King Kong Deluxe Extended Edition
£24.99, Universal
Did anyone really say after seeing this, "Could've done with being a bit longer"? Well, due to an overwhelming lack of public demand, Peter Jackson has released a new version of Kong with some 13 minutes of extra footage and 40 minutes of deleted scenes - not much of a surprise, really, considering his similar treatment of his The Lord Of The Rings movies. So what has been added? Thankfully the already too-long and rather un-engaging voyage to the island is relatively untouched. The overstuffed monster island section gets two new sequences - the recreation of 1933's raft sequence is impressive in a superfluous way and there are a couple of new prehistoric-style creatures for the more anonymous of the sailors to get killed by. It adds little but what's a few million dollars of special effects between friends? King Kong is really too long to watch in one sitting, it's far better to take it in in chunks. A lot of talent and respect for the source material went into this film, which goes a long way to excusing its many sins - it achieves brilliance often if not continuously. This release sees even more extra material - another six and a half hours of it - and amazingly, it doesn't just rehash what you've seen before. And let's not forget that there was a two-disc production diaries DVD that came out before the movie even reached the theatres, as well as all the special features on the regular version. You get a new Peter Jackson commentary track, more deleted scenes, bloopers, animatics, etc. At least you get your money's worth.
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