King Kong Lives
by Charles McCracken, John Guillermin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brian Kerwin, George Yiasoumi, John Ashton, Linda Hamilton, Peter ElliottDirector: Charles McCracken, John Guillermin
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Producer: Lucio Trentini
Writer: Edgar Wallace
Writer: Merian C. Cooper
Writer: Ronald Shusett
Writer: Steven Pressfield
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-07
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of King Kong Lives
Movie Review: Big Ape Seeks Appearnace on Court TV
Summary: 3 Stars
The rumors of Kong's death have been greatly exaggerated. It takes more than the combined firepower of the city of New York to send him to the great beyond.
I confess, I liked this motion picture more than some other reviewers. When I heard that "KING KONG LIVES" I was afraid he'd just go after another white woman and end up being shot down off a tall building again. I know what it's like to be grossly misunderstood and mistreated by humans for being different. I also never trust sequels. So, I expected nothing and got more than I'd dreamed. It is worth seeing on late night TV. I mean, it's much better than most infomercials.
This movie starts with the premise that King Kong wasn't really killed when they brutally assaulted him in New York City and shot him down from the World Trade Center in the 1976 movie excellently reviewed elsewhere. Despite what we saw on the silver screen back then, the big guy was only injured. It turns out he has been kept alive lo these many years by top scientists. One wonders how they slapped together an I.C.U. of such massive proportions quickly enough to get him on life support and how they were able to smuggle him away from S.W.A.T. teams and planes and military folk that had just blasted thousands of rounds into him. You'd think the local authorities would have rolled that yellow crime scene tape around the area or something. It does take time to get one of those cop dudes to draw a chalk line around such an enormous shooting victim.
However, lest ye think that this is a PETA film where the massive beast will be returned to his native island and allowed to live out his life on his own terms, nothing could be further from the truth. It seems nobody learned the lesson. Their wisdom leads them to put Kong in rehab, hoping to one day put him on display again. You can't really blame them......I mean it worked so well the first time.
Apparently giant gorillas don't have D.N.R. clauses in their living wills or perhaps his medical power of attorney just couldn't be located. How he got such great medical insurance as an immigrant is not explained either. Let's hope the massive ape is not a Jehovah's Witness; because they want to force a blood transfusion on him and an artificial heart transplant. If only Dr. Kevorkian had been on the scene - he'd know what to do.
I'll have to check to see whether the artificial heart invented in Utah by Dr. Jarvic predated this movie. I mean, did he get the idea for it from this film, or was it the other way around?
The team is faced with a problem that might even stump Dr. House. Where does one find a donor to suit Kong's needs? Apparently synthetics will not suffice. A close relative must be brought in. The American Red Cross wants nothing to do with this disaster.
What's odd is that no one explains how they were able to keep the bullet-ridden great ape alive all these years without a previous blood donation. I mean, if he survived all that high-powered ammunition and the fall from the World Trade Center without a transfusion, wouldn't a heart replacement be a cinch? Couldn't they store up blood for him in advance of the operation? Wouldn't it be safer than trying to find a relative of the guy? Remember, almost everyone on the first team that found him was killed absolutely downright fatally!
The sequel becomes at once a medical mystery as well as a monster thriller. At first glance it has box-office gold written all over it.
Given the fact that Kong was originally incarcerated and seemingly executed publicly without a trial, it is amazing that instead of continuing to attempt to snuff him out, or at least return him to his native island, they instead decide to get him back on his feet. Perhaps they thought he could perform enough community service to make up for all the damage he did when he escaped in the first film. I don't know, somehow I don't think he'd take it very well letting Judge Judy drop the gavel on him. On the other hand, he would be a barrel of laughs in the prison yard.
This is like Jurassic Park XIX. I mean, I don't feel too much empathy for people who knowingly go into the same kind of danger again and again and again, never learning a thing. Even a child who puts his hand on a hot stove learns he doesn't want to do it again. Still, all these people with all these degrees prove time and again that they are woefully, stupidly, gigantically ignorant.
Where are the attorneys suing to stop this operation or at least make millions off of the violation of Kong's civil rights? Certainly the litigation would have made a better movie. Look, this one isn't bad, it's just that it doesn't include Jessica Lange or Jeff Bridges or anything else that made the first film work. I didn't find myself caring about these seemingly brain-dead doctors one bit.
One last thing: imagine you were kidnapped because you were black and wanted a fine white woman like Jessica Lange; that you were arrested and shot at when you tried to escape; you were blown off the top of the World Trade Center and was kept alive against your will for ten years in a hospital and still never even got your day in court. Wouldn't you be a bit annoyed when you finally pulled the I.V.'s from your arms? Wouldn't you do just about anything to get away from the insane people who did all these things to you? The people In Guantanamo Bay were held over five years before their trials began. Kong was locked up for ten.
This then, is a film about what happens when people are denied their civil rights. You thought lawyers were ugly? You aint seen nothin' yet.
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