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(About Our Ads) "KING KONG" (2005) (Naomi Watts, Jack Black) (PG-13) If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button. Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film. QUICK TAKE: Action/Adventure: A 1930s film crew sets out to discover an uncharted island for their film, but must contend with the 25-foot tall ape that kidnaps their starlet and retreats into its prehistoric world. PLOT: It's the 1930s and the Great Depression has severely affected the Big Apple. That's particularly true for vaudeville performer Ann Darrow (NAOMI WATTS) whose theater has just closed, leaving her unemployed, penniless and hungry. Fortunately for her, movie producer Carl Denham (JACK BLACK) is just as hungry. It's not for food, however, but rather a starlet to replace his lead actress who's just walked out of his film that's falling apart all around him. When the studio executives pull the plug on his work, Carl grabs the footage he's shot, his camera crew and gear, and races to board a freighter run by Captain Englehorn (THOMAS KRETSCHMANN). Having convinced Ann and B-movie star Bruce Baxter (KYLE CHANDLER) to join him, and having tricked playwright turned reluctant screenwriter Jack Driscoll (ADRIEN BRODY) into staying onboard so as to miss his chance to get off the ship, Jack and his assistant Preston (COLIN HANKS) start shooting the movie as the freighter heads for uncharted waters, in search of the legendary Skull Island. When young ship worker Jimmy (JAMIE BELL) hears that, he informs his mentor Hayes (EVAN PARKE) and Lumpy the Cook (ANDY SERKIS) who in turn tell the Captain. That, coupled with news of a warrant for Jack's arrest leads to them abandoning their destination. It's too late, however, as they enter a fog bank and end up crashing into the island. There, an expedition heads out to investigate the island that seems filled with long-abandoned ruins, including an enormous wall that runs the length of the former civilization. Yet, the island is anything but abandoned. After surviving a lethal run-in with the local natives, the crew returns to their ship, but a middle-of-the-night raid results in Ann being abducted by the natives, returned to the island, and offered up as a sacrifice to an unknown entity. When Carl, Jack and others try to rescue her, however, they soon realize the enormity of their task. For the benefactor of the sacrifice is an enormous, 25-foot tall gorilla -- King Kong -- that rules its prehistoric land filled with dinosaurs of all sorts as well as bats and insects the size of humans. As the rescue team attempts to find and return Ann before the ship sets sail the next day, Carl does what he can to film and later capture the giant ape that's seemingly grown attached to Ann who eventually starts to feel the same way about him. OUR TAKE: 6.5 out of 10 This third telling of the beauty and the beast tale (the original came out in 1933, followed by the less successful 1976 remake with Jessica Lange in the Fay Wray part) is pure Peter Jackson (the filmmaker who delivered the "Lord of the Rings" films). It's obviously a labor of love on his part, and contains some stirring and even amazing scenes, fabulous special effects (at times) and the best personification of Kong yet (Andy Serkis, who served as the model for the animators to create Gollum in the LOTR movies, does a fabulous job here aping the big ape). Yet, at the same time, it's way too long (at more than three hours), occasionally feels like a director who's run amok with the material (some of which does nothing for the story beyond delivering thrills and chills - particularly a dinosaur stampede sequence) and doesn't always hit the emotional notes as presumably intended. There's also a major bit of miscasting (comedian Jack Black in the Carl Denham role) and despite the reported $200 million budget, some of the effects don't look as realistic and/or mesh with the flesh and blood counterparts as well as they should. In the end, it's an often exhilarating and occasionally funny, roller coaster type action-adventure flick that should please audiences to no end, as long as their rear ends don't fall asleep in what amounts to the running time of two feature-length films. Reviewed December 12, 2005/ Posted December 14, 2005