Just Jackson: Peter Jackson’s grandiose epic remake of King Kong is here; and it’s long. The original clocked in at about an hour and 40mins, Jackson’s movie is a whopping 3 hours. If you’ve seen the original you know how it ends, you probably know without even having seen the original. The story follows an “almost great” movie director Carl Denham, played with mad scientist glee by Jack Black, as he scrambles to get his movie made. His “vision” leads him to set sail for an undiscovered island filled with mystery and we soon find out lots of danger. Accompanying Denham are his assistant, Preston (played by Tom Hanks’s son Colin); Jack Driscoll, the screenwriter, played by Adrien Brody; the male star of the picture Bruce Baxter; and of course Ann Darrow, played to the hilt by Naomi Watts. There are some other crew members and shipmates thrown in for good measure; there have to be some people who die on the island. The first forty minutes of the film is very slow and almost torturous. In fact, Kong doesn’t show up until an hour and ten minutes into the film. At times the film doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be: First it’s Titanic as the ship is tossed and turned in a storm and runs afoul of a wall and jagged rocks; then it’s Island of Dr. Moreau with skewered skulls and natives looking for a sacrifice; then it’s Jurassic Park as the crew members fight off dinosaurs and other creatures. The film has plenty of thrills, a couple of which go on just a titch too long. One particularly exciting scene is the one in which Kong, Ann, and several T-Rex dinosaurs get caught in some major ropes. There are of course some tender scenes too; one in which Kong and Ann frolic on a pond of ice and another in which Ann becomes playful with Kong. When Kong decides to add his own touch to the play, Ann eventually says no to signify enough. At this point, like a typical male, Kong becomes angry and starts pounding his fist and breaking things. Also like a male, Kong spends most of the movie saving Ann from various dangers. Jackson really captures the poignancy of the relationship between Kong and Ann. Once Kong is loose in NYC and he searches in vain for his blond beauty he comes face to face with the man who stole her away and it’s not hard to feel his jealousy and anguish. Black captures Denham’s obsession with capturing his movie on film, however, little does he know that his movie will soon become the ultimate in cinema verite. The film probably could have been told in about two and a half hours but it is a Jackson movie. And it is to Jackson’s credit that he keeps the film set in the 1930’s instead of trying to modernize it. Watts does a fine job as the blond damsel-in-distress and plays her with a little less innocence and a little more sexuality than Fay Wray did but she doesn’t overdo it. Jamie “Billy Elliott” Bell shows up as a member of the ship, young and eager to fight. The movie hints that Bell’s character was himself rescued from the island but we don’t get any further explanation. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jackson released another movie next year, which gives the back-story of the island and how Kong came to be. I found myself wondering that as I watched the film. One final note about the film is that Kong out acted every other male actor in the film, not an easy feat considering how hammy Jack Black was.