kong and 3-rex

its been about 3 and a half hours since king kong ended, so i've had ample time to run it over in my head.

at 3 hours long i was more worried about those who havent been exposed to tamil or hindi movies. how would they sit through it man? but as karthik pointed out, even the LOTR movies were 3 hours long so it shouldn't be an issue. but unlike in harry potter where i had a couple of moments where i kept staring at my watch (even though iwas trying my best not to, for fear of betraying the HP fans code..haha), i sat through kong just fine, only turning behind once or twice to shoot some ang moh kids dirty stares for speaking during the movie.

moving on to the movie proper. i thought the beginning was really classy and captured old-fashioned america beautifully. the great depression never looked more stunning, thanks in part to naomi watts. she's really doing the ozzies proud man. so incrediby fragile, yet able to act all silly and clown around. and at the same time, feel for kong and protect him like a lover. which all sounds really weird unless you've watched the movie.

and adrien brody! wow. his sowwy liwwle puppy dog eyes just made me melt(ok that doesnt do justice to his acting sorry) i'm having an oprah moment here where i just close my eyes and just think of how brilliant he is. yes he acted pretty much in the same style in The Pianist but the ability to emote like that is just..beyond me.

there were remenants of Dewey Finn in Jack Black as Carl Denim (yes i know lah.its denham but it would've been cooler if his name was spelt that way cos thats how it sounded,o-kay). he kept doing his performance gestures, like when he's rocking out or talking about something interestedly. quite a shocker though, that he could handle a dramatic role and not act like a goofball for once. but yeah there were moments when he slipped back into being jack black from Tenacious D. well whatcha gonna do...

oh wait before i forget: SNGAPORE is mentioned like four times ok! woohoo! suddenly so patriotic. dont worry lah, temporary. i shall talk about my varying levels of patriotism some other time

another thing i should mention before i forget. i thought the backing score was great. especially the bits with the piano solos which were heard whenever kong and ann had their lil private moments(ergh. it kinda makes me disgusted just talking about it). i didnt like the scenes i just liked the music.

colin hanks was incredibly forgettable.doesnt have his dad's charm, i see. jamie bell (who shares the same birthday as me) has really grown out of his "billy elliot" typecast. now he's playing mostly yanks(as in americans) as demonstrated in greenday's wake me up when sept ends vid, and now as a david copperfield-ish (As in charles dickens version) character on board the S.S Venture Surabaya.

ah yes. captain engelhorn. the real hero of the movie for me. he's the one in the right of the pic. i dunno why i'm feeling this affinity to all things German but haha, yeah he's german too :D maybe its the blue as blue eyes. but i noticed this certain reluctant hero quality in this particular character.and he really was Hero material! unlike adrien brody, who i liken to the penniless sitar player. sorry randomness kicking in.

Peter Jackson,or PJ as i affectionately call him outdid himself, even after making the brilliantest movie trilogy the world has ever seen. the effects were spectacular. i thought Kong was bloody real ok. and how the hell did he manage to get new york in the 30's to look so real life? must've been some of that Helm's Deep technology. what miffed me the most was that scene where we were first intoduced to the brontosaureses. it was a jurassic park moment through and through.i half expected to hear john william's jurassic park theme to come on. pft. and THREE t-rexes?? hel-lo! isnt that a bit much. and arent t-rexes territorial or something? you never see more than 2 together at one time and even then they'd have to be related.(excuse me but i used to read dinosaur books when i was a kid alright?haha)

purposely didnt read Ong Sor Fern's review cos she talks bollocks most of the time and doesnt know a good movie from a half baked one(she gave effing troy 5 stars ok?!). her language is always impressive and a bit showy but i kinda like that, so thats alright. but what irks me is the self righteous tone that she uses. like she's some big time New York times critic liddat. i'd rather read tay yek keaks satirical reviews man. more depth in those than what sor fern has to say.she's so biased!

that said, some scenes in kong were really stoopid. esp that unnecessarily long scene in which ann tries to do her act for kong and kong sniggers (in a gorilla-ish way) and there's this whole long drawn out nonsense lah. and when he's on top of the empire state builidng swatting away the bombers. did that honesstly have to take up almost 10 mins of the movie? wtv. i'm getting bored just talking about it.

ANDY SERKIS! he was vaguely attractive as a one eyed pirate-ish cook with a beer gut. haha and he looks a lot more beefed up whcih is a great look for him. but there was this one scene where got swallowed up by the Flobberworms as i call them and he made gollum screams..haha. "nasty hobbits!"

a gorilla's not supposed to be so EMO lah! and as mean as it sounds, i laughed when kong fell off the empire state building. it just looked funny! a humongous greyback(or is it silverback? the term used to describe the alpha male in a group/herd/troop of gorillas..at least in the wild) all limp and lifeless and falling..falling...falling..

yeah ok thats all for today.good movie.must watch. cos PJ directed it.
and at the end of it all, it was beauty who killed the beast

EDIT:i changed by blogsong to Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai