Tuesday, December 6 2011
The Beauty and the Horror: Peter Jackson’s King Kong - Part 2
Jackson's film is as unwieldy and difficult as it is gripping and moving, expanding upon the exotic spectacle of the original while simultaneously steering the tale into the realm of tragic lament.
Thursday, December 1 2011
The Beauty and the Horror: Peter Jackson’s King Kong - Part 1
This film is keenly aware of the myriad meanings embedded in its cinematic myth and sets about re-contextualizing and commenting upon the implied politics while offering extravagant thrills and tragic, classic romance.
Tuesday, November 29 2011
Money, Sex, and Power: Contemporary Adaptations in John Guillermin’s King Kong
The 1976 King Kong updates this modern myth’s meanings for a vastly different social, economic, and cultural milieu, but it does so with a leaden obviousness that undermines its conclusions.
Monday, November 28 2011
From Spectacle to Elegy: The Cinematic Myth of King Kong
Like many of the Hollywood blockbusters that followed in its footsteps, King Kong was a barometer for its troubled times, a clear crystallization of many lurking social anxieties in Depression-era America.
Thursday, May 26 2011
Great Entrance, Unca Scrooge: Warren Spector Finds Richness in DuckTales
It's not so much that Warren Spector, the visionary behind Epic Mickey and the legendary Deus Ex, conforms to the genius of DuckTales' generic conventions--it's that he evolves them.
Wednesday, December 14 2005
King Kong (2005)
Jackson's film makes Ann's admiration for Kong an earnest distraction from her eventual, proper coupledom with Jack (who, even with Brody's Men's Health coverboy abs, can't compete with the potent spectacle of Kong).
Thursday, December 18 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
No in-betweeners in this reductive view of the world: characters and choices are good or evil.
Thursday, December 19 2002
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
It's useful to remember that, offscreen, both good and bad tend to be tricksy.
Tuesday, December 18 2001
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
What is potentially most urgent about 'The Fellowship of the Ring' is how it reflects the tenor of our time.
