King Kong Lives

King Kong Lives (1986)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Sequel to the 1976 remake has Kong in a coma after falling from the World Trade Center. His heart is quickly going back so he needs a mechanical heart installed. Before the doctor (Linda Hamilton) does this, Kong is going to need blood so thankfully there's a redneck hunter (Peter Elliott) who has captured a female Kong. This movie has the reputation of being one of the worst ever made and people must have believed it because they stayed away from the film when it was originally released and it turned into one of the biggest box office disasters in history. This was a favorite of mine when I was a kid but it really hasn't aged too well. The biggest problem with the film is the film itself because it's never quite clear what the movie is trying to do. The story is all over the place, characters are coming in left and right and the entire Army set up just doesn't make too much sense at all. I'm going to take a wild guess and say this movie was meant for romance because we've got Hamilton and Elliott falling for each other and we've got the two Kong's falling in love. There's no doubt this is a very stupid movie but thankfully it's dumb enough to be mildly entertaining. The scenes with the two Kong's falling in love are pretty funny as is a scene later in the movie where redneck hunters trap Kong and try to torture him. The ending is just as wild as anything that follows it and I must admit that I found it pretty cute and touching. The special effects are certainly several notches below the previous film but they aren't too bad. Elliott and Hamilton really don't have too much to do because the screenplay doesn't offer them much but both are fine in their roles. What really kills the film from being a true cult item is the fact that we've got a 75-minute story expanded to 105-minutes, which is way too long.

The decidedly crappy reviews heaped on this film were pretty well deserved, though it must be said that there have been much worse insults to filmgoers' intelligence than "King Kong Lives." Linda Hamilton stars as Amy Franklin, head of a scientific team that develops an artificial heart to miraculously keep Kong with us after his famous fall from the New York City skyline. With the help of blood transfused from a newly-discovered Lady Kong, the big guy is soon up and around and eating people again. But this time his true interest lay in his new girlfriend, whom he not-so-subtly rescues from captivity. The hairy couple hope to live happily ever after, but the brutish army and rifle-bearing yokels have other ideas.

It's difficult to pinpoint the biggest fault of "King Kong Lives." Overall, it's pretty ridiculous, from the story to the special effects to the supposedly emotional moments. It's overlong, the dialog could have been written by junior high kids, and the characters, particularly the "bad guys," are so one-dimensional it's not even funny. But if you can accept all of that, you can get at least some entertainment value out of this sequel, though don't expect a so-bad-it's-funny picture.

Taking into consideration that "King Kong Lives" is a movie from the mid-1980s, then it is actually not too bad. Sure, if you compare it with the "King Kong" movies seen today, then this is just utter rubbish and obviously people in animal suits and lousy attempts of blending shot scenes to make it appear like these are in fact massive apes.

But hey, yeah this is a cheesy movie. Of course it is. I mean, this is a 1986 movie about King Kong after all. Of course it reeks of being a campy and cheesy movie. Isn't that the appeal of these older "King Kong" movies?

The storyline is adequate, and actually have more contents to it than the movies of recent years that have King Kong in it. That is kind of odd though, I think, as movies evolve into CGI spectaculars that slack on the storylines.

Sure, it was fun to watch Linda Hamilton and John Ashton stumble about in this movie. Granted, it wasn't stellar performances by either of them, but then again, the contents of the movie weren't exactly all that solid to begin with.

"King Kong Lives" is a watchable movie, for sure. But it was hardly an outstanding movie. Nor is it a movie that has withstood the trials of passing time particularly well, because the effects are horribly outdated.

I believe that if you sit down to watch "King Kong Lives" once, then it is hardly a movie that you will be returning to a second time around.

My rating of directors John Guillermin and Charles McCracken 1986 movie "King Kong Lives" settles on a four out of ten stars.

It took a long time to make a sequel to the remake of King Kong from 1979... and I can see why... lack of a decent story. And it's the story and ropy special effects that hurt this film.

So the movie opens with the ending of the 1979 remake; Kong's fall from the tower. However, he doesn't die. As the years pass the doctors realise his heart is failing and his blood is poisoned. They could fit an artificial heart but without a transfusion, Kong will die. Enter Hank Mitchell (Kerwin), who whilst exploring the African continent comes across a second giant gorilla... phew, just in time to save the plotline... Even better for the plot, the ape is female. Against the lead doctor's advice, Amy Franklin (Hamilton), the college assigned to study Kong ship the female across, instead of just taking her blood. Of course, when you put two giant apes together, of different genders, things are bound to get amorous and frisky. As with humans, love and lust can drive apes to do desperate deeds. However, instead of running amuck, the apes settle down to domestic bliss... which totally upsets Lt Col Nevitt as he has some really expensive weapons to play with... and Goddamnit, he's gonna play with them and so sets out to destroy the happy couple.

Okay, so I'm making light of the story plot, but hey, that, in a nutshell, is the story. For a creature feature, there's way too many scenes of Mr & Mrs K sitting around picking racoons off of each other. Also, the fact that it's two men in Gorilla costumes is so evident it's laughable, especially today. This section of the film doesn't wear well after an age. However, it's the other effects that add strength to the action sequences of the film. The fight scenes between apes and army are well done and are paced so well as to actually be exciting.

The other thing that carries the film is the acting. Though the leads, Brian Kerwin and Linda Hamilton are very good in their roles, it was John Ashton as Nevitt that made this film for me.

I'd not really recommend this film to anybody. To be truthful, the original movie is still superb and better than this, let alone the Peter Jackson Remake and the latest action flick Kong: Skull Island, both of which are superior in every way. Though if you like your monster movies with a heavy dose of cheesiness then maybe you can give this a go... it does have it's good points.

D: John Guillermin. Linda Hamilton; Brian Kerwin; Mike Starr.

Silly but ambitious sequel to Dino DeLaurentiis' remake of the 1933 classic monster movie. Of all the wonderful stories that could be told using the most famous movie ape of all time, screenwriter Ronald Shusset (Alien, Dead and Buried) opts for a ludicrous tale about an overly involved scientist/doctor/biologist Hamilton and her emotional quest to save Kong. Future comedy talent Starr is wasted as a bad tempered facility guard while co-star Kerwin shows off his Indiana Jones impression as a `wild boy' adventurer. Only DeLaurentiis could make a good idea this bad. However, for a genuine Kong fan, this may provide some light entertainment – once you look past the terrible Carlo Rambaldi (King Kong, Alien) visual effects and the rambling, overlong script. Director Guillermin's final theatrical effort.