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My First Thumbs Down

Before I get to tonight's selection, King Kong, I have to add that my husband gave Frankenstein a thumbs sideways. He thought it was just okay, not great, and probably wouldn't watch it again any time soon.

Okay, on to my thoughts of King Kong (number 43 on the list). The video we got from the library was a 60th anniversary celebration type edition and it contained a documentary prior to the film. Thus we learned a lot about the film before actually watching it. For example, we learned that many film-making techniques used today were combined for the first time on this film. The movie was high art of the day. After the documentary it was on to the movie.

By 30 minutes in, I knew I was going to have a hard time making it through the whole movie. Basically the pace was tedious and there were many rather corny lines. Don't even get me started on some of the acting. Oi! These aspects made it difficult to sit through the movie. They also made it difficult to appreciate the state of the art (for the time, anyway) special effects, great musical score, and well-done sound effects.

There are only two reasons I did sit through it without surfing the net as a distraction. First, I have a rule about not going online while my husband is home and awake. Second, when we started watching the movies from this list we set the rule that we had to watch all of them all the way through. Parts of the movie did pick up a bit and compelled me to watch. Despite the wonderful music score and sound effects, though, I'm giving this one a thumbs down because the acting was on the bad side and the plot didn't hold my interest.

My husband says the movie was, "Ground-breaking for its time." He gives it a thumbs mostly up for being so ground breaking. That's all he had to say, so I'm signing off for tonight.

Happy movie watching all and thanks for visitng my Cinema Spot.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It should also be appreciated due to its pre-code nature. This film would not have been made after the Hayes code came into being. Just FYI. You want bad acting...try Glen or Glenda. It makes Fay Wray look like Meryl Streep. :) Good luck in your film quest!

- Becca
8:44 AM
Juli said…
Thanks Becca, I'd not heard about the Hayes Code before. You learn something new everyday. Juli
8:12 AM
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