KONG : SKULL ISLAND : Tuesday 14th March 2017.

I saw 'KONG : SKULL ISLAND' in the week. Wanting to catch a movie for which I could leave my brain at the door, I saw this offering in 3D because it was the only session that suited my timing. I wasn't disappointed by the first point, but I was for the second and maybe because 3D has been done to death now that it is no longer the novelty that it once was, and let me tell you 3D does little for this film beyond what you would expect. That said, the film does have other redeeming features.

In 84 years of film making history, 'King Kong' has featured countless times in live action and animated forms, in dramatic thrillers and cheesy send ups, on his own or battling some other equally menacing foe. 'King Kong' first mesmerised audiences back in 1933 by the remarkable stop-motion effects of Willis O'Brien, and a story that began on Skull Island, somewhere near Indonesia where as well as Kong, dinosaurs and giant insects also roamed the wild undiscovered landscape. In this origin story Kong is tracked down by filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and falls for Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) culminating in the classic closing sequence atop the Empire State Building from which Kong eventually falls to his death. On the strength of this film, 'Son of Kong' was immediately put into production and released later on in 1933. 'Mighty Joe Young' followed in 1949 also featuring Robert Armstrong, and remade in 1998 starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron. Then courtesy of Japanese cinema, came 'King Kong vs. Godzilla' in 1962 and 'King Kong Escapes' in 1967. 1976 saw the Dino De Laurentiis produced remake 'King Kong' and that same year the Brits released the send up of all King Kong movies with 'Queen Kong'. 'King Kong Lives' was released in 1986 and Directed by John Guillermin who also Directed the 1976 film. Peter Jackson delivered us 'King Kong' in 2005 with all the modern day cutting edge technical wizardry he could throw at his three time Oscar winning film that brought in US$550M at the global Box Office. And so in 2017 we have another King Kong offering Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, made on a budget of US$185M and starring an ensemble cast and featuring a raft load of special effects and filmed in northern Vietnam, Hawaii and on Australia's Gold Coast. It has so far taken US$163M, and has garnered generally positive Reviews.

Set in the early '70's a secret organisation called 'Monarch' locate an island that is shrouded in mystery and is said to contain several new species. That island is named 'Skull Island' because from the air the island resembles the shape of a skull in profile. Enter Bill Randa (John Goodman) who works for Monarch who sets up the expedition to go boldly where no man has gone before. He and colleague Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) - a young geologist, Yale University graduate and well known for his ground breaking work on seismology seek the funding support from Senator Willis (Richard Jenkins) who reluctantly gives it. In turn Randa and Brooks recruit James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) a former British Air Services Captain who saw time in Vietnam and who has a particular set of tracking and survival skills. Also hired is Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) who leads the Sky Devils helicopter squadron who have to chopper in the expedition team. And then there's Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) a pacifist photojournalist who has an affinity with nature and the environment.

Pretty soon, the team are assembled and are en route via cargo ship to Skull Island and into the unknown. They get their briefing, military style, and as they approach, the order is given to man the helicopters and negotiate their way through the islands own weather system which sees the island shrouded in thick storm clouds. For Packard and his team of hardened Vietnam War vets, this is a walk in the park, and what could possibly go wrong with a few lightning strikes and a little wet weather? How wrong could they be?

After successfully negotiating the surrounding storm front the fleet of choppers emerge into sudden clear blue skies, sunshine and lush tropical islands below - a picture of paradise lost! Randa and Packard give the order to Brooks to release the seismic charges and they detonate in the verdant forests below shaking the ground with explosion after explosion. This draws the attention of a certain giant bipedal ape the like of which no man has ever witnessed before, and one by one 'Kong' plucks the helicopters out of the sky, swatting them like flies and sending them crashing down to the dense forest floor below. Many are destroyed resulting in those that survived being split into two groups.

After burying their dead, the group containing Conrad, Weaver and Brooks and young Monarch biologist San Lin (Jing Tian) amongst a few others, stumble across a deserted ancient looking village. Venturing inside they are met with local Iwi natives and Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly) who was shot down over the island in a aerial dogfight 28 years earlier during WWII and has been on the island ever since despite his eight attempts to get of it. He has been befriended by the Iwi's, has lived with them all this time, and has learned a thing or two about the island, and it's giant animal life - friendly and harmless, and not so!

Marlow tells the group that Kong is the island's guardian and is worshipped as a god by the natives for protecting them from 'Skullcrawlers'. These reptilian underground lizard monsters slaughtered Kong's parents and ancestors, leaving him as the last of his kind. Marlow also tells them that Kong only attacked the helicopters to prevent the bombs from awakening the largest Skullcrawler, and therefore protecting the locals from it. After being welcomed by the Iwi who take the group back to their heavily fortified village (for protection from the Skullcrawlers, not Kong), and learning more of their culture and beliefs, the group head out on a motor boat that Marlow spent six years building out of salvaged parts from his WWII downed plane. In the meantime, Conrad has an up close and personal encounter with some of the wildlife present on the island!

Needing to reunite with the second group and rendezvous at a designated time with a resupply team in the islands north, Conrad and his group disembark their boat upstream in search for Randa, Packard and his men. They reunite, but Packard is insistent that they continue to search for missing right hand man, Jack Chapman (Tony Kebbell). Little do they know that Chapman was eaten by a Skullcrawler earlier on. Conrad leads the team into the 'Forbidden Zone' - a former battleground and now graveyard containing the skeleton remains of Kong's ancestors.

The Skullcrawler that killed Chapman emerges and attacks, devouring Randa in a moment of lost concentration as he played with his camera. Many of Packards soldiers are massacred too, before Weaver kills it by setting off an explosion. Packard blames Kong for the deaths of his men and wants vengeance. He retrieves seismic explosives from one of his downed helicopters to lure Kong into a trap and kill him using napalm.  Conrad in turn leads the non-military group back to the boat so they can rendezvous with the resupply team in time.

The groups now separated again, with Packard vowing to destroy the giant ape in a ball of fire, and Conrad working back to meet up with the boat. While out scouting the surrounding lie of the land to get their bearings from a high peak with which to look down, Conrad and Weaver come face to face with Kong. Sensing that Kong is not the bad guy here, they resolve to do what they can to save him, to which Marlow staunchly agrees. 

As Kong turns away from Conrad and Weaver his attention is grabbed by fires and explosions set by Packard to lure the ape out into the open, and engulf him in napalm flame. Packard is successful in bringing Kong down, but he's not out. Meanwhile a standoff ensues as Conrad and Weaver arrive at the scene just before Packard is about to butcher Kong once and for all, using more explosives. The group is attacked by the dominant Skullcrawler, giving Kong enough time to recover his senses and stand on his two feet. As Packard is set to detonate the explosives taking out Kong, so Kong stamps on him with his giant size 38 feet!

As Conrad, Weaver and Marlow seek their escape back to the boat and a waiting Brooks and Lin, they are pursued by the Skullcrawler. At which point Kong arrives to their aid, and an epic battle ensues between the two giant creatures. Kong prevails needless to say by ripping out the Skullcrawlers guts through its mouth at the end of its elongated forked tongue. The group make their getaway with Kong looking on, he then turns and walks away. 

In a post credits sequence, Conrad and Weaver are held in detention and interrogated by Monarch officials, and Skull Island expedition survivors Brooks and Lin in a bunker at some undisclosed location, watched from behind a one way window. Conrad and Weaver are told that Kong is not the only monster to roam the world, and are shown archive film of cave paintings depicting Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah. This sets up the already announced Legendary Pictures 'MonsterVerse' and their planned May 2020 release of the 'Godzilla vs. Kong' film.

I enjoyed this film, but it is everything you would expect it to be. A simple somewhat implausible popcorn story that sees strong enough performances from the principle cast, but which are overshadowed by the special effects, the action set pieces, the enormity of Kong (delivered expertly though motion capture by Terry Notary), and the other creatures that share Kong's world. There is a high body count with bodies getting eaten, trampled on, thrown asunder and dismembered, and the film runs along at a solid pace without any melodramatic interludes. Sure 'Kong : Skull Island' stands tall in the pantheon of better 'King Kong' film fare in its 84 year history, but not tall enough to outshine its original predecessor. Worth a look on the big screen nonetheless.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 9th March 2017.

Much has been written about last weeks Best Film Award presentation fiasco at the recent Academy Awards ceremony, when 'La La Land' was initially announced and awarded the golden statue for the coveted prize, only to have the gong thrust from the Producers hands mid way through their acceptance speeches, in favour of the real winner, 'Moonlight'. Can you imagine the horror back stage, as Hollywood's night of nights comes to a confusing disastrous halt right at the end of the proceedings and during the biggest film award presentation of the year? For the first time in 83 years of overseeing the accounting and auditing procedures of the voting process and the distribution of the closely guarded and top secret winners envelops on Awards night, did notable Accounting Firm PricewaterhouseCoopers manage to get it so wrong! Human error on the part of trusted PwC representatives Brian Cullinan and his business associate Martha Ruiz, is what this boils down to.

Cullinan got so distracted and carried away by the glitz and glamour back stage like a kid in a candy store, busying himself with Tweeting photographs of Best Actress Winner Emma Stone immediately before the (wrong) envelope was passed to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. In doing so, he handed over the second envelope for Best Actress in a Leading Role which read 'Emma Stone, La La Land', which explains why Beatty fumbled and looked quizzically at the camera and the audience, and why he handed the opened envelope to Dunaway who saw 'La La Land' and announced it as the winner! A simple mistake by our two presenters who should not be held to task over the faux pas witnessed by a gob smacked audience gathered in the Dolby Theatre, and a viewing audience running into hundreds of millions around the world. Embarrassing for the Academy, yes; embarrassing for PwC who have admitted full liability for the mix up, for sure; embarrassing for Beatty and Dunaway on the spot and who called it out; definitely but they have been cleansed of any blame; embarrassing for the Producers of 'La La Land', I guess so having been well into their speeches but then handled so graciously once the reality of the situation emerged; embarrassing for the Producers of 'Moonlight', probably not as they emerged the real winners & grinners even if some of their limelight was stolen!

So, what are the learnings from this? You can't legislate for the actions of mere mortals, we are but human, and as such we make mistakes, even if this monumental error was the first of its kind in the Academy's 89 year history. There is a first time for everything! And secondly, maybe its time for the Academy and PwC to review their procedures and opt for a more reliable technology alternative that removes the human element, or at least backs it up as a failsafe mechanism. And thirdly, it will be interesting to see what differences are made to protocols at next years 90th Academy Awards ceremony to avoid any such repetitions ever occurring again.

And so turning to this week, there are four new films to entice you out to your local multiplex sometime during this first week of the Southern Hemisphere Autumn. We kick off with another epic big screen adaptation of the giant hairy monster kind that saw its first cinematic outing over eighty years ago, and still knows how to pull a crowd delivered with a strong cast and cutting edge CGI. This is followed up by a sequel to an earlier film from 2011 that is an Aussie outback misadventure featuring three men and a corpse . . . dead serious! We then move to a recent Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film, with an offering from Iran from a previously acclaimed Director, before wrapping up with every cinephiles must see documentary of a legendary much loved and highly regarded Australian Film Critic extraordinaire.

When you have sat in a darkened enclosed space with a bunch of complete strangers for two hours all gazing in the same direction at a big screen, feel free to share your movie going thoughts, observations and opinions with us all here at Odeon Online in a constructive, pertinent and relevant manner. Simply leave your views in the Comments section below this or any other Post - as usual your input is welcomed and we'd love to hear from you. Meanwhile, enjoy your film.

'KONG : SKULL ISLAND' (Rated M) - in 84 years of film making history, King Kong has featured countless times in live action and animated forms, in dramatic thrillers and cheesy send ups, on his own or battling some other equally menacing foe. 'King Kong' first mesmerised audiences back in 1933 by the remarkable stop-motion effects of Willis O'Brien, and a story that began on Skull Island, somewhere near Indonesia where as well as Kong, dinosaurs and giant insects also roamed the wild undiscovered landscape. In this origin story Kong is tracked down by filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and falls for Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) culminating in the classic closing sequence atop the Empire State Building from which Kong eventually falls to his death. On the strength of this film, 'Son of Kong' was immediately put into production and released later on in 1933. 'Mighty Joe Young' followed in 1949 also featuring Robert Armstrong, and remade in 1998 starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron. Then courtesy of Japanese cinema, came 'King Kong vs. Godzilla' in 1962 and 'King Kong Escapes' in 1967. 1976 saw the Dino De Laurentiis produced remake 'King Kong' and that same year the Brits released the send up of all King Kong movies with 'Queen Kong'. 'King Kong Lives' was released in 1986 and Directed by John Guillermin who also Directed the 1976 film. Peter Jackson delivered us 'King Kong' in 2005 with all the modern day cutting edge technical wizardry he could throw at his three time Oscar winning film that brought in US$550M at the global Box Office. And so in 2017 we have another King Kong offering Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, made on a budget of US$190M and starring an ensemble cast and featuring a raft load of special effects and filmed in northern Vietnam, Hawaii and on Australia's Gold Coast.

Set in the early '70's a secret organisation locate an island that is shrouded in mystery and is said to contain several new species. Enter Bill Randa (John Goodman) who works for that secret organisation who sets up the expedition to go boldly where no man has gone before. He hires James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) a former British Air Services Captain who saw time in Vietnam and who has a particular set of skills. Also hired is Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) who leads the Sky Devils helicopter squadron who have to chopper in the expedition team. And then there's Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) a photojournalist who has an affinity with nature and the environment. Pretty soon the expedition come face to face with a giant ape known as Kong who over time has had his kind wiped out by alpha predators known as 'Skull Crawlers'. What ensues is a battle for survival against the Skull Crawlers and other unsavoury insects, animals and monsters inhibiting this far away land, and a realisation that Kong might just be the good guy here and worth saving. Also starring John C. Reilly as Hank Marlow a WWII soldier stranded on the island for the past three decades, Toby Kebbel, John Ortiz, Jing Tian and Terry Notary as King Kong through MoCap.

'A FEW LESS MAN' (Rated MA15+) - in 2011 'A Few Best Men' was released as an Aussie Brit comedy Directed by Stephan Elliott about an Australian groom heading off to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney with three of his best men for his wedding. The film received a lacklustre critical response and just about recovered its production budget of AU$14M. Why would they make a follow up I hear you cry? Somebody clearly thought it a good idea and a sound investment! This time Directed by Mark Lamprell, following the joys of a destination wedding gone horribly wrong, our best buddies David (Xavier Samuel), Graham (Kevin Bishop) and Tom (Kris Marshall) suddenly find themselves dealing with a new challenge as their friend, Luke is very dead having been crushed by a falling boulder. After agreeing to deliver Luke's body to his aunt in Perth, David's father-in-law manages to organise a private plane to fly them there. When a forced unexpected landing in the middle of nowhere finds them stranded, the likely lads must negotiate a crocodile infested swamp, transporting their friend through the treacherous bush, facing all manner of challenges and opportunities! All the while, these trials & tribulations threaten the heartfelt friendships of our three besties, who are gutted over the loss of their long term mate. Driven by a sense of duty they are determined to get through the ordeal and deliver the body to Perth and will consequently end up being the stronger for it . . . provided they all survive to tell the tale with their sanity and their wits in one piece. Also staring Deborah Mailman, Shane Jacobsen and Ryan Corr.

'THE SALESMAN' (Rated M) - this Iranian drama film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Asghar Farhadi and it won the Best Foreign Language Film Award at last weeks Academy Awards Ceremony as well as Best Actor and Best Screenplay Awards at last years Cannes Film Festival. All up it has won eight awards and been nominated for another seventeen, and has received widespread acclaim. Telling the story of husband and wife stage actors Emad and Rana Etesami (Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti respectively) appearing as the leads in a production of Arthur Millers 'Death of a Salesman' who are forced to leave their collapsing house. An actor friend of theirs suggests a  rental apartment which they take, unaware of the fact that the previous tenant was a prostitute and she 'entertained' some unsavoury types there. By a fateful twist, one night while Rana is home alone taking a bath, she is visited by one such unsavoury customer of the former tenant, the aftermath of which leaves this peaceful loving couple with their lives turned upside down and inside out.

'DAVID STRATTON : A CINEMATIC LIFE' (Rated M) - anyone who's anyone in the movie business in Australia at the very least will have heard of the legendary film critic, author, writer and television presenter David Stratton who arrived in Australia in 1963 aged 24 from his native England. He quickly assimilated himself into film society circles, acted on the juries at the Cannes, Venice and Berlin International Film Festivals, was Director for the Sydney Film Festival from 1966 until 1983, and from 1980 though until 2014 was the expert Co-Host of the SBS Television show 'The Movie Show' and then the ABC's 'At The Movies' both with Margaret Pomeranz. He is a highly regarded expert of international cinema, particularly French cinema, and in his time he has seen over 25,000 films. Even if you watched one movie every day of the week and two on Sundays, that would fill up 60 years! Directed and Written by Sally Aitken this compelling personal journey documents the fascinating development of our cinematic history. David Stratton takes us from his boyhood cinema experience of Australia in England, where he saw the first images of this far away exotic landscape via the medium of film, to his move to Australia and onto his current day musings on the iconic themes that run through our film making history. At the heart of the film is the story of an industry whose growing pains Stratton has witnessed over a lifetime. Alongside Stratton, the protagonists of this history are the giants of Australian cinema – both behind the camera and in front of it and include the likes of Jackie Weaver, Bryan Brown, Russell Crowe, Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush, George Miller, Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving, Fred Schepisi and plenty more in sometimes intimate and revealing interviews. A must see for cinephiles, movie lovers and film goers everywhere.

Four films this week crossing epic big screen action, an outback comedy, an acclaimed Foreign Language offering, and an insightful doco featuring a much loved cinephile. You really don't need any excuses to get out to your local theatre in the week ahead to catch a movie of choice, and then to share your views with us here. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime, somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-