u/originalchaosinabox

It's the May long weekend up here in Canada, too expensive these day to go anywhere and do anything, so I'm spending my days binging King Kong and its various remakes.

The one that I've decided to tell you about is the one that kind of gets overlooked these days...the 1976 remake. This was actually my first exposure to King Kong. When I was a kid, my brother got the junior novelization of the 1933 original at the Scholastic book fair. After reading it, he really wanted to see the movie. Well, the 1976 version was the only one that our small town, mom-and-pop video store had. My brother didn't like some of the changes made for this movie. Instead of the Empire State Building, Kong climbs the World Trade Center. And instead of biplanes, it's helicopters.

It starts off the same as the 1933 original: we've got a boat leading an expedition to the mysterious Skull Island. But the motivations are modernized for the 70s. Leading the expedition is Fred Wilson of the Petrox Oil Company. He got his hands on some satellite photos of a newly discovered island in the South Pacific. Spectrographic analysis of the island says it could be home to some of the richest oil fields ever, and they've got to get there before any other oil companies stake a claim. But, they have a stowaway. Jack Prescott is a paleontologist specializing in primates. In his research, he has come across many stories of sailors coming across an uncharted island in that part of the world, and they describe that it's home to a great, ape-like beast. When Prescott's sources informed him that an expedition was heading to that part of the world in search of the island, he had to come along.

And rounding out our crew is a castaway they rescue, Dwan. Dwan is a Hollywood starlet, the sole survivor of a sleazy producer's yacht going down. It's love at first sight between Jack and Dwan.

You know the rest by now. Our expedition arrives at the island, discover hostile natives and that the stories of a giant ape, Kong, are true. Dwan is sacrificed to Kong, and Jack heads up a rescue party through this lost world to save Dwan from Kong. Meanwhile, as the oil on the island is found to be unusable, Fred decides to save face by capturing Kong and making him the new company mascot.

But as with most Kong movies, the real show here is the special effects, which are truly above average for the time. The original plan was to build a full-sized (40 feet tall!) animatronic Kong, built and operated by pioneering special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi. Rambaldi's other work included E.T. and the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But, the full-sized animatronic barely worked and is only used for a few shots at the film's climax. So instead, they decided to go the "man-in-suit" route, like a Godzilla movie. The King Kong suit was some of the earliest work of legendary make-up artist Rick Baker. Baker himself even wore the suit and performed Kong for most of the film. Rambaldi still built giant animatronic Kong hands to pick up Dwan, and collaborated with Baker on the animatronics in Kong's face.

The cast is pretty good. Jack is played by Jeff Bridges, at his youngest and most heart-throbby. He's a rough and tumble scientist in the same vein as Indiana Jones. Dwan is played by future Oscar-winner Jessica Lange, in her film debut. She's an absolute stunner. And Fred is played by Charles Grodin, who injects just a small amount of camp into this villain.

There's lush scenery in what I think is Hawaii, filling in for Skull Island. Although, it's fairly obvious when they switch to a set to accommodate the visual effects. And composer John Barry hits us with a sweeping, romantic score, which is a bit reminiscent of his James Bond work.

The film was a big enough hit that it spawned a sequel (1986's King Kong Lives, which by all accounts, is one of the worst movies ever made), but it didn't quite have the staying power of the 1933 original. But it's a pretty good update of the film's themes and action. Worth checking out.

Star Wars Day is right around the corner, marking the time to revisit Star Wars movies. And today, I thought I would go with the forgotten Star Wars movie. When the debates erupts about the best and worst Star Wars movies, this one never enters the discourse. Disney+ doesn't even list it as a movie. They have it tucked away as a "Star Wars Special."

I am talking about the 2008 Clone Wars animated movie.

I've had this debate several times in the Star Wars subs. "A ha!" you'll say. "It doesn't count because it's not a real movie. It's just the first four episodes of the TV show strung together." And to that I say it's a movie because George Lucas says it is.

As the legend goes, when Lucas first saw some of the rough animation for the first episodes of the Clone Wars he said, "This is good enough to be a movie! It's a movie now." It got the same marketing push as any other Star Wars movie, with merchandise and novelizations. Lucas even brought back Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee to voice Mace Windu and Count Dooku, to give it a little bit of star power. And I was there opening day as I have been for every Star Wars movie since the special editions in 1997.

It's a movie because I WAS THERE, DARN IT!

And as movies go...man, it feels like four episodes of a TV show strung together.

As the Clone Wars rage across the galaxy, Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are given their latest assignment. Space pirates have kidnapped Rotta the Hutt, the infant son of Jabba the Hutt. The Hutts control hyperspace routes that are vital to Republic supply lines. If the Jedi can save Rotta and bring him back to Jabba, this might finally forge an alliance between the Republic and the Hutts. Luckily, Kenobi and Skywalker have a new ally to help them out. The Jedi Council have decided to assign Skywalker a padawan...Ahsoka Tano. Skywalker and Tano have a rocky start, as Skywalker insists he doesn't want a padawan and Tano has a little too much attitude, but as they work their first assignment together, they realize they have a lot to learn from each other.

It's amazing for Ahsoka has grown in the ensuing decades to become one of the most popular characters in the franchise. In her first appearance, she is incredibly annoying. She comes across as a very stereotypical teen sidekick: very snarky, very quick with a joke, and with way too much attitude.

In fact, there's a lot of Saturday morning cartoon tropes at play, with the Battle Droids seemingly reduced to bumbling henchmen.

But it's TV roots are very obvious. Exposition is repeated every 20 minutes for those just tuning in. As great as the animation is, it's not quite feature quality.

And I will give it this. Anakin Skywalker is a lot more, dare I say, animated here than he was in the live-action films. In Episodes II and III, we see him as a dark brooder. But in the series, he gets to have more fun. Episodes II and III are his bad days. Here we finally see him on a good day.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not very good. It was so bad, it made me avoid the series for the longest time. And because the series is so beloved by the fans, I find it a little bit funny that the movie that spawned it all is still considered so bad, it doesn't count.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand is one of those movies I'm mildly fascinated with, because of whose careers it launched. It was the debut film from Robert Zemeckis, who would go on to give us such classics as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away. He co-wrote the film with his writing partner Bob Gale, and together the two would go on to make the Back to the Future trilogy.

You can see some of the origins of Back to the Future in here. It does end with a car careening down a city street to make it to their destination on time, a lightening strike, and a nerd throwing a punch with a, "Hey you, get your damn hands off her."

It's February 9, 1964, and we follow a group of teens who vow to do whatever it takes to be in the audience at the Ed Sullivan Show and witness the Beatles first American televised perfomance. Our heroines all have different reasons for wanting to see the Beatles:

Rosie - Your stereotypical Beatlemaniac. Completely obsessed with Fab Four, and knows ever detail. She's constantly got one ear tuned to a transistor radio, hoping to win tickets in a contest.

Pam - She just got engaged, and she's trying to put childish things like Beatlemania aside. But as the day goes on, she learns there's more to life than getting married ASAP and pumping out babies.

Grace - She's an aspiring photographer, and hopes getting some exclusive photos of the Beatles will be her big break.

Janis - Janis actually hates the Beatles, dismissing this as a manufactured pop band, designed to distract from true artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. She's going along to protest and, if possible, disrupt the show.

We follow them on their day throughout New York City as they go through various schemes to try to score tickets. There's madcap chases through the Beatles' hotel, through the streets of New York, and coming very close to getting tickets, but falling short.

The film is actually pretty funny, with some genuinely sweet moments. And Zemeckis already shows his skill at recreating historical events, something he perfected in Forrest Gump. He couldn't digitially insert our characters into the Beatles legendary performance back in 1978, but thanks to a detailed recreation of the set, a darn good Ed Sullivan impersonator, and clever editing with the actual footage of the event, he does a damn good job.

A very sweet and funny film. Worth checking out if you get the chance.

An after-school staple for Canadian kids in the 80s. Fraternal twins Tom and Annie Edison are a couple of high school science whiz kids. Along with their kid brother Paul, they use their science skills to solve mysteries in their neighbourhood. Think Hardy Boys with a dash of CSI.