the lion and the lamb: 12/11/05

Beauty that slayed the beast

Just got home from watching Peter Jackson's re-imagining of King Kong.
It was 3 hours long! But what a ride it was. Central to the story is the bond between Kong and Ann,played by Naomi Watts. The movie resembles part Jurassic Park part Indiana Jones and even part Titanic. It is a visually spectacular CGI fest.

Peter Jackson is a self-confessed King Kong fan so he brought all that fascination to the table when he made the movie, and it shows. In some ways it made it a better movie as it answers many of the 'what-if's' many diehard fans would have asked. As such we lingered for a considerable part of the film on Skull Island to watch the various protaganists face the many perils that may be found. So be prepared for monsters of every kind to be coming at you. Some of the creatures are truly scary which can only come of the twisted mond of Peter Jackson. Even thinking of it now gives me goosebumps. Look out for the T-Rex(s) and Kong fight.
On the flip side, Jackson's fascination with the myth of Kong meant that he over indulged in the CGI. It was overkill. Another potential miss was how Jackson tried to cram so many long set pieces into this film that you could hardly wait for certain scenes to end (see the ship running aground, brontosaurus stampede and T-Rex fight scenes). They went on protractedly and far too long for my liking. It was another case where less is more sometimes.
But what saves the film in the end is the tender relationship between Kong and Ann Darrows. There was nary a dry eye in the theatre as the film reached it climatic end. And all the scenes where Kong was subjected to humiliation and pain at the hands of his human captors really struck a raw nerve. I guess we all wanted him to get the girl and to ride...or rather run...off into the sunset.

The casting of Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow's is a master stroke. She really made the role her own and I cannot imagine anyone else playing Ann but her now.

"...Beautiful"

Rating: 4 1/2 bottles of chloroform out of 5.

Descent

watched The Descent

I heard good things about it and I must say I was not disappointed. Once you get past the english accents, you come across a film that presses all the buttons of fear and suspense. It effectively keeps you at the edge of your seat.

The premise is basically about a group of girls who undertake to explore an underground cave network. When the entrance caves in (no pun intended) they have to find another way out. Along the way the casualty count rises as they find they are not alone. *cue scary music* Slowly it is every man (or rather woman) for herself as friendships are cast aside in the bid to survive. It is graphic, primal and visceral in its orchestration.

Rating: 4 protuding leg bones out of 5

In the valley

Have only just got back from KL.More specifically(or not) I went to KL and the hillside resorts. I also spent time driving around. I did drive up alone. I clocked up over 1000 kilometres. Phew!

Took lotsa pictures. They are not ready yet though. But what I do have for all my faithful readers are pictures from my last trip up north which I have yet to post here. I visited Johor Bahru. I had intended to do a lot more than what had actually happened. In the end the only place of significance I went to was the Johore Zoo.

I paid RM 2 to get in. All things considered it was worth it. RM 2 only leh.

Of course it was different from the Singapore Zoo in many ways. Firstly it was rather surprising how close you could get to some of the animals unsupervised. You can even feed the animals if you wanted to.

It was a hot day, so many of the animals made the wise choice to tap a nap in the shade. meanwhile the silly humans went around feeding them (and taking photographs).

Johore Zoo has a rather surprising range of animals for a zoo of it's size. And some of the exhibits were rather good.

Yet others were horrible. Some animals were housed in dark, wet and rusty cages. Even the so called endangered animals were not spared.

It was quite sad to see the animals living in such poor conditions (in a zoo no less).

The Johore Zoo could do with a re-vamp. Most of the exhibits are the same as when I last visited it back in my primary school days. It is run and owned by the Johore Sultanate so I guess no one has the 'testicular fortitude' to take him to task or press his hand to improve the lot of the animals.