King Kong (1933)

     "Beauty and the beast."

King Kong (1933) is a highly influential RKO Adventure/Monster movie which combined live action, stop-motion and models.

Filmmaker Carl Denham travels to a remote, uncharted island in search of his next film subject, a legendary creature known only as "Kong." On this Island, Denham finds more than he could have ever imagined and makes a risky choice to take Kong back to New York in hopes of earning a fortune.

[Note: this review is referencing the original completely uncut version, running approximately 100 minutes.]

This film's really brutal action sequences really do a lot to enhance the danger and drama of the otherwise mindless action scenes, (like the excessive amount dinosaur attack sequences!) This film really doesn't hold back: there's vicious dinosaurs attacking a man in a tree, men crushed to death after battling Kong and even Kong beating a T-rex by breaking it's jaw, (then continuing to play with it after its dead!) These sequences make you really feel like the main characters may not make it out of this which is truthfully something lost on the comparatively "mild" action films of today.

I didn't care too much for the designs of most of the creatures in this film. I just felt like they were all a little dated and most looked fake by today's standards. And apparently a lot of the dinosaurs were recycled from earlier stop-motion films for years before, which might show. However, the wonderful animation and acting of said creatures by the early stop-motion guru Willis H. O'Brien is so good that it often helps to "sell" what is happening far better than the actual creature designs.

Also the score brings a lot of excitement and helps put you on edge during various sequences here, I've heard a lot of Max Steiner's classic scores and when you put this one up against them, it really shows the range the guy had. This score may not be as memorable or "classic" as Casablanca's (1942) or Gone With The Wind's (1939) scores but it really shows the skill of the guy, and it fits this movie quite well too.

I enjoyed the film's morals relating this fairy tale to that of Beauty and the Beast, however the film tries to hammer this home a couple too many times for modern audiences. With a little more subtlety it would have been really magnificent.

The writing in the film is mostly decent/passable with the exception of being overall sexist. Granted this is a product of its time but characters don't even bat an eye at talks of trading women, there's chauvinist characters who outright and openly hate women which is well... just kind of awkward.

The bad writing is only further enhanced by some really bad acting our romantic leads are really pretty awful. Early starlet Fay Wray is an absolutely terrible actress (with a great scream though, so maybe that's why she was cast?) Her rushed romance with (not much better at acting) chauvinist sailor Driscoll, played by Bruce Cabot, is barely watchable on mute. But with such great lines like, "Say, I guess... I love you" I wonder how much was really their fault in the end. And the romance really isn't the focus for most of this film (they prefer to focus on the titular character most of the time) so once you get past a certain point, you forget the human characters are there for most of the film.

There's also some bad science here and there like man-eating herbivore dinosaurs. And some leaps of faith like the fact they were able to keep Kong under-wrap, and under some form of continual sedation for 6 months until the end of the film. and when Kong finds Anne at the end of the film among a whole building/skyscraper of people in only the second window he looks into, what a lucky ape! These all kind of seem like just carelessly lazy writing/direction. But as my friend pointed out it's a movie about an island where giant apes (who eat humans) and dinosaurs still live so who really cares anyways.

And lastly for my taste (and I'd assume most modern audiences) the mindless dinosaur/monster fights go on a bit too long, it's actually surprising to learn that a bunch more actually got cut before the initial release even! I would have just appreciated a little more substance during these sequences.

The film has a great "modern" action pace that seems unique for such an early film, even more so considering Kong isn't even seen until about 45 mins into the film!

Most of the special effects and stop motion action borders between amazing and good! There are some exceptions here and there, but when you consider that nearly all of these shots is comprised of stuff I can do in my living room (with modern technology) the shots are set up in a way that they are well thought out and have great staging to show scale and depth in a shot. It's actually so effective that sometimes its hard for me to even tell whats plastic, whats a painting and what is real life in some shots! This is especially true in the city sequences where there's a lot of masterful cuts between stock shots of real cities, studio shots and models, all done with great calculation and superb planning.

King Kong (1933) is one of those films you watch and its easy to forget how long ago it was made, highly influential still to this day and yet very modern feeling. It's actually surprising people keep attempting to remake it.

4/5 Stars.

Happy watching!


This is the precursor to my next few posts which will be tackling the early Toho Studios' Godzilla and Kaiju films in anticipation of the newest Godzilla (2014) movie. Check back next time for the original Japanese kaiju film, Gojira (1954).

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Paranorman (2012)

NIGHT 31

     "If you were bigger and more stupid, you'd probably be a bully too."

Paranorman (2012) is a  stop-motion animated film from Laika studios, this is their follow-up to their premier feature Coraline (2009).

Norman is an outsider with no friends and a special ability, he can see ghosts. He lives in Blithe Hollow (based on modern day Salem, Massachusetts) where thanks to his special ability he is the only one who can prevent an ancient witch's curse to prevent the undead from coming back to life.

The voice acting in this film is a good mix of B-stars and amateur children (that don't suck) which evens out to an all-around good voice cast. Actually my biggest complaint is probably that because these aren't big name stars most of the cast will sound really familiar and probably bug you the entire film as you're trying to put a face to the voice.

The comedy in this film is really pretty funny. There's lots of really funny lines that just crack me up. There's actually so much humor that it almost seems inconsistent, like I feel they could have actually cut some of the jokes to make the funnier ones stand out better. And it's worth mentioning that there's a wide range of humor here too from puns to gross-out to slapstick and situational. This seems to do it all.

I really like almost all the characters in this film, I especially like our circumstantial group of protagonist that are only working together because of happenstance. They're all pretty solid characters, especially Norman who seems very well planned out and based on someone's own personal experiences being an outsider growing up.

I like how simple and good this story is. It's also a good mystery, that revolves itself in a pleasant and satisfying way. I also like how this film incorporates horror movie themes and tropes in a new and original way that we haven't seen before.

Also the film seems a bit long winded for how simple the story is. I don't know if the stakes are just never high enough or what (it's truthfully a little hard to put my finger on) but it "feels" longer than it should. Also because the story is so simple it might be able to figure out the mystery before the end of the film, which can take some of the interest out of it, but at the very least the messages of the end will be worthwhile and not super predictable (more on that in a second).

I really love the cinematography in this film, which is not something I say for animated films too often. The filmmakers really don't seem restricted by the miniature stop-motion medium. There's lots of beautiful shot choices combined with brilliant camera moves like long tracking shots and other complicated camera moves that must have taken so much planning considering the medium. I love this shot right at the beginning that starts with tracking with Norman as he walks down the street then the camera pans around him and once it passes his face we again follow him down the street but this time through his perspective with all the ghosts and dead people he sees on a daily basis.

The animation in this film is top-notch. (We're talking Pixar good, though possibly better since it's stop-motion rather than computer generated.) I think my favorite thing about the animation in this film is everyone's different walks really say something about their personalities and I think the animators had some extra fun animating the zombie walks. A testament to how good the animation in this movie is, is that a lot of people thought it was computer generated rather than stop-motion! On a related note, probably the thing that really makes Laika stand out as a studio than all the other animation studios is their incredible attention to detail on such minor things like lamps that sit in the background for only one scene. This attention to detail and care really comes through in the film (even if it's just a subconscious feeling that immerses you deeper in the world) and it gives you plenty to gaze upon and stare at on subsequent viewings.

And lastly I have to mention how excellent this film is at addressing its themes. I think this is the best film or anything that I've ever seen that addresses bullying. I love how this film's message isn't to try and stop bullying (like we've heard time and time again) but instead the film takes the higher road and says that we may never be able to stop bullying instead you just have to deal with it. Our characters learn to deal with their problems through the bad experiences, and not through adult interference or anything else. This is a very strong message for a weird little kids film.

Paranorman (2012) is a great film for kids that incorporates lots of macabre and horror movie elements in a way that we really haven't seen yet.

4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




That is all for this year's 31 Nights of Macabre Movies, I hope you enjoyed my selections and maybe even found something new to check out! Until Next year, Spooky watching!!

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Frankenweenie (2012)

DAY 28

"Your dog is alive!"

Frankenweenie (2012) is children's stop-motion animated horror film. When Victor Frankenstein's best (and only) friend, his dog Sparky, dies he gets the idea to try and bring it back to life.

This movie had a some surprisingly good world building going on, somebody did a good job of focusing on that and doing a lot of research. I liked the simple story in this film, I found it fun and interesting and not too convoluted. Also the story was very dark and really (for the most part) didn't hold back because it was a film for kids. I think this film did a great job of really capturing a lot of the same type of horror that the old universal movies did, which is really cool.

Also found it cool that this film has a lot of really cool references to Tim Burton's personal inspirations including Nosferatu, Christopher Lee as Dracula, Godzilla and obviously like all of the Universal monster movies and there's even a Hitchcockian Vertigo-shot in there I saw. I really enjoyed these.

I get that this is part of the "look" and design of the characters but I really didn't like how blank and emotionless some of the characters looked for a majority of the film. Victor especially, this is our main character and honestly for most of the movie I had no idea what he was thinking, he just had this blank neutral look on his face. This is something that you need to fight in animation, you want to make people forget that they're not watching real actors. Letting the design get in the way of that is pretty weak.

The movie is pretty slow for the first half, I feel like if I didn't have my love for monsters and horror I would have been pretty bored. Not sure if more interesting things needed to happen or if the characters should be more interesting or if they just could have used some more humor in the first half. Also I feel like they could have set up the friendship of Victor and Sparky in the beginning better. Instead we get shots of Victor not taking the dog outside when he wants to go and the dog playing fetch by himself, someone didn't think that one through.

And lastly I feel like the resolution in the end doesn't fit everything the characters went through and learned throughout the span of the movie. It works as a happy Disney ending but otherwise, not.

Best thing about this movie though is the really really well developed and detailed sets and how freaking great the lighting is on said sets. I was thinking about why this film doesn't feel like a stop-motion film when you're watching it, and I think this is due in great part to the awesome lighting.

And the animation is good too, probably nothing mind blowing but what I enjoyed is there's a lot of shots that you normally don't see in a stop-motion film like full body shots of multiple people walking or wide shots with a lot of people in frame because of the technical difficulty of these things. But I appreciate how this film didn't shy away from any of those shots because they're too hard.

Frankenweenie (2012) is good, but if you're a fan of monster movies or Tim Burton's films from the 90's you should definitely check it out. 4/5 stars.

Happy watching!







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