Kong and Park
On Monday, I went out and caught King Kong. It was truly a great film, but a few steps short of being awesome. Peter Jackson has become one of my favorite filmmakers and that statement holds true after watching this film. My only quirks about it is the length and some of the CG work. Kong, old New York, and the T-rexes were excellently done. Actually the only part that the CG felt weak was the brontosaurus (?) stampede. Weta did an excellent job with Kong but they were inconsistent with the overall CG. The movie was great but it was also a long 3 hours. Can’t help feel that there was a lot of trimming that could’ve been done. A lot of the minor characters had a bit of development that didn’t amount to anything at the end. The casting was good, Naomi Watts was perfect for this role. Jack Black was a questionable casting job, he felt right most of the time, other times I couldn’t help laugh at his presence. Overall, it is still one of my favorite movies of the year.
Today I watched Oldboy finally. I can’t believe I waited so long to watch this. It was such a good movie, but so so wrong and mildly disturbing. Visually it was stunning, and Min-sik Choi as Daesu was awesome. As Korean films are booming, Choi is really become a fan favorite, like a new Toshiro Mifune. Chan-wook Park directs this great movie. Oldboy has become one of the greatest films to come out of Korea, and has made me a big Chan-wook Park fan. I immediately watched Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance afterwards. I liked it as well, but it wasn’t as aweinspiring, or shocking as Oldboy was. Oldboy was just so twisted. I highly recommend catching these flicks. Even if you don’t like revenge films or violence. I’m gonna watch Sympathy for Lady Vengeance tomorrow.
