| Overall Grade: |
C+ |
|
| Story: |
N/A |
|
|
| Acting: |
N/A |
|
|
| Direction: |
N/A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
N/A |
|
|
Prince Kong
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Aug 18, 2005
3
of
3 people found this review helpful
The pure, white woman in a wild setting. Her heroic, Western suitor. The greedy, exploitative bad guys in straw hats. The big, lovable ape. All of the classic 'Beauty and the Beast' themes from KING KONG are present in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, but watered-down. Disney's remake of the RKO classic is, like the original, 1949 film, a bit of a 'Kid (read: PG) KONG:' It tacks on a happy ending and plays down sexual overtones.
But, despite its formulaic story-arch and plot development, JOE is effective family faire. At its best, it recalls a bygone era of wholesome, full-bodied entertainment, with its standard/bordering-on-clicheic cinematic form. Its visual style is conventional 90s stuff, with romantic scenes featuring the distorted glare of distant, blurred lights on a black background (as seen in the boat scene of SLIDING DOORS, or the love scene in OUT OF SIGHT, for instance). JOE also features an equally conventional James Horner (TITANIC) score.
As do all big-ape treatments, JOE starts out in his native, wilderness habitat, and is spirited away to a big city, where he soon grows tired of his constraints and breaks loose to wreak a bit of havoc in, in this case, the Hollywood district of L.A. JOE has been updated for the 90s, and sanitized for political correction: His captors are not out to put him on display for pure entertainment purposes, but to raise funds for competing wildlife preserves. The most notable touch of modernity, however, for most viewers, will be the use of awesome digital and other creature effects to create the most convincing giant gorilla yet seen on the silver screen. Although co-stars Charlize Theron (the virginal white girl) and Bill Paxton (the Romanticized suitor) are at their best in their first starring roles both, it is JOE that steals the spotlight as a really convincing, and often compelling, bewildered Beast.
JOE is effective at elliciting compassion for the confused creature, who is like an animal in the headlights -- literally, in one scene in which the frightened JOE tries to cross a freeway. The themes of the story -- that we are a greater threat to the beast than it is to us, and that the beast brings out the best in us -- are also capably drawn out. However, the plot progression is uneven. The story development is palpably rushed as the movie races toward its inevitable end: Paxton is able to discern the motives of JOE's handlers, after finding a jungle rattler, with too much facility; and Theron surmises JOE's destination from a distant spotlight, way too easily for this critic to believe. These corners are cut to fit in a fake-out twist at the end. But, all in all, JOE is the best monkey movie since KONG.
(Carlos Colorado) |
My Public Profile 
