t appear to haphazardly pop up out of the blue.
Basically, “JP3” follows the formula that “Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” created with greater detail and daring. Reportedly, after Johnston perused the shooting script, he tore it up and ordered rushed rewrites. If this was the best they could contrive, no wonder “JP3” is so forgettable. Not only did “The Lost World” raise the stakes, but it also surpassed the original with its thrills and chills. Clearly, the third time wasn’t the charm. “Jurassic Park 3” is as pedestrian as “Jaws 3.” If you’ve seen the others, you know Laura Dern’s cameo at the outset is standard “Jurassic Park” practice. In “The Lost World,” Malcolm reunited briefly with John Hammond (Richard Attenborough of “The Great Escape”) and his grandchildren: Timothy ‘Tim’ Murphy (Joseph Mazzello) and Alexis ‘Lex’ Murphy (Ariana Richards) in an early scene. Children cannot die in the “Jurassic Park” franchise. Neither apparently can mother nor fathers. So much for suspense. Like “Jurassic Park,” “Jurassic Park 3 has our desperate heroes plundering piles of dinosaur dung in search of a satellite phone that could serve as their salvation. That stinking satellite phone infuriated me initially when I heard it ring. I figured that some fool had left their cell phone ringer on in the theatre! Nevertheless, Sarah Harding owned a tattered camera bag she called her lucky bag, just as Belly Brennan sorts a similar camera bag. The scene where Tea Leoni hangs from a tree as ravenous raptors leap up at her alludes to the kitchen scene near the end of “Jurassic Park.” Instead of being jostling about in small recreational vehicles, Dr. Grant finds himself slammed around in the wrecked fuselage of a plane by a dinosaur. This scene lacks the sheer terror of the T-Rex’s introduction in “Jurassic Park” and doesn’t generate the suspense of “The Lost World” cliffhanger scene. Billy steals raptor eggs, and the mothers pursue them across Isla Sorna in a variation on “The Lost World” heroes that freed an injured T-Rex baby with a broken leg and found its irate mother pushing their motor home over a cliff. “The Lost World” T-Rexes subjected the motor home to more hair-raising demolition than the “JP3” T-Rex does to the plane. This time around baby Pterodactyls attack a teenager, much as “The Lost World” lizards swarmed after a little rich girl. The major revelation here is the raptors can communicate with each other and might possibly have supplanted primates. Wait, didn’t those same raptors communicate with each other back in “Jurassic Park” in the kitchen scene?
No matter where Dr. Alan Grant lectures, everybody only wants to quiz him about Isla Nublar and the San Diego disaster. He refuses to answer any questions about the first and reminds everybody that he wasn’t around when the dinosaurs stormed the California mainland. He insists fossils still provide the only legitimate source of information for paleontologists. “No force on Earth or Heaven will get me back on that island,” vows an incredulous Grant when tycoon Paul Kirby (William H. Macy of “Fargo”) and his ex-wife Amanda (Tea Leoni of “Deep Impact”) wave their checkbooks at him. No, we never learn what price Dr. Grant put on his services. While this dearth of information is deplorable, had we known Grant’s fee we might have felt less sympathetic toward him. All the Kirbys want him for is to serve as their guide as they fly over Isla Sorna, where “The Lost World” took place, and snap pictures of the wildlife. Paul assures him his import/export business contacts have cleared their flight with Costa Rican authorities to fly closer than anybody since the hurricane swept the island. Reluctantly, Grant changes his mind when his new assistant Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola of “Face/Off”) reminds him that they need funds to maintain their latest archeological expedition. Grant realizes his error when they land on the island. By the time he regains his wits they have landed. Watching them knock Grant out make him appear even more sympathetic. Kirby’s crew consists of Udesky (Michael Jeter of “The Green Mile”), the big-gun toting Cooper (John Diehl of “Pearl Harbor”) and pilot Nash (Bruce A. Young of “Trepass”). These expendables should have worn numbered jerseys in the order of their deaths by dinosaur. Anybody who has seen John Diehl in anything knows that he has become strictly a bit player since being one of the back-up narcotics partners in “Miami Vice.”
Director Joe Johnston misses the mark with “Jurassic Park 3.” Every movie he has helmed since “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” has been an improvement. Unfortunately, along with an abysmal, cut-rate script, Johnston never establishes the proper tone of terror. The talking dinosaur in Dr. Grant’s nightmare gets things off on the wrong foot. Tea Leoni’s ad nauseam scream sequence when a decaying skeleton dangles from a tree in classic textbook horror fashion struck me as a bad Mantan Moreland impersonation. She spends too much time dancing in revulsion. The scenarists shoulder part of the blame for their predictable, uninspired screenplay. Of course, the characters least attached to the audience die first. Neither Johnston nor his scribes spring a surprise until the abruptly quirky conclusion. Don’t look for character depth or development. The filmmakers didn’t have enough time. Obviously, violence was curbed for a family friendly PG-13 rating. Johnston never focuses on a death scene after the first chomp and keeps the aftermath pretty spotless. Munched bodies don’t bleed; though our heroes do extract human bones from dinosaur dung. Instead, to his credit, Johnston keeps the action moving at a gallop. Ultimately, “Jurassic Park 3” degenerates into a mediocre “The Most Dangerous Game: rehash with the dinosaurs stalking humans rather like a big game hunter stalking a human. Universal Studios must have blown the better part of their budget on the dinosaurs because “Jurassic Park 3” looks almost as low tech as “Alien3.”
Although Dr. Grant fires a flare gun once to distract a dinosaur, nobody packs a real gun for any length of time. The plot boils down to a series of random encounters in the jungle on their trek to the sea and a boat. Johnston stages none of these scenes with any verve.
Apparently, their 14-year old son Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan of “The Sixth Sense”) and his guardian Ben Hildebrand (TV actor Mark Harelik) disappeared eight weeks ago while paragliding dangerously near Isla Sorna, and the Kirbys have launched an impromptu rescue mission without the consent of Costa Rican officials. Kirby carps about how useless the State Department is, and ironically his complaint comes back to haunt him in the end. Worse, Kirby confesses he is not a millionaire, merely a plumber. When our heroes discover it was a bad idea to land, they try to take off, and a dinosaur knocks their aircraft out of the air. They spend the remaining 75-minutes searching for Eric and dodging ravenous T-Rexes, velociraptors, flying Pteranodons, and a new lethal lizard called a Spinosaurus. Half of the fun of any horror movie is watching the idiots wander off from the main group and imperiling themselves. Nothing drastic enough occurs to get you to talk back to the screen about the characters behavior in “Jurassic Park 3.”
“Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” definitely weren’t for the squeamish, but “Jurassic Park 3” should give nobody nightmares. As in the first two entries, the genetically engineered dinosaurs walk tough, howl vividly, and snap up hapless humans in their jaws. Indeed, the visual effects technology has improved exponentially; sadly, the art of scriptwriting has regressed just as much. Unlike Spielberg, Johnston takes neither the plot nor the stakes to a higher level. Moreover, nothing in “Jurassic Park 3” matches either the T-Rex gobbling up the lawyer, Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero of “Get Shorty”), in the original or the scenes from “The Lost World” where two T-Rexes tore poor Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff) apart. Grant calls Ellie when a real dino tries to chomp and/or drown everybody. Hilariously, her young son delays taking her the phone so he can watch his favorite Barney the Purple Dinosaur episode! The out-of-place Barney scene deflates any suspense and tension that the Site B dinosaur causes as he rips away at a cage housing our heroes. Anybody who thrilled to the first two “Jurassic Park” creature features will probably roll their eyeballs in disbelief at the infantile idiocy of “Jurassic Park 3.”
This lukewarm, less-than-savage installment in the cloned-dinosaurs-run-amok series makes references to its predecessors that only hardcore, nitpicking “Jurassic Park” fans could catch. The joke about Jack Horner was cute. The dinosaurs are just as menacing, even though bloodthirsty moviegoers may feel cheated. (Imagine what Italian gorefest cult director Lucio Fulci would have done with a “Jurassic Park” movie.) Missing this time around is ‘chaos theoretician’ Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum of “Independence Day”), who enlivened both the original and the follow-up with his sarcasm. Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill of “Jurassic Park”), who skipped out on “The Lost World,” returns as the dullest of dull heroes, while Grant’s former colleague Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern of “October Sky”) reappears in a welcome cameo. Grant visits her in the opening scene and finds her happily married to a U.S. State Department official with a toddler son and baby daughter. Before she waves goodbye, Ellie reminds Grant to call her if he ever needs her help. Predictably, freshman scenarist Peter Buchman, along with writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor of “Election” and “Citizen Ruth” don’t let her welsh on her promise. Film scriptwriting manuals classify this as ‘foreshadowing,’ setting up some future action so it doesn’t appear to haphazardly pop up out of the blue.
Basically, “JP3” follows the formula that “Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” created with greater detail and daring. Reportedly, after Johnston perused the shooting script, he tore it up and ordered rushed rewrites. If this was the best they could contrive, no wonder “JP3” is so forgettable. Not only did “The Lost World” raise the stakes, but it also surpassed the original with its thrills and chills. Clearly, the third time wasn’t the charm. “Jurassic Park 3” is as pedestrian as “Jaws 3.” If you’ve seen the others, you know Laura Dern’s cameo at the outset is standard “Jurassic Park” practice. In “The Lost World,” Malcolm reunited briefly with John Hammond (Richard Attenborough of “The Great Escape”) and his grandchildren: Timothy ‘Tim’ Murphy (Joseph Mazzello) and Alexis ‘Lex’ Murphy (Ariana Richards) in an early scene. Children cannot die in the “Jurassic Park” franchise. Neither apparently can mother nor fathers. So much for suspense. Like “Jurassic Park,” “Jurassic Park 3 has our desperate heroes plundering piles of dinosaur dung in search of a satellite phone that could serve as their salvation. That stinking satellite phone infuriated me initially when I heard it ring. I figured that some fool had left their cell phone ringer on in the theatre! Nevertheless, Sarah Harding owned a tattered camera bag she called her lucky bag, just as Belly Brennan sorts a similar camera bag. The scene where Tea Leoni hangs from a tree as ravenous raptors leap up at her alludes to the kitchen scene near the end of “Jurassic Park.” Instead of being jostling about in small recreational vehicles, Dr. Grant finds himself slammed around in the wrecked fuselage of a plane by a dinosaur. This scene lacks the sheer terror of the T-Rex’s introduction in “Jurassic Park” and doesn’t generate the suspense of “The Lost World” cliffhanger scene. Billy steals raptor eggs, and the mothers pursue them across Isla Sorna in a variation on “The Lost World” heroes that freed an injured T-Rex baby with a broken leg and found its irate mother pushing their motor home over a cliff. “The Lost World” T-Rexes subjected the motor home to more hair-raising demolition than the “JP3” T-Rex does to the plane. This time around baby Pterodactyls attack a teenager, much as “The Lost World” lizards swarmed after a little rich girl. The major revelation here is the raptors can communicate with each other and might possibly have supplanted primates. Wait, didn’t those same raptors communicate with each other back in “Jurassic Park” in the kitchen scene?
No matter where Dr. Alan Grant lectures, everybody only wants to quiz him about Isla Nublar and the San Diego disaster. He refuses to answer any questions about the first and reminds everybody that he wasn’t around when the dinosaurs stormed the California mainland. He insists fossils still provide the only legitimate source of information for paleontologists. “No force on Earth or Heaven will get me back on that island,” vows an incredulous Grant when tycoon Paul Kirby (William H. Macy of “Fargo”) and his ex-wife Amanda (Tea Leoni of “Deep Impact”) wave their checkbooks at him. No, we never learn what price Dr. Grant put on his services. While this dearth of information is deplorable, had we known Grant’s fee we might have felt less sympathetic toward him. All the Kirbys want him for is to serve as their guide as they fly over Isla Sorna, where “The Lost World” took place, and snap pictures of the wildlife. Paul assures him his import/export business contacts have cleared their flight with Costa Rican authorities to fly closer than anybody since the hurricane swept the island. Reluctantly, Grant changes his mind when his new assistant Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola of “Face/Off”) reminds him that they need funds to maintain their latest archeological expedition. Grant realizes his error when they land on the island. By the time he regains his wits they have landed. Watching them knock Grant out make him appear even more sympathetic. Kirby’s crew consists of Udesky (Michael Jeter of “The Green Mile”), the big-gun toting Cooper (John Diehl of “Pearl Harbor”) and pilot Nash (Bruce A. Young of “Trepass”). These expendables should have worn numbered jerseys in the order of their deaths by dinosaur. Anybody who has seen John Diehl in anything knows that he has become strictly a bit player since being one of the back-up narcotics partners in “Miami Vice.”
Director Joe Johnston misses the mark with “Jurassic Park 3.” Every movie he has helmed since “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” has been an improvement. Unfortunately, along with an abysmal, cut-rate script, Johnston never establishes the proper tone of terror. The talking dinosaur in Dr. Grant’s nightmare gets things off on the wrong foot. Tea Leoni’s ad nauseam scream sequence when a decaying skeleton dangles from a tree in classic textbook horror fashion struck me as a bad Mantan Moreland impersonation. She spends too much time dancing in revulsion. The scenarists shoulder part of the blame for their predictable, uninspired screenplay. Of course, the characters least attached to the audience die first. Neither Johnston nor his scribes spring a surprise until the abruptly quirky conclusion. Don’t look for character depth or development. The filmmakers didn’t have enough time. Obviously, violence was curbed for a family friendly PG-13 rating. Johnston never focuses on a death scene after the first chomp and keeps the aftermath pretty spotless. Munched bodies don’t bleed; though our heroes do extract human bones from dinosaur dung. Instead, to his credit, Johnston keeps the action moving at a gallop. Ultimately, “Jurassic Park 3” degenerates into a mediocre “The Most Dangerous Game: rehash with the dinosaurs stalking humans rather like a big game hunter stalking a human. Universal Studios must have blown the better part of their budget on the dinosaurs because “Jurassic Park 3” looks almost as low tech as “Alien3.”
Although Dr. Grant fires a flare gun once to distract a dinosaur, nobody packs a real gun for any length of time. The plot boils down to a series of random encounters in the jungle on their trek to the sea and a boat. Johnston stages none of these scenes with any verve.
Apparently, their 14-year old son Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan of “The Sixth Sense”) and his guardian Ben Hildebrand (TV actor Mark Harelik) disappeared eight weeks ago while paragliding dangerously near Isla Sorna, and the Kirbys have launched an impromptu rescue mission without the consent of Costa Rican officials. Kirby carps about how useless the State Department is, and ironically his complaint comes back to haunt him in the end. Worse, Kirby confesses he is not a millionaire, merely a plumber. When our heroes discover it was a bad idea to land, they try to take off, and a dinosaur knocks their aircraft out of the air. They spend the remaining 75-minutes searching for Eric and dodging ravenous T-Rexes, velociraptors, flying Pteranodons, and a new lethal lizard called a Spinosaurus. Half of the fun of any horror movie is watching the idiots wander off from the main group and imperiling themselves. Nothing drastic enough occurs to get you to talk back to the screen about the characters behavior in “Jurassic Park 3.”
“Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” definitely weren’t for the squeamish, but “Jurassic Park 3” should give nobody nightmares. As in the first two entries, the genetically engineered dinosaurs walk tough, howl vividly, and snap up hapless humans in their jaws. Indeed, the visual effects technology has improved exponentially; sadly, the art of scriptwriting has regressed just as much. Unlike Spielberg, Johnston takes neither the plot nor the stakes to a higher level. Moreover, nothing in “Jurassic Park 3” matches either the T-Rex gobbling up the lawyer, Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero of “Get Shorty”), in the original or the scenes from “The Lost World” where two T-Rexes tore poor Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff) apart. Grant calls Ellie when a real dino tries to chomp and/or drown everybody. Hilariously, her young son delays taking her the phone so he can watch his favorite Barney the Purple Dinosaur episode! The out-of-place Barney scene deflates any suspense and tension that the Site B dinosaur causes as he rips away at a cage housing our heroes. Anybody who thrilled to the first two “Jurassic Park” creature features will probably roll their eyeballs in disbelief at the infantile idiocy of “Jurassic Park 3.”
Friday, December 26, 2008
FILM REVIEW OF ''KING KONG'' (1933)
Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack co-directed “King Kong” in 1933 and forged the first gargantuan beast on the rampage classic of the sound era. The success of their super-sized simian spectacle sired countless sequels, remakes, and imitations, notably “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” (1953), “Godzilla, King of the Monsters”
(1954), and “Gorgo” (1961). Reportedly, Cooper’s inspiration for the movie was the vision of a 50-foot ape straddling the highest edifice in the civilized world, the Empire State Building, clashing with a squadron of warplanes. Truly, “King Kong” couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time. America had been wallowing in the doldrums of the Great Depression since the bottom fell out of the Stock Market in 1929. Now, as Frank Delano Roosevelt entered the White House with his promise of New Deal legislation designed to boost the country out of its misery, “King Kong” qualified as a New Deal in filmmaking. Nobody had made a movie about mammoth monsters since Harry Hoyt’s “The Lost World” (1925), based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel about an expedition into an imaginary land of dinosaurs. Special effects technician Willis O’Brien created the stop-motion behemoths for “The Lost World,” and Cooper and Schoedsack hired O’Brien to make their eponymous protagonists. During the 1930s and the 1940s, Hollywood filmmakers produced a number of movies about murderous apes. For example, Robert Florey helmed the Edgar Allan Poe epic “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1932) about a mad scientist who wants to find a white woman as a bride for his ape. “King Kong” amassed the highest opening weekend grosses when it debuted. Reportedly, the receipts from “King Kong” rescued RKO Studios from bankruptcy. The movie coined even more money during its revival in the 1950s.
The James (“The Most Dangerous Game”) Creelman and Ruth (“The Last Days of Pompeii“) Rose screenplay adheres to the basic three-act structure. The first third occurs in the modern metropolis of New York; the second third takes place at sea and later on Skull Island where our protagonists meet Kong. The final third transpires in New York City. “King Kong” opens at night in New York Harbor as a theatrical agent, Charles Weston (Sam Hardy), discusses the ship and Carl Denham with a dock worker. The dock worker identifies the ship as the Venture and labels its voyage ‘crazy.’ He points out that Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong of “G-Men”) is a “crazy fella.” “He ain’t scared of nothing,” he says. The dock worker adds Denham has three times the number of crewmen required for a voyage. “I don’t see where they’re gonna have room enough to sleep.” Jack Driscoll appears on deck and demands to know Weston’s business. Weston identifies himself as Denham’s theatrical agent who was hired to find Denham a woman. Jack invites Weston to board.
Meanwhile, aboard the Venture, Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher of “Topaze”) warns Denham they must soon weigh anchor. “Insurance company found out we’re carrying explosives the Marshal will be aboard tomorrow or the next day.” Denham fears if word leaks about the cargo, they’ll be tied up for months. “With enough ammunition to blow up the harbor,” Englehorn complains, “What do you think the marshal will say to these new gas bombs of yours? According to you, one of them is enough to knock out an elephant.” Denham wants to reach his destination before the monsoon season. The topical rains would delay Denham’s efforts to shoot his movie.
Driscoll and Weston join Denham and Englehorn. Weston is the only theatrical agent left who is willing to find Denham a girl for his new movie. He compliments Denham for being honest. Indeed, Denham has a reputation for completing pictures. Weston points out, however, that Denham also “has a reputation for recklessness that cannot be glossed over.” He laments Denham’s secretive nature. Englehorn agrees. Neither Driscoll nor he knows their destination. Weston boasts about his conscientiousness. “I cannot send a pretty girl such as you ask on a job like this without telling her what to expect.” Weston assures Denham no woman wants to take an unknown trip to somewhere unknown. She would be the only woman on a ship with a crew of the toughest mugs alive. Denham defends his record and reminds Weston that Englehorn and Driscoll have been with him on two trips.
Denham brags that this picture represents a first for him. He must have a starlet “because the public, bless them, must have a pretty face to look at.” He complains, “Isn’t there any romance and adventure in the world without having a flapper in it?” The critics have told Denham that a love interest will generate twice as many receipts. “Alright, the public wants a girl, and I’m going to give them what they want,” Denham declares, even if Weston cannot procure one. “I’m going to go out and get a girl,” Denham resolves, “even if I have to marry her!” He vows, “Listen, I’m going to make the greatest picture in the world. Something nobody has ever seen or heard of. They’ll have to think of a lot of new adjectives when I come back.” Denham leaves the ship to search for a suitable woman for his film. He cannot find anybody alluring enough at a woman’s soup kitchen, but he discovers a starving girl, Ann Darrow (Fay Wray of “The Most Dangerous Game”), who used to work as an extra in movies. A Times Square fruit vendor accuses Ann of stealing an apple. Denham pays for the apple, dissuades the vendor from taking legal action, and buys Ann a meal at all-night diner. Denham learns that Ann has no immediate family, though she admits she may have an uncle somewhere. He allays Ann’s anxieties when he assures her that everything “is strictly business.” She feels better when he adds, “Just trust me and keep your chin up.” Denham emerges as a mirror image of King Kong. He qualifies as the king of show business, and he appropriates Ann Darrow as an object of desire for his movie. Later, Kong will appropriate her as his bride. In between, Jack Driscoll appropriates her as his future wife.
As the Venture leaves New York, Ann approaches rough-hewn Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot of “Dodge City”), on deck where he clobbers her accidentally. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start. “I guess you don’t think much of women on ship?” Ann says. “Women on ships,” Jack shrugs, “No, they’re a nuisance.” Later, he observes that the Venture is “no place for a girl.” When she tells him that Denham was to make a test to determine which side of her face to photograph, Jack says, “Both sides look alright to me.” Jack philosophizes about the opposite sex, “Women can’t help being a bother. Made that way I guess.”
Denham joins Jack and Ann on deck. Interestingly, Ann takes an interest in a little monkey called Iggy. She kneels to pet the spider monkey in what constitutes an ironic reversal on what happens to her when she encounters King Kong on Skull Island. Denham observes, “Beauty and the beast. Meanwhile, Jack falls hard for Ann, but discounts his infatuation in front of Denham. “You think I’m going to fall for any dame?” Denham knows better. “Some big hard-boiled egg gets a look, he cracks up and goes sappy. You’re a pretty tough guy but if beauty gets you, I’m going right into a theme song here.” Denham outlines his picture. “The beast was a tough guy, too. He could beat the world, but when he saw beauty, she got him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas licked him.”
Captain Englehorn and Jack worry about Denham’s lack of candor about their destination. When they reach a point “way west of Sumatra” and “way out of any waters the skipper knows,” Denham shows them his map. “I know the East Indies like I do my hand,” Englehorn boasts, “but I’ve never been here.” When he tries to locate the island on his charts, Denham assures him that it exists on no map. Denham obtained his information from the skipper of a Norwegian bark. “A canoe full of natives was blown to sea,” he explains. “Only one was alive when the bark picked them up. He died before they reached port, not before the skipper pieced together a description of the island and got a fairly good idea of where it lies.” Denham tells them that he got the map about two years ago in Singapore.
Denham describes Skull Island to Englehorn and Driscoll. The island consists of a long sandy peninsula but most of the shoreline is sheer precipice on all sides, hundreds of feet high and across the base of the peninsula, cutting it off from the main island. The natives have built a wall across the island peninsula. He adds, “Built so long ago that the people who lived there slipped back, forgotten their civilization that built it. That wall is as strong today as it was centuries ago. The natives keep the wall in repair.” “Did you ever hear of Kong?” Apparently, King Kong still holds Skull Island in a grip of deadly fear. Denham states, “I tell you that there is something on that island that no white has ever seen. Now you know why I brought along those cases of gas bombs.
The Venture penetrates a thick, eerie fog bank surrounding the island. Denham orders Driscoll to break out the camera equipment, rifles, ammunition, and the costume box. He warns a sailor about the gas bombs, “There’s enough trichloride to put a herd of hippos to sleep.” Denham and company enter a village in the middle of a ceremony. Natives are parading around in gorilla suits. Drums are being beaten and a native girl is being draped with garlands. The girl is slated to become the bride of Kong. Denham tries to get film of the ceremony, but the natives spot him. Englehorn serves as their interpreter. The natives argue that their ceremony has been spoiled because of the appearance of these intruders. The chieftain and his followers spot Ann with her blond hair and demand that the whites make a gift of her to them for Kong. Denham and company retreat to the ship and try to look cool as they leave the village.
Safely back aboard the Venture, Denham and company settle down. Jack and Ann stand on deck. “Why, Jack,” Ann notes, “you hate women.” Jack retorts, “Yeah, but you aren’t women.” Clearly, Jack has become infatuated with Ann. He leaves her on deck. Later, he discovers her missing when the cook Charlie finds a native’s bracelet on deck. The Skull Island natives stole aboard the Venture and abducted Ann so they can provide her as their gift to King Kong. Englehorn arms the crew. The natives lash Ann to an altar on the far side of the great wall Forty-seven minutes into the story we see King Kong emerge from the jungle foliage. He claims Ann as his prize and storms back into the jungle with Denham, Driscoll and company in hot pursuit. Our heroes run into a Stegosaurus and Denham has a chance to prove the potency of his gas bombs. “If I can only bring back one of these alive,” he dreams. Afterward, Denham, Driscoll and company find one of Kong’s footprints and marvel at its size. They come upon a foggy lake and Denham has his men fashion a raft for them to cross over. No sooner have they begun to cross the lake than a Brontosaurus emerges from the water and capsizes them. The dinosaur chomps down on a sailor and storms the land and snatches another sailor from a tree. Denham and company lose their firearms.
Later, Kong attacks the sailors, too. Kong seizes a tree and shakes them off it. Driscoll falls into an overhang and Kong struggles without success to reach for him. While Kong harasses Driscoll, a Tyrannosaurus Rex threatens Ann. Hearing her scream, Kong battles with it and kills it. Kong lugs Ann into a mammoth cavern and wrestles with a giant snake and eventually kills it. Kong climbs a rocky incline and comes out on a mountain top where a Pteranodon grasps Ann in its claws and tries to fly away with her. Kong attacks the prehistoric bird and kills it. While he is subduing the bird, Jack Driscoll helps Ann down a vine from the shelf of the mountain. Kong reels the lovers back toward him, but they dive into the river.
Meanwhile, back at the great wall, Denham and company await Jack and Ann.
Denham is reluctant to leave Skull Island without Kong. “We came here to get a moving picture and we found something worth more than all the movies in the world.” No sooner do Jack and Ann appear than King Kong charges into sight. They shut and barricade the huge gates with the help of the Skull Islanders. Their combined strength cannot withstand the onslaught of a crazed King Kong. Eventually, Kong breaks down the doors, chomps on three natives, knocks over a platform with warriors hurling spears at him, and crushes two natives under his foot. Denham resorts to a gas bomb to knock out Kong. Boasts Denham, “He’s always been king of his world, but we’ll teach him fear.” He adds, “Kong could have stayed safe where he was but he couldn’t stay away from beauty.”
At this point, “King Kong” leaps forward to New York City as ushers lead patrons who paid $20 a ticket to get in and see the giant ape. Jack and Ann are backstage with Denham and the press and Kong secured to a huge platform with chrome steel chains. Denham unveils Kong to the packed house. “He was a king and a god in the world he knew but now he comes to civilization merely a captive, a show to gratify your curiosity.” The photographers snap photos of the giant gorilla and the flashbulbs set off King Kong. Kong breaks free of his restraints and the audience stampedes out of the theater. Jack and Ann flee. Kong goes berserk, climbs buildings outside, and the police roll out in force. The huge ape pulls a woman out of her apartment in a skyscraper and casts her aside after he realizes that she is Ann. Later, he smashes up an elevated train. Eventually, the mad ape finds Ann, knocks Jack unconscious, and seizes Ann. The police don’t know what to do as Kong scales the Empire State Building beyond their grasp. Jack recovers and suggests that they call out planes armed with machine guns. Four bi-planes equipped with multiple machine guns soar off to the Empire State Building. Kong sets Ann aside and slaps the air at the planes as the gunners pour hails of gunfire into his humongous hulk of a body to no apparent effect. Kong swats one plane and sends it crashing to the ground. The remaining three aircraft carry out more strafing runs. Weakened by the loss of blood, King Kong loses his grip on the tower and plummets to the earth. Interestingly, Cooper and Schoeshack fly the plane that kills Kong. Carl Denham makes his way through the crowd and gazes at the corpse of the gorilla. He provides a memorable eulogy for Kong’s demise: “It was beauty killed the beast.”
A multitude of themes appear in “King Kong.” Principally, the most written about theme is ‘beauty and the beast.’ Despite his size, King Kong is the proverbial putty in Ann Darrow’s hand, even though she occupies the space in his grip. The themes of civilization versus savagery as well as technology versus nature are obvious. Kong rules Skull Island with his formidable strength. He whips every predator on the island that gets in his way. However, he cannot withstand Denham’s gas bombs which incapacitate him. Gas had been used with success by the Kaiser against the Allies in World War I ,and King is no match for chemical warfare. Later, the authorities mobilize air power to bring down Kong. “King Kong” amounts to a pastiche of genres. First, it is a jungle adventure epic in the tradition of “Trader Horn” and the “Tarzan” yarns. Second, “King Kong” is a horror film with the inevitable woman-in-jeopardy. The theme of miscegenation rears its ugly head in “King Kong” and it is interesting that the Production Code Administration did not ban the film, though it did censor the film, particularly when Kong removed portions of Ann Darrow’s apparel, for its 1938 re-issue. Remember, the first bride of Kong is African-American until the native spot blond Ann Darrow and realize that Kong will treasure her more for her whiteness. Cultural imperialism is part of the plot. An American explorer, Carl Denham, arrives on Skull Island and captures Kong, the eighth wonder of the world and takes the ape prisoner so that he can exploit him for $10-thousand dollar a night in New York City.
According to Orville Goldner and George E. Turner, in their book “The Making of ‘King Kong,’” Murray Spivack created a first with “King Kong.” Namely, he harmonized music with sound effects. He achieved this by altering the pitch of the sound effects so that they conformed to the music.
(1954), and “Gorgo” (1961). Reportedly, Cooper’s inspiration for the movie was the vision of a 50-foot ape straddling the highest edifice in the civilized world, the Empire State Building, clashing with a squadron of warplanes. Truly, “King Kong” couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time. America had been wallowing in the doldrums of the Great Depression since the bottom fell out of the Stock Market in 1929. Now, as Frank Delano Roosevelt entered the White House with his promise of New Deal legislation designed to boost the country out of its misery, “King Kong” qualified as a New Deal in filmmaking. Nobody had made a movie about mammoth monsters since Harry Hoyt’s “The Lost World” (1925), based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel about an expedition into an imaginary land of dinosaurs. Special effects technician Willis O’Brien created the stop-motion behemoths for “The Lost World,” and Cooper and Schoedsack hired O’Brien to make their eponymous protagonists. During the 1930s and the 1940s, Hollywood filmmakers produced a number of movies about murderous apes. For example, Robert Florey helmed the Edgar Allan Poe epic “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1932) about a mad scientist who wants to find a white woman as a bride for his ape. “King Kong” amassed the highest opening weekend grosses when it debuted. Reportedly, the receipts from “King Kong” rescued RKO Studios from bankruptcy. The movie coined even more money during its revival in the 1950s.
The James (“The Most Dangerous Game”) Creelman and Ruth (“The Last Days of Pompeii“) Rose screenplay adheres to the basic three-act structure. The first third occurs in the modern metropolis of New York; the second third takes place at sea and later on Skull Island where our protagonists meet Kong. The final third transpires in New York City. “King Kong” opens at night in New York Harbor as a theatrical agent, Charles Weston (Sam Hardy), discusses the ship and Carl Denham with a dock worker. The dock worker identifies the ship as the Venture and labels its voyage ‘crazy.’ He points out that Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong of “G-Men”) is a “crazy fella.” “He ain’t scared of nothing,” he says. The dock worker adds Denham has three times the number of crewmen required for a voyage. “I don’t see where they’re gonna have room enough to sleep.” Jack Driscoll appears on deck and demands to know Weston’s business. Weston identifies himself as Denham’s theatrical agent who was hired to find Denham a woman. Jack invites Weston to board.
Meanwhile, aboard the Venture, Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher of “Topaze”) warns Denham they must soon weigh anchor. “Insurance company found out we’re carrying explosives the Marshal will be aboard tomorrow or the next day.” Denham fears if word leaks about the cargo, they’ll be tied up for months. “With enough ammunition to blow up the harbor,” Englehorn complains, “What do you think the marshal will say to these new gas bombs of yours? According to you, one of them is enough to knock out an elephant.” Denham wants to reach his destination before the monsoon season. The topical rains would delay Denham’s efforts to shoot his movie.
Driscoll and Weston join Denham and Englehorn. Weston is the only theatrical agent left who is willing to find Denham a girl for his new movie. He compliments Denham for being honest. Indeed, Denham has a reputation for completing pictures. Weston points out, however, that Denham also “has a reputation for recklessness that cannot be glossed over.” He laments Denham’s secretive nature. Englehorn agrees. Neither Driscoll nor he knows their destination. Weston boasts about his conscientiousness. “I cannot send a pretty girl such as you ask on a job like this without telling her what to expect.” Weston assures Denham no woman wants to take an unknown trip to somewhere unknown. She would be the only woman on a ship with a crew of the toughest mugs alive. Denham defends his record and reminds Weston that Englehorn and Driscoll have been with him on two trips.
Denham brags that this picture represents a first for him. He must have a starlet “because the public, bless them, must have a pretty face to look at.” He complains, “Isn’t there any romance and adventure in the world without having a flapper in it?” The critics have told Denham that a love interest will generate twice as many receipts. “Alright, the public wants a girl, and I’m going to give them what they want,” Denham declares, even if Weston cannot procure one. “I’m going to go out and get a girl,” Denham resolves, “even if I have to marry her!” He vows, “Listen, I’m going to make the greatest picture in the world. Something nobody has ever seen or heard of. They’ll have to think of a lot of new adjectives when I come back.” Denham leaves the ship to search for a suitable woman for his film. He cannot find anybody alluring enough at a woman’s soup kitchen, but he discovers a starving girl, Ann Darrow (Fay Wray of “The Most Dangerous Game”), who used to work as an extra in movies. A Times Square fruit vendor accuses Ann of stealing an apple. Denham pays for the apple, dissuades the vendor from taking legal action, and buys Ann a meal at all-night diner. Denham learns that Ann has no immediate family, though she admits she may have an uncle somewhere. He allays Ann’s anxieties when he assures her that everything “is strictly business.” She feels better when he adds, “Just trust me and keep your chin up.” Denham emerges as a mirror image of King Kong. He qualifies as the king of show business, and he appropriates Ann Darrow as an object of desire for his movie. Later, Kong will appropriate her as his bride. In between, Jack Driscoll appropriates her as his future wife.
As the Venture leaves New York, Ann approaches rough-hewn Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot of “Dodge City”), on deck where he clobbers her accidentally. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start. “I guess you don’t think much of women on ship?” Ann says. “Women on ships,” Jack shrugs, “No, they’re a nuisance.” Later, he observes that the Venture is “no place for a girl.” When she tells him that Denham was to make a test to determine which side of her face to photograph, Jack says, “Both sides look alright to me.” Jack philosophizes about the opposite sex, “Women can’t help being a bother. Made that way I guess.”
Denham joins Jack and Ann on deck. Interestingly, Ann takes an interest in a little monkey called Iggy. She kneels to pet the spider monkey in what constitutes an ironic reversal on what happens to her when she encounters King Kong on Skull Island. Denham observes, “Beauty and the beast. Meanwhile, Jack falls hard for Ann, but discounts his infatuation in front of Denham. “You think I’m going to fall for any dame?” Denham knows better. “Some big hard-boiled egg gets a look, he cracks up and goes sappy. You’re a pretty tough guy but if beauty gets you, I’m going right into a theme song here.” Denham outlines his picture. “The beast was a tough guy, too. He could beat the world, but when he saw beauty, she got him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas licked him.”
Captain Englehorn and Jack worry about Denham’s lack of candor about their destination. When they reach a point “way west of Sumatra” and “way out of any waters the skipper knows,” Denham shows them his map. “I know the East Indies like I do my hand,” Englehorn boasts, “but I’ve never been here.” When he tries to locate the island on his charts, Denham assures him that it exists on no map. Denham obtained his information from the skipper of a Norwegian bark. “A canoe full of natives was blown to sea,” he explains. “Only one was alive when the bark picked them up. He died before they reached port, not before the skipper pieced together a description of the island and got a fairly good idea of where it lies.” Denham tells them that he got the map about two years ago in Singapore.
Denham describes Skull Island to Englehorn and Driscoll. The island consists of a long sandy peninsula but most of the shoreline is sheer precipice on all sides, hundreds of feet high and across the base of the peninsula, cutting it off from the main island. The natives have built a wall across the island peninsula. He adds, “Built so long ago that the people who lived there slipped back, forgotten their civilization that built it. That wall is as strong today as it was centuries ago. The natives keep the wall in repair.” “Did you ever hear of Kong?” Apparently, King Kong still holds Skull Island in a grip of deadly fear. Denham states, “I tell you that there is something on that island that no white has ever seen. Now you know why I brought along those cases of gas bombs.
The Venture penetrates a thick, eerie fog bank surrounding the island. Denham orders Driscoll to break out the camera equipment, rifles, ammunition, and the costume box. He warns a sailor about the gas bombs, “There’s enough trichloride to put a herd of hippos to sleep.” Denham and company enter a village in the middle of a ceremony. Natives are parading around in gorilla suits. Drums are being beaten and a native girl is being draped with garlands. The girl is slated to become the bride of Kong. Denham tries to get film of the ceremony, but the natives spot him. Englehorn serves as their interpreter. The natives argue that their ceremony has been spoiled because of the appearance of these intruders. The chieftain and his followers spot Ann with her blond hair and demand that the whites make a gift of her to them for Kong. Denham and company retreat to the ship and try to look cool as they leave the village.
Safely back aboard the Venture, Denham and company settle down. Jack and Ann stand on deck. “Why, Jack,” Ann notes, “you hate women.” Jack retorts, “Yeah, but you aren’t women.” Clearly, Jack has become infatuated with Ann. He leaves her on deck. Later, he discovers her missing when the cook Charlie finds a native’s bracelet on deck. The Skull Island natives stole aboard the Venture and abducted Ann so they can provide her as their gift to King Kong. Englehorn arms the crew. The natives lash Ann to an altar on the far side of the great wall Forty-seven minutes into the story we see King Kong emerge from the jungle foliage. He claims Ann as his prize and storms back into the jungle with Denham, Driscoll and company in hot pursuit. Our heroes run into a Stegosaurus and Denham has a chance to prove the potency of his gas bombs. “If I can only bring back one of these alive,” he dreams. Afterward, Denham, Driscoll and company find one of Kong’s footprints and marvel at its size. They come upon a foggy lake and Denham has his men fashion a raft for them to cross over. No sooner have they begun to cross the lake than a Brontosaurus emerges from the water and capsizes them. The dinosaur chomps down on a sailor and storms the land and snatches another sailor from a tree. Denham and company lose their firearms.
Later, Kong attacks the sailors, too. Kong seizes a tree and shakes them off it. Driscoll falls into an overhang and Kong struggles without success to reach for him. While Kong harasses Driscoll, a Tyrannosaurus Rex threatens Ann. Hearing her scream, Kong battles with it and kills it. Kong lugs Ann into a mammoth cavern and wrestles with a giant snake and eventually kills it. Kong climbs a rocky incline and comes out on a mountain top where a Pteranodon grasps Ann in its claws and tries to fly away with her. Kong attacks the prehistoric bird and kills it. While he is subduing the bird, Jack Driscoll helps Ann down a vine from the shelf of the mountain. Kong reels the lovers back toward him, but they dive into the river.
Meanwhile, back at the great wall, Denham and company await Jack and Ann.
Denham is reluctant to leave Skull Island without Kong. “We came here to get a moving picture and we found something worth more than all the movies in the world.” No sooner do Jack and Ann appear than King Kong charges into sight. They shut and barricade the huge gates with the help of the Skull Islanders. Their combined strength cannot withstand the onslaught of a crazed King Kong. Eventually, Kong breaks down the doors, chomps on three natives, knocks over a platform with warriors hurling spears at him, and crushes two natives under his foot. Denham resorts to a gas bomb to knock out Kong. Boasts Denham, “He’s always been king of his world, but we’ll teach him fear.” He adds, “Kong could have stayed safe where he was but he couldn’t stay away from beauty.”
At this point, “King Kong” leaps forward to New York City as ushers lead patrons who paid $20 a ticket to get in and see the giant ape. Jack and Ann are backstage with Denham and the press and Kong secured to a huge platform with chrome steel chains. Denham unveils Kong to the packed house. “He was a king and a god in the world he knew but now he comes to civilization merely a captive, a show to gratify your curiosity.” The photographers snap photos of the giant gorilla and the flashbulbs set off King Kong. Kong breaks free of his restraints and the audience stampedes out of the theater. Jack and Ann flee. Kong goes berserk, climbs buildings outside, and the police roll out in force. The huge ape pulls a woman out of her apartment in a skyscraper and casts her aside after he realizes that she is Ann. Later, he smashes up an elevated train. Eventually, the mad ape finds Ann, knocks Jack unconscious, and seizes Ann. The police don’t know what to do as Kong scales the Empire State Building beyond their grasp. Jack recovers and suggests that they call out planes armed with machine guns. Four bi-planes equipped with multiple machine guns soar off to the Empire State Building. Kong sets Ann aside and slaps the air at the planes as the gunners pour hails of gunfire into his humongous hulk of a body to no apparent effect. Kong swats one plane and sends it crashing to the ground. The remaining three aircraft carry out more strafing runs. Weakened by the loss of blood, King Kong loses his grip on the tower and plummets to the earth. Interestingly, Cooper and Schoeshack fly the plane that kills Kong. Carl Denham makes his way through the crowd and gazes at the corpse of the gorilla. He provides a memorable eulogy for Kong’s demise: “It was beauty killed the beast.”
A multitude of themes appear in “King Kong.” Principally, the most written about theme is ‘beauty and the beast.’ Despite his size, King Kong is the proverbial putty in Ann Darrow’s hand, even though she occupies the space in his grip. The themes of civilization versus savagery as well as technology versus nature are obvious. Kong rules Skull Island with his formidable strength. He whips every predator on the island that gets in his way. However, he cannot withstand Denham’s gas bombs which incapacitate him. Gas had been used with success by the Kaiser against the Allies in World War I ,and King is no match for chemical warfare. Later, the authorities mobilize air power to bring down Kong. “King Kong” amounts to a pastiche of genres. First, it is a jungle adventure epic in the tradition of “Trader Horn” and the “Tarzan” yarns. Second, “King Kong” is a horror film with the inevitable woman-in-jeopardy. The theme of miscegenation rears its ugly head in “King Kong” and it is interesting that the Production Code Administration did not ban the film, though it did censor the film, particularly when Kong removed portions of Ann Darrow’s apparel, for its 1938 re-issue. Remember, the first bride of Kong is African-American until the native spot blond Ann Darrow and realize that Kong will treasure her more for her whiteness. Cultural imperialism is part of the plot. An American explorer, Carl Denham, arrives on Skull Island and captures Kong, the eighth wonder of the world and takes the ape prisoner so that he can exploit him for $10-thousand dollar a night in New York City.
According to Orville Goldner and George E. Turner, in their book “The Making of ‘King Kong,’” Murray Spivack created a first with “King Kong.” Namely, he harmonized music with sound effects. He achieved this by altering the pitch of the sound effects so that they conformed to the music.
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