Hello: I hope that you are all well, given the crazy times we are enduring. This looks interesting. I saw it in the theater back in the day. The hype lived up to my expectations and I still love it, though it may look dated to some. Synopsis "A dazzling display of what the special-effects people can do when commissioned to construct a 40-foot-tall ape ..." – Vincent Canby, The New York Times The Petrox company's search for new oil reserves on a strange island unleashes a terror unseen by civilized man – KING KONG! The timeless story of a beauty (Jessica Lange, making her feature-film debut) and a beast comes to the screen in this ambitious production from Dino De Laurentiis. Charles Grodin is the scheming oil company shark out to exploit the giant beast to his fullest. And Jeff Bridges is the desperate hero, Jack Prescott, who attempts to wrest the beautiful heroine from King Kong's grasp. New York City trembles with each echoing footstep of the towering ape set loose in the streets! Bonus Features DISC ONE: THEATRICAL CUT (2.35:1) NEW Audio Commentary With Film Historian Ray Morton (Author Of KING KONG – THE HISTORY OF A MOVIE ICON) NEW Audio Interview With Special Makeup Effects Wizard Rick Baker NEW Something’s Haywire – An Interview With Actor Jack O’Halloran NEW On The Top Of The World – An Interview With Assistant Director David McGiffert And Production Manager Brian Frankish NEW Maybe In Their Wildest Dreams – An Interview With Sculptor Steve Varner NEW There’s A Fog Bank Out There – An Interview With Second Unit Director William Kronick NEW From Space To Apes – An Interview With Photographic Effects Assistant Barry Nolan NEW When The Monkey Dies, Everybody Cries – An Interview With Production Assistants Jeffrey Chernov And Scott Thaler Audio: DTS-HD 5.1 And NEW Restored Theatrical DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo Track Theatrical Trailer TV Spots Radio Spots Still Galleries – Posters, Lobby Cards, Behind-The-Scenes Photos DISC TWO: EXTENDED TV BROADCAST CUT (2.35:1) NEW 2K Scan Of The Additional TV Footage From The Internegative KING KONG Panel Discussion From The Aero Theater (2016)
It’s pretty good. I’m waiting for the Turkey sequel since I had some story input into it (it’s an awful movie and I’m not proud of my association with it but it is chess). The blu-Ray looks pretty good for “KK” 76. It also includes the TV version as well. It has its moments. Anything with Charles Grodin, Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange can’t be all bad. the film has many problems but it definitely needed dinosaurs.
I'm definitely going to pick this up.... I've never seen the extended TV cut, and as far as I know, this is the first time it's ever been officially released.
Thanks for posting this... I never got the hate this movie gets from some folks... Is it as good as the original 1933 'King Kong'? No, but it's not as bad as some make it out to be either.
The poster is a historical document now due to what he's standing on and also a fine example of P T Barnum-type hype - King Kong in the film wasn't big enough to stand on two buildings!
It's been some years but I saw the TV version; I am guessing it will include scenes that were omitted from the theater release.
Saw this in a London theatre when it was released. I think my favorite story about the film’s production involved the SFX team getting the giant Kong hand stuck in the “one digit salute” while playing a joke on DeLaurentis. It remained in bird mode for several days, and Dino was not amused.
The hype and swag selling King Kong 1976 was better than the movie! That exciting poster and its total BS claim (it takes Mighty Kong-sized balls to call a remake "the most exciting original motion picture event of all time"), but also the Coca-Cola collector's set of glasses and the coolest King Kong lunch box (which a kid on my school bus owned). Circa-1998, cities were covered in outdoor/transit ads for Devlin and Emmerich's Godzilla remake - "His foot is as big as this bus" - and I thought "Man, the movie better live up to its ad campaign" as it reminded of the King Kong '76 publicity juggernaut...to a similar end.
I absolutely love that movie...thought the redesign was phenomenal. I can't say the same about Godzilla 2014 where he looks like a meatloaf and the story was a snooze-fest.
Yesterday, "Son of Kong" popped up and I decided to watch it. It was as corny and comical today as it was when I was a kid! Didn't know this movie was released 8 months after the original Kong. Talk about a studio mucking it up! Son of Kong simply should've been better, the studio shot themselves in the foot! It took them over 10 yrs before they made the far superior Mighty Joe Young!
Man, I was so disappointed when I saw the movie and realized Kong couldn't/didn't straddle the two towers!
You're welcome. I appreciate your gratitude; it is apparently rare in this forum where everyone is a critic.
First time anyone has said that, ever! The only thing related to the '98 film that i like is the fact that Toho officially declared the creature to be an entirely separate monster, and then had the real Godzilla kill him off in Final Wars.
I was impressed by the fact that they set was written/burned on 2, 50Gb discs. They could have played it cheap and used 2, 25Gb discs or have all the content on 1, 50Gb disc.
Pretty cool that they're putting the TV cut on there. They've done that for Superman and Halloween recently. Nice to see more attention being paid to these extended cuts and restoring these lost scenes. There are so many more movies where extended cuts were shown on TV or could be made from assembly cuts, where the extra scenes are not even available on disc as deleted scenes. I'd rather they focus more on restoring these lost elements for old movies than constantly cranking out an infinite stream of new TV shows and movies.
