'80s Roulette: KING KONG LIVES
One of the most deliriously silly sequels of the '80s was inevitable.
I have (almost) every single movie released in theaters in the ‘80s in the United States on a hard drive, and once a week, I’m going to hit shuffle and review whatever film comes up first.
Welcome to ‘80s Roulette!
DECEMBER 19, 1986
King Kong Lives
Peter Elliott, George Antoni, Brian Kerwin, Linda Hamilton, John Ashton, Peter Michael Goetz, Frank Maraden, Alan Sader, Lou Criscuolo, Marc Clement, Richard Rhodes, Larry Souder, Ted Prichard, Jayne Gray, Debbie McLeod, Elizabeth Hayes, Nat Christian, Mac Pirkle, Larry Sprinkle, Rod Davis, David de Vries, Bonnie Johnson, J. Michael Hunter, Robin Cahill, Don Law, Jack Maloney, Jimmy Ray Weeks, Jeff Benninghofen, Jim Grimshaw, Bernard Addison, Michael McClendon, James L. Wiggins, Mary Swafford, Michael Forest, Leon Rippy, Wallace Merck, Dean Whitworth, Herschel Sparber, Dandy Stevenson, Lydia Smith, Hope Nunnery, Margaret Freeman, Winston Hemingway, Tom Parkhill, Jeffrey Buckner Ford, Derek Pearson, Gary Kaikaka, Duke Ernsberger, Mike Starr, Shannon Rowell, Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange
cinematography by Alec Mills
music by John Scott
screenplay by Ronald Shusett and Steven Pressfield
story by Ronald Shusett and Steven Pressfield
based on characters created by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace
produced by Martha De Laurentiis
directed by John Guillermin
Rated PG-13
1 hr 45 mins
When scientists bring a female Kong together with the original King Kong in order to save his life, chaos ensues.
Dino De Laurentiis was going to make a King Kong sequel happen, and he didn’t care how.
He started as soon as the 1976 remake he produced was released, despite the fact that the film ended with Kong dying after falling off the World Trade Center. Dino was convinced that the key to Kong was making him sympathetic, and he gave a few interviews that were parodied quite a bit, including John Belushi playing him on Saturday Night Live and insisting that “when-a my Kong dies, EVERYBODY cries!” I was six when his King Kong was released, the perfect target audience, and I wouldn’t say I was exactly blown away by what happened. There is very little magic to the 1976 film, and that’s what you want from King Kong. I will say, though, that the 1976 film is the 1933 film compared to the 1986 film we’re talking about today, because whatever issues I have with that first film, the sequel is a bottomless barrel of nonsense.
