King Kong The Eighth Wonder of the World

Peter Jackson's King Kong is a spectacularly made adventure movie.  It is every bit the equal of the 1935 classic, and in many ways even superior.  Though a tad bloated(I could easily see twenty minutes being taken off without much hassle) it's so much fun you forgive it.

The film begins in 1933, with Carl Denham (Jack Black) a maniacal movie director fighting producers over money.  When he finds out they are about to shut him down and sell off his footage to other studios, he runs away.  He finds Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and unemployed vaudeville actress, as she's about to steal produce.  Denham convinces Ann to join his film (she's the same size as his former lead, who quit) once he tells her that her favorite Off-Broadway playright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), is writing the script.  

Denham tricks Driscoll into staying onboard their ship as they head to sea (he needs the script finished afterall).  The next section of the film deals with their voyage as Denham shoots his picture and tries to find the mysterious Skull Island.  We get to know many of the crew including Capt. Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann), who appears to be adept at capturing wild animals, which proves useful later on.   

They eventually crash into the Island and Denham leads his actors ashore.  They are attacked by natives and barely make it back to the ship.  as they try to leave Anne is kidnapped by the natives and Driscoll leads a rescue party back to get her.  Anne is "sacrificed" to Kong and the film really picks up.  Ann manages to convince Kong not to kill her and proceeds to entertain him with her vaudeville act.  Kong reacts with glee to his new pet and you can see his affection grow.

Meanwhile, Driscoll lead and the rest of the party get in one hair raising trap after another.  Particularly memorable is a brontosaurus stampede that has to be seen to be believed.  There's also a particularly nasty giant bug sequnce that will turn stomachs by the dozen.