A Two Movie Weekend

This past weekend I saw two current movies, "King Kong" and "Walk The Line". Despite the mostly first rate CGI, I wasn't terribly impressed with Peter Jackson's labor of love. "King Kong" was far, far too long (many people in the audience grew restless during the drawn-out prelude to the start of the non-stop action scenes), the special effects were sometimes just too over the top (was it really necessary to have Kong battle a trio of Tyrannosaurs simply to top the 1933 version?), and Jack Black was adequate but not really convincing to me in his role as Carl Denham. Naomi Watts did a fine job playing the plucky Ann Darrow, however.

I pretty much agree with these reviews:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/12/08/king_kong_2005_review.shtml

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=11177

http://www.7mpictures.com/inside/reviews/kingkong_review.htm

OTOH, the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk The Line" was eminently enjoyable with noteworthy performances by Joaquin Phoenix as the Man in Black (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash ) and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. The music was pretty good too.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2005-11-17-walk-the-line_x.htm

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051117/REVIEWS/51107006/1023

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ae/movies/reviews/3460511.html

Dave Mitsky