King Kong (1933)

Hollywood vacuity starts here, people. This, despite its enormous reputation, is really nothing more than the first big Special Effects Movie. And as that label would imply, the effects are indeed excellent. There's a tactility to the stop-motion animation that no amount of CGI or gorilla-suit hijinx can match. Willis O'Brien's Kong is a living, breathing marvel of technological triumph... so why is he harnessed to something so unworthy of his presence? When the monkey's not around, this is a thudding Poverty Row cheapie awash in crummy B-pulp acting (was Robert Armstrong tone-deaf or was English just his second language?) and anonymous direction. A film like this needs a child-like sense of wonder and awe, but all this has is dogged second-level workmanship. The truth must be told: This is a bit of stiff-jointed boondoggle that hopes the audience will be too impressed with the effects to notice that the rest of the film is kinda stupid. Its influence can be felt in all the wrong ways every summer.

Grade: C+