king kong!

http://www.kingkongmovie.com/ef239524432ba87f1ca8f70eed4b1fa7/en_large.html

I'm a purist when it comes to originals, but this remake looks like it rocks. Isn't Kong the ultimate tiki movie, Skull Island being somewhere way, way down in the uncharted South Pacific seas?

I'm glad they kept it in the depression period. Jack Black seems an odd choice for that character.

Yes, absolutely tiki! My favorite bit from the original KK is a scene where the island warriors are dancing in a line, and one of the guys wigs falls off...but they didn't cut it out of the movie. Heeelarrrioous! I always look for it every time I watch it.

A couple years ago, I asked my husband to do a king kong piece. He called it "Kong Tiki" taking place on Skull Island. It remains to be one of my favorite works of art.

I think Peter Jackson will do the new KK justice. He has an artistic eye which makes his films intoxicating. They pull me in. I can't wait for this to come out!!!

On 2005-06-28 18:28, aikiman44 wrote:
I'm a purist when it comes to originals, but this remake looks like it rocks. Isn't Kong the ultimate tiki movie, Skull Island being somewhere way, way down in the uncharted South Pacific seas?

here's a KONG TIKI I designed for an animation i did a year ago..

[ Edited by: atomictonytiki 2009-05-04 07:16 ]

WOW - that trailer just gives me chills! I don't know how tiki it is, but that movie's gonna rock - one of those "must see at theater" flicks.....

I was a little concerned about Jack Black in this movie, too, but I figure PJ knows what he's doing and it would probably work. Now that I see him in the trailer, I think he hits just the right note as a fast-talking, PT Barnum type huckster/filmmaker.

After his LoTR triumph, I cannot wait to see this movie. I a purist, too, and this is one of my all-time favorite movies and one of the reasons I originally got into filmmaking & effects. If anyone can do justice with a remake, I think Jackson can. It looks absolutely incredible.

Woohoo! That's a helluva trailer! I've just watched it six times straight.

I think Jack Black is going to be perfect for his role. The one that concerns me a bit is Adrien Brody. He seems a bit of a pretty boy for the part, no? I'm thinking more of a Race Bannon kind of guy as Jack Driscoll. Too bad Race is an animation. The overall style and atmosphere look outstanding, especially Skull Island. The natives appear a bit too Occidental but I like how they're all so primeval and mysterious looking.

To me, if there's anything in the trailer that really worries me about this movie it's that they might go way overboard on the computer generated special effects. I don't want no tuck and roll jujitsu anime King Kong battling a Hong Kong Category III kung fu tyrannosaur! It just doesn't look right for these 100 ton behemoths to be running around like Jet Li on meth. Slow it down man! Watch some old Harryhausen Sinbad movies and give us just a touch of that old school feel when dinosaurs actually made the earth shake with each foot step. Boom! Boom! RAAAAAAARRRRR!!

Got a bit carried away there. Looks like a great flick nonetheless. Here's that Kong Tiki that Jamio did. Got it hanging right next to me here at my computer desk:

I've obviously got this Quicktime trailer somewhere on my hard drive in a temp file as I can play it again and again without waiting for it to load. Anyone know where it's located (Windows XP) so's I can save it??

In the 1933 original, Skull Island's inhabitants seemed to be much more African than Polynesian. From the few brief shots in the trailer it appears they went with a more obscure mish-mash of Polynesia and possibly SE Asia. It also has a very "voodoo-ish" vibe to it. Makes sense to go with a more anonymous island culture since Africa is not exactly the unexplored continent is was back then (at least by white people).

For all the Kong you can eat, check out PJ's production diaries on the KongisKing site:

http://www.kongisking.net/index.shtml

Peter has a great sense of humor. Note the running gag about "guest directors".

I think Jack Black might do the Jack Armstrong character justice. As for Adrien Brody, well, we'll see. That's supposed to be a feal heroic character, not thte overly sensitive Alan Alda type. I agree with the CGI possibly being overdone. There's nothing like the O'Brien/Harryhausen stuff for weight and personality. I enjoyed the Mighty Joe Young remake, but the old style animation gave the characters real personality.
And that's a beautiful Kong/tiki.

Killer Kong trailer! Can't wait to see it on the big screen.

I think one of the most amazing effects of this film has got to be Peter Jackson's INCREDIBLE weight loss. I saw him on the Lucas AFI tribute a week or two ago, and I could not believe it was him.

He's smaller than Jack Black now!

Well done, PJ!

I watched the first few director's diaries and wondered who this skinny guy with the accent was. I wish I knew PJ's amazing weight loss secret. Maybe it's from working 20 hour days on $150 million movies, but I thought that was how he gained the weight in the first place. It seems to have just magically disappeared after LoTR.

KONG!!
One of the saddest damn movies I have ever watched. A great retelling of the KONG legend and a bit deeper than a cheesy remake on many levels. I dug it!

Kongolio

p.s. oooo... and look a contest:

http://www.kongisking.net/giveaway/

" I believe that our Heavenly Father invented the monkey because he was disappointed in man."
... Mark Twain
http://www.Lost-Isle.com
http://www.piggod.com

[ Edited by: Chongolio 2005-12-15 02:01 ]

Kong as Tiki?

Luckily, no flames yet! :D

Hey, if rum from the Caribbean can be Tiki, ceramics from China can be Tiki, and polyester shirts made in India can be Tiki, why not Skull Island?

It can surely have a Tiki feel, I'd say!

If the original Kong is allowed in the Tikiverse, then we have incorporated Africa in our vibe, which is fine. The primitive juxtaposed with the modern is one of the pillars of Tiki, so I'll let Kong in!

Race Bannon would be great, but he's gotta be seventy years old by now! He was a great actor.

I hear he can still do one armed push-ups, though!

I wonder if they could have reworked the relationships a little and used Jack Palance in Adrian Brody's role?

Kono!

That print is killer!

Is there any place they can still be had?

On 2005-06-29 05:38, atomictonytiki wrote:
here's a KONG TIKI I designed for an animation i did a year ago..

I am not an expert but that looks like a DONG TIKI to me :)

On 2005-12-15 10:57, Geeky Tiki wrote:
Kono!

That print is killer!

Is there any place they can still be had?

Right here:

http://www.jamio.com/tiki.htm

Kono, thank you.

I feel embarrassed for not knowing the site!

I'm going to organize my budget and buy several.

Thank you for the link!

The prints at that site are gorgeous.

Added as an edit: Those prints are so cool, my wife asked about originals! Any idea how much Jamio's originals sell for? I think the thrill of owning a real life original with the textures of the brush, etc...would be superlative!

[ Edited by: Geeky Tiki 2005-12-16 04:13 ]

Saw it last night. The giant walls & Door surrounding Skull Island have huge awesome Tiki Images of stone. THe offering of Naomi Watts has got lava waterfalls and the then the 50 ft. door's eyes glow as well.
The cannibals are the best I've ever seen anywhere.
The first act is one big F----- Tiki Bar of the first caliber!
Jack Black did a great job.

But Lewis Black would have been better.

On 2005-12-16 04:09, Geeky Tiki wrote:
Added as an edit: Those prints are so cool, my wife asked about originals! Any idea how much Jamio's originals sell for? I think the thrill of owning a real life original with the textures of the brush, etc...would be superlative!

If you go up towards the beginning of this thread you'll see a post by Mystiki. She's the one to contact with your Jamio questions. She's got the inside track. :wink:

Ship of Souls is my second favorite after Kong Tiki.

We went to see King Kong last night and it was AWESOME!!!!! Skull Island is intense. The dinosaurs and other creatures are amazing. I cried like a baby at the end. Origionally, that was why I wasn't going to go see the movie, because it is such a heartbreaker. The three hours fly by ...... Definitely go see it!

Fantastic film. Anyone notive the crate in the hold of the ship marked Sumatran Rat Monkey? As a nod to Peter Jackson's film Brain Dead (Dead Alive)

On 2005-12-18 14:23, Kon-Hemsby wrote:
Sumatran Rat Monkey? As a nod to Peter Jackson's film Brain Dead (Dead Alive)

"You can't stop me, I'm a new Zealand zoo officer" i used to carry a fake new Zealand zoo pass coz i loved that film so much.

And TikiTikiTavi in my film there are a few jokes about the well endowed Kong-tiki but also as a tribute to the thousands of tikis that have lost their whoppers to Victorian prudishness.

I loved it, though it was so over the top it will take a while to digest. I hope to see it again over the holiday. It's a bit too long for its own good, but I didn't think the set-up was too drawn out. The whole sub-plot of the ship's first mate and the kid was weak and should've been jettisoned. I would have preferred if they had instead left in the shots where Ann gets past the army to approach Kong in NYC. She just sort of appears out of nowhere on a deserted street(and in the cheesiest shot of the film, imho). I suppose PJ needs something to put back into the inevitable 5 hour, 12 disk DVD set.

I loved all the in-jokes in the film, particularly the tacky Broadway dance number that apes (pun intended) the cheesy natives from the original movie. The orchestra is even playing the original Max Steiner score. It's also a nice bit of social commentary on the way "real" natives are versus the way they might be depicted by money-grubbing showbiz hucksters back in the "civilized" world. Also loved that they use Driscoll and Ann's "real" cheesy 1933 dialog onboard the ship as a rehearsal scene for the movie that Denham is shooting in the new version. Nice, too, that the final dino Kong fights is very much an homage to Willis O'Brian's '33 battle in its staging and detail (the head punches; the wrestler tumble; playing with the dead dino's jaw).

It's also a nice bit of social commentary on the way "real" natives are versus the way they might be depicted by money-grubbing showbiz hucksters back in the "civilized" world.

I recently read Crichton's novel "State of Fear" before seeing "King Kong," and as creepy as the real natives were in "King Kong," the natives in Crichton's book were much worse. Anyway, your comment made me think of that book because of the naive civilized character in the book who is delighted to finally meet real natives living "close to nature," only to find that was the worst mistake he ever made, to put it very mildly.

[Edited: I originally stated the book "Amazonia"--wrong book]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2005-12-20 06:47 ]

On 2005-12-19 10:53, Tiki-bot wrote:

I loved all the in-jokes in the film, particularly the tacky Broadway dance number that apes (pun intended) the cheesy natives from the original movie. The orchestra is even playing the original Max Steiner score. It's also a nice bit of social commentary on the way "real" natives are versus the way they might be depicted by money-grubbing showbiz hucksters back in the "civilized" world. Also loved that they use Driscoll and Ann's "real" cheesy 1933 dialog onboard the ship as a rehearsal scene for the movie that Denham is shooting in the new version. Nice, too, that the final dino Kong fights is very much an homage to Willis O'Brian's '33 battle in its staging and detail (the head punches; the wrestler tumble; playing with the dead dino's jaw).

I thought the reference to Faye Wray being unavailable for Denham's movie because she was busy shooting a film for RKO with director Merian C. Cooper was pretty sly and probably went over a lot of heads. I recently read that Cooper's King Kong saved RKO Pictures from bankruptcy and that Carl Denham could be compared to Cooper. I have not seen it but there is a documentary on Merian C. Cooper called " I am King Kong" apparently he was quite the adventurer, risk taker and an amazing person.

Chongolio

" I believe that our Heavenly Father invented the monkey because he was disappointed in man."
... Mark Twain
http://www.Lost-Isle.com
http://www.piggod.com

[ Edited by: Chongolio to fix a name screw up 2005-12-20 19:59 ]

[ Edited by: Chongolio 2005-12-20 20:03 ]

For what it's worth, here's a link to a full length article I recently wrote for another retro web site, Port Halcyon, comparing '33 vs. '05: http://www.porthalcyon.com/features/200512/kong.shtml

Don't forget there's a 1976 version, too. In fact the rental DVD for that is in my player at this moment, though I've gotten only half way through. Seems pretty decent so far.

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=97360364323&userid=2w6S9pqCPj&frm=0&itm=5

Anyone else catch the Maori sailor in the passageway on the ship?

On 2005-06-28 18:28, aikiman44 wrote:
I'm a purist when it comes to originals, but this remake looks like it rocks. Isn't Kong the ultimate tiki movie, Skull Island being somewhere way, way down in the uncharted South Pacific seas?

what about the 1976 remake of king kong starring jeff bridges and jessica lange,but the real star is the great Kong him self ,he was supposed to be a 40 robot,but ended up as a man in a monkey suit,

That was makeup and costume legend Rick Baker in that ape (not monkey) suit. He also created an apeman suit for the movie Tanyas Island, great little island fantasy. They did not spend much on the costume for actress D.D. Winters (Vanity). She walks around naked for most of the movie.

The Peter Jackson version is true to the original story where Skull Island in located in the Indian Ocean but the (1974) version with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange (two future Oscar winners), Skull Island is mentioned in both South Seas & Indian Ocean so we'll call it on the border.

The so-called African extras in the film are supposed to be Melanesians of the South Seas (neighbors to Polynesians) but being filmed state-sides it's easier to use abundant African Americans as extra instead of rare Melanesians.

The South Seas connection is more clear in the Japanese version titled King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1963) Where Kong comes from the South Seas and Godzilla comes from the North after destroying Tokyo for the 100th time and they meet in the middle to battle. Interesting fact Godzilla was created form nuclear tests in the South Seas and famed Monster Island is located in the South Seas so according to the Japan Skull Island is a neighbor.

With all this is Kong Tiki? --- YES!

It's coming on March 10th!

http://kongskullislandmovie.com

I was thinking of having a cocktail to celebrate the occasion and ran across this one:

It seemed a little dated, though.

I think the new one might go something like this, below, but I'll have to tinker with it a few times to get it right.

I could just about care less about the new Kong movie, but I LOVE the original. It's a clinic in how to make an engaging, well-paced film that easily stands alongside the greatest films from the time period of Hollywood's Golden Age. And maybe it's because I'm in "Hollywood's Golden Age" mode when I watch it, but I never really made the Tiki connection before. I'm glad this thread popped up, because now that I've been getting more and more into pre-Tiki Polynesiana it does seem a natural fit. I wonder how much Kong-related stuff my wife will let me get away with in our Enchanted Tiki Kitchen...

The original is a true masterpiece.

To see its brilliant but lesser-known companion, check out the film "The Most Dangerous Game". It was shot at night during the filming of "King Kong" on the same sets to maximise the return on the investment, with lots of the same people involved (both in front of and behind the camera). The short story is brilliant and the film does it credit. I love it.

On 2017-03-03 10:01, HopeChest wrote:
The original is a true masterpiece.

To see its brilliant but lesser-known companion, check out the film "The Most Dangerous Game". It was shot at night during the filming of "King Kong" on the same sets to maximise the return on the investment, with lots of the same people involved (both in front of and behind the camera). The short story is brilliant and the film does it credit. I love it.

I just finished watching it, on your advice. That was pretty good! It's interesting to watch what the crew did during and after King Kong... MOst Dangerous Game, Son of Kong, She... Decent movies in their own right, if not up to par with Kong. But then what is up to par with Kong? Most movies aren't.

GROG has held the original King Kong armiture in GROG' mits in the collection of Bob Burns here in Los Angeles.

Very cool!

I thought Kong was big. Grog looks bigger than Kong!

GROG "larger than life." :D

On 2017-03-03 22:42, EnchantedTikiGoth wrote:

I just finished watching it, on your advice. That was pretty good! It's interesting to watch what the crew did during and after King Kong... MOst Dangerous Game, Son of Kong, She... Decent movies in their own right, if not up to par with Kong. But then what is up to par with Kong? Most movies aren't.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! And I totally agree - "Kong" sets SUCH a high bar.

Oh man...I did not realise "She" was a Cooper film! Wow. I love that movie.

Grog: that is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Even in that rudimentary form, it's still KONG.