King Kong: Deluxe Extended Edition *** 1/2
(First Viewing)

Set in the 1930s, this is the story of a young and beautiful actress Ann Darrow from the world of vaudeville who finds herself lost in depression-era New York and her luck changes when she meets an over-ambitious filmmaker Carl Denham who brings her on an exploratory expedition to a remote island where she finds compassion and the true meaning of humanity with an ape Kong. The beauty and the beast finally meet their fate back in the city of New York where the filmmaker takes and displays the ape in quest of his fame by commercial exploitation which ultimately leads to catastrophe for everyone including a playwright Jack Driscoll who falls in love with Ann and plays an unlikely hero by trying to save her from Kong and her destiny.

I think I finally got my fill of Kong with the added 13 minutes which had some pretty cool extra creatures and "fight scenes" if you will. Visually speaking, this is one of the best movies I've seen in recent memory and in my top 3 for films last year. Naomi Watts was great as was Jack Black (I still don't understand what people had against him in this picture?).