Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) [Blu-Ray/Digital HD]

Now Available from Warner Home Entertainment.

After two whole months “Godzilla x Kong” is now available on physical media. Two whole months. Sixty days. 1,460 hours. I’m old enough to remember when it usually took eleven months for movies to be put on home video, but I digress. If you missed “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” after its theatrical run, it’s still a humdinger of a monster movie that is sadly Adam Wingard’s last outing in this monsterverse. It’s a fun note to exit on as I’m sure Warner and co. are planning to take the inevitable next chapter and use it as a chance for a soft reboot with Godzilla or Kong finding new challenges. Until then, there’s “The New Empire.”

Continue reading

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Now In Theaters Nationwide.

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” in a nutshell:
Kong: Man, I just got my ass kicked. Help a Titan out?
Godzilla: Say less, bruv. We on this bitch.
Mothra: Allow it.

The best thing to remember about “The New Empire” going in to it is that Adam Wingard’s movie is for the monsters this time. There’s a lot less stuff about bureaucracy, and shady governments, and Armageddon. Now that we’ve hit on all those notes, Wingard gives us what can plainly be described as a fun, classic Saturday matinee. It’s a tribute to the classic monster mashes from Godzilla’s heyday where King Kong is the hero who calls upon a few of his friends, one of whom being Godzilla, to take down a new potential threat to mankind. A challenger to the throne, if you will.

So much of it works as I was hooked on the journey we’re taken on with King Kong.

Continue reading

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital]

It’s surprising that in a film climate where extended universes fail from the starting gate, that the Kong/Godzilla modern film universe has been a quiet success. The crown jewel so far is “Godzilla vs. Kong,” a pretty great monster clash that pits monkey against lizard, and delivers some great rumbles between the pair. Director Adam Wingard is more than up to the challenge of giving fans the long awaited movie clash, and as expected, “Godzilla vs. Kong” met every expectation that I had.

Continue reading

King Kong (1976): Collector’s Edition [2 Blu-Ray]

Now seems around the perfect time and climate to remind movie geeks that in 1976 there was a large scale remake of “King Kong.” And it’s definitely a remake. That is the best thing I can say about it at the end of the day. It’s not great like the original, but it’s not bloated like the 2005 remake, so the mileage varies with director John Guillermin’s treatment of the 1933 classic. After many years without much of a release for the fans, Scream Factory finally offers up a pretty stellar Blu-Ray bound to compliment any fan’s collection, and might even serve as a great chaser for “Godzilla vs. Kong.”

Continue reading

post

The Unlikely Adventures of King Kong

The 1933 classic “King Kong” inspired a number of strange projects, including two Japanese Kong films that are considered lost and a wealth of ideas ranging from a three-camera Cinerama remake to “King Kong vs. Frankenstein” by Willis O’Brien, the genius behind the original’s special effects. On this episode of “The Online Movie Show,” we look at these remarkable Kong projects with John LeMay, author of “Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island.”

The episode can be heard here.

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

What I love about “Kong: Skull Island” is that while it’s essentially a good old fashioned matinee monster movie at heart, it’s also a pretty clever take on the Vietnam war. “Kong: Skull Island” implements the classic trope from the classic giant monster movies taking a group of armed men and women in to the wilderness, and uses that as an allegory for the Vietnam war. Like the aforementioned war, US soldiers storm in to a wilderness they were unprepared to do battle with, except they face an unparalleled force of nature. Also very effectively setting up a cinematic universe, Jordan Vogt-Roberts aspires for a lot, and succeeds as a simple and harrowing adventure with big monsters, and menacing creatures far and wide.

Continue reading

King Kong Lives (1986)

This is the classic love story of a man and a woman falling in lover under weird circumstances. And a pair of apes that also fall in love under odd circumstances. And their heart transplant that bonds them. Okay, so this isn’t a classic love story, but it is the premise for easily the silliest “King Kong” movie ever made. In a movie that was sort of kind of made to be a spoor, but also meant to be taken very seriously, “King Kong Lives” is kind of the movie that killed King Kong until 2005, and proved that this concept was never meant to go beyond the one and done tale of his experience with Fay Wray on the Empire State Building.

Continue reading