King Kong

While the technical aspects may be underwhelming and even a bit creaky to a contemporary audience weaned on the CGI extravagances of Jurassic Park and its offspring, it is truly hard to imagine what the audiences of 1933 experienced the first time King Kong roared through the jungles of Kong Island in their local bijou, holding the tiny Fay Wray out of harm’s reach from the snapping jaws of a realized Allosaurus, on to his epic—and immediately iconic—confrontation with that day’s state of the art biplanes atop the just opened Empire State Building. With the extravagant release of three choices of DVD packages (a two-disc basic set, and Collector’s set with all sorts of fan boy geegaws, and an ultimate package that includes Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young) the return to Kong Island still shows its age (still a bit fuzzy and grainy), but has been restored to include moments snipped from the film for many years. The extras disc includes Peter Jackson’s recreation of the legendary (and possibly apocryphal) Spider Pit Scene.