The 1976 remake of “King Kong” fails to live up to the original but it’s still good to see King Kong again. After the Japanese got to make “King Kong vs. Godzilla” and “King Kong Escapes”, it’s nice to see King Kong back where he belongs, causing mayhem in New York City.

A sleazy oil company man (Charles Grodin “Midnight Run”) hopes to strike oil but he finds something far bigger when his expedition team come face to face with a huge gorilla by the name of King Kong. After King Kong kidnaps the castaway Dwan (Jessica Lange “Big Fish”), a stowaway primatologist (Jeff Bridges “Tron”, “The Big Lebowski”) sets out to rescue her. Then the oil company gets the idea to capture the giant ape and take it to New York.

The characters are somewhat different to the original as in the 1933 classic, a film crew is travelling to a mysterious island to shoot a new picture but here they are part of an oil expedition. Jeff Bridges is pretty good as Jack Prescott and Jessica Lange is decent as Dwan. Charles Grodin is somewhat entertaining as Fred Wilson but I have mixed feelings over the character. I like the fact he’s a new character as it helps differentiate the film from the original but I kind-of miss director Carl Denham. For the most part, King Kong is a guy in a suit and although he looks fine, it doesn’t have quite the same appeal that the beast from the original did.

I’ve already seen both the original and the 2005 remake and I think this is the weakest out of the three versions. It’s a competent film and the fact it tries new things and doesn’t just try to be a copy of the original, arguably makes it more interesting than the 2005 version. It’s certainly better than “King Kong Escapes” and I just can’t resist seeing this story of going to the island and discovering the giant ape.