The Weekly Planet - King Kong 2005 - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: March 25, 2021

Before King Kong takes on Godzilla in 2021 let's take a trip back to the year 2005 for the remake of the 1933 classic King Kong. After the success of the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Peter Jackson was given the opportunity to take a shot at one of his all time favourite propeties. It's got action, monsters, bugs, monster bugs, a really long boat sequence and Jack Black. But what does it all ad up to? Certainly something. Thanks for listening!SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNVideo Edition ► https://youtu.be/Y30rymhZ_aoHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Welcome back everybody to another episode of caravan of garbage where we go can we find the longest movie in the world to talk about i think we have success we might have absolutely because this is king kong 20 2000 2000 2005 baby so i hadn't seen this in cinemas uh what about you what was your experience with i if you'd asked me a week ago if I'd seen this movie at all, I would have said yes. But what I think happened is that I have seen this in snippets, you know, over a span of time. Because, you know, sometimes you'll turn on the TV

and Naomi Watts is a struggling actress just trying to make it in Depression-era New York. And then, like, a year later you turn on the TV and there's a bunch of people in Skull Island. And you're like, is this the same showing of this movie? It was one of these Mulholland Drive. Could very well be. But I think I've seen snippets of this movie and sort of pieced it together because I've seen the original.

And I'm just like, well, I must have seen this movie. It was a big movie. It was a big movie. It was the biggest movie of all time at the time, budget-wise, $207 million. It didn't entirely pay off. the time budget-wise 207 million is this off the back entirely pay off but ah is this off the back of peter jackson being the biggest filmmaker in the world for for a time a significant time so yeah leave a like if you could for peter jackson if anything because he is a visionary filmmaker i'm a big fan of his work pour one out for pj so yeah he was pretty much given free reign off the

lord of the rigs trilogy he'd won like multiple academy awards there were a huge box office success and they're wonderful movies i don't know whether we'll ever cover them on this probably but off the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He'd won multiple Academy Awards. They were a huge box office success. And they're wonderful movies. I don't know whether we'll ever cover them on this. Probably, but they're great. So my question, I guess, to you is, you might know the answer to this, was this his passion project?

Yes. So he was like, I want to do a remake of the, I guess, the 1933 King Kong. Hence why it's set in 1933. But yes, so he was paid $20 million up front for this movie, which was the most ever for a director at the time. He owns props from the original. He's a huge fan, like you said.

This is also like an obvious homage to that original movie, and you can see it in things like the dinosaurs are more kind of crocodilian, which is how they thought they were in the 30s. The jungle is also built the way that the original jungle was, except it's imagined like, oh, we've got new cameras. So this is what it looks like, you know, with some HD. 20.05 cameras. This is what it would look like if all the film was stored on a jazz drive.

That's right, exactly. Which I believe is an underappreciated storage medium for its time, Mason. Wow, I can't believe you stole my bit. But the thing is, though, he wanted to make this after The Frighteners, which I don't know if you've seen. It's kind of like a wonderful little horror comedy. I have seen The Frighteners. Yeah, it's really great from the mid-'90s.

But off the back of Mighty Joe Young coming out and then there was a really terrible Godzilla movie, which we've also talked about, it wasn't really a good time to do it. But what is incredible about this is it's an incredible turnaround considering that Return of the King came out like two years earlier. Like it's amazing they put this together in such a short amount of time. I know people talk about like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in terms of like a lot of work done in a short space of time,

but making this would kill a man, surely. Maybe, yeah. Maybe, yeah. Here's the thing though. A common complaint of this would kill a man, surely. Maybe, yeah. Maybe, yeah. Here's the thing, though. A common complaint of this movie is, well, there's a few, that it takes a long time to get going because that boat sequence at the start, you know, and we're in New York before that, it's, God, it really drags its feet, doesn't it?

Just a cast of colourful characters I don't give a shit about. Look, I'm sure that we are not the first to point this out, but boy howdy is it. It's a long movie. It's a four act movie. Three hours and twenty one minutes. Real long. Real long. Because, you know, to skip ahead slightly to nearly the end, but not nearly

the end at all. If I'd never seen this movie before, which I hadn't, but I do know the story of the movie, but if I'd gone in completely, you know completely clean and not known anything about this movie, I would have gone, oh, okay, well, she's befriended the big gorilla, and now everybody's in a jam with the big insects and whatever, and then they're going to escape to the boat, and then because King Kong has established his friendship

with Naomi Watts' character, he's going to maybe hold off the insects while they leave and he's going to die a noble death and that'll be the end of the movie. Yeah, that makes sense, doesn't it? But then there's another movie after that. There's a movie at the start, there's a movie in the middle, which I think is the best movie,

and then a movie at the end, which has some ice skating in it as well. Sure does, yeah. Yeah, but just the excess of this movie it's it's insane because for example you know that boat which is a largely inconsequential section of the film they had a real life boat that they used they had a miniature yes and they had a replica for filming like interior shots and you know when they're splashing a bunch of waves on and stuff like that so you can see where the budget went but at the same time there's not really that many interesting people in this in the way that

lord of the rings is lord of the rings is a colorful cast of characters and you get to know everybody and they have their individual motivations you know and there's deaths and tragedy and triumph and all that but here i'm like ah jack driscoll okay you're writing and okay jack black you love movies that's actually i do enjoy jack black at this to be fair but i guess the only thing that really works for me here character wise is like naomi watson king kong everything else can go in the bin here oh no it's the it's jamie bell hope he i don't care hope he finishes that book that he likes that is largely regarding the stuff that he's doing in his own boat. You know what it feels like if I'm going to use a term from Lord of the Rings?

Wait, it feels like a real Silmarillion of a movie? Yes. It's a real desolation of Smaug in terms of me sitting there going, oh my God, this goes forever. No, it feels like in terms of situations and characters, it feels like it's stretched thin like butter over too much bread. And when Bilcbagan said that he's like this rings fucking me up mate i don't like it would you say that this movie is too many elevenses and not enough um second breakfasts second breakfasts yes i actually i actually quite liked all the stuff on the boat honestly i could

take a leave the big monkey stuff really okay i know it's not a monkey. It doesn't have a tail. No. And we can talk about King Kong and I do. And we can talk about the differences between various primates. Sure. But the thing is. I like the chef. I like the first mate.

Yeah. I like the chef or the first mate, I guess. But the thing is, I think it gets better as more people get killed. Because there's less people to focus on. But let's talk about Kong. Because Andy Serkis plays two roles in this. Chef. Yeah, a chef. He has one eye. Or maybe he's talk about Kong because Andy Serkis plays two roles in this. Chef. Yeah, a chef who has one eye or maybe he's just squinting.

I don't know what he's doing. And he also, of course... I got lemon juice in it. And also, of course, he plays King Kong. And what I think is interesting about this King Kong design is... What I think is interesting is the quick changes that he's always doing in between scenes. Did you see that? How does he do it?

You didn't see it because he's so good at it. He's such a good actor and mo-cap performer. He does the cowboy switch and then he jumps out. He's in the gorilla suit. You don't even notice. But the thing is, traditionally, and we've seen this more with the modern King Kong also, he's more kind of standy-uppy, kind of like a guy in a suit.

Yes. And for this they went, he's more gorilla or monkey, if you will. No, he's more gorilla than he is that. He's more animalistic in a lot of ways no he's more gorilla than he is that he's more animalistic yeah in a lot of ways which i think is an interesting take on it honestly and i think also it's an incredible mocap performance and a beautiful looking gorilla it captures like sadness and pain and joy and cruelty and cruelty he's a mean he's a mean monkey and i didn't like him i liked him of course he's mean, though.

Everybody's dead. He's on his own. Dinosaurs are always snapping at him. I mean, don't push over the lady that's trying to be nice to you. He's never seen a lady. I guess that's probably true. Actually, he's seen a lot of ladies because there's ladies living on that island, isn't there? Yeah, and he's probably eaten a lot of ladies, too. No doubt has.

No, that being said, Andy Serkis pushed for this. King Kong in this is a vegetarian, because like a lot of gorillas are. But also a lot of animals in the wild that are vegetarian will also just eat anything. Like if you handed them a Big Mac, they would eat that Big Mac. Exactly. Exactly. So there's a lot of this that I think looks really great a lot of the time. I mean, there's remarkable recreations of New York and jungle settings, especially considering that all of this is shot in New Zealand, you know, on sound stages and with some outdoor sequences.

But there are other moments where you do kind of feel like, oh, yeah, they only had kind of two years to put this together. For example, the dinosaur stampede is, it's pretty ropey. It is a little, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that scene, the scene where Kong escapes in the theatre, that is, you can see the little line around him, you know? And I thought we'd reached the era

where you couldn't see the little line around things. I thought the last time we saw a little line was when Luke Skywalker fought the Rancor Mason, which they then got rid of that little line in subsequent releases. Yeah, it felt to me like, you know that jungle chase sequence from Indiana Jones 4? Remember that? Like that kind of vibe. Maybe if they just darkened everything down, laces yeah it felt to me like you know that jungle chase sequence from indiana jones 4 remember that like that kind of vibe like maybe if you they just darkened everything down you wouldn't see

you know i don't know anything about special effects maybe that would have helped but that being said that being said let me say this allow me to step forward with this point i'm listening uh the kong versus t-rex fight or v-reex because they're a different kind of evolution of a dinosauric creature. This is the very Rex. That's right. So I think that brawl's remarkable. And also the bit that I think everybody's seen, probably you even, because you can just watch it on YouTube.

I love the way that it starts and then it escalates. It's like a pub brawl that gets out of control and more mates jump in and you spiral out a window and you're tumbling down a thing. You're still fighting and biting and it's all going on. It turns into a big cloud of dust and people are being brought into the cloud of dust. Your whole experience of bar brawls is from the comic strip Andy Capp, isn't it?

Yes, it is. And the wife is brought in and she's swinging a rolling pin. Got a rolling pin, exactly. But also in that sequence you see there's some wonky-like holding Naomi Watts stuff going on. And there's a bit of that in this movie in general. But the fact that they made that entire sequence in broad daylight and it looks so good, it's very bold and it's very well-paced.

The Corrie's incredible, is what I'm saying. You know, even when they're swinging on the vine, and I love the bit at the end where he kills, I think, the final very Rex. By ripping its jaw off. And then he goes, yap, yap, yap. He kind of like does a little puppeteery thing, be like, is this dead?

Yap, yap, yap. Yeah, this is dead. Also, this is- I thought I was very Rex, but I was no Rex at all. Also, it's in a lot of ways a horror film, which kind of calls back to a lot of Peter Jackson's earlier work. Some of it's very grotesque. The insect stuff especially, I thought, yuck-o.

Definitely. But it's also weirdly bloodless at times. There's a moment when one of the natives gets shot and there's no squibs or bullet holes in them at all. But yeah, like you mentioned, there's the bug pit scene, which also, by the way, is just them just swatting wildly. Peter Jackson just said, just swat wildly and we'll just put everything in. And it totally works and is creepy and awful.

I mean, there is a scene where Jamie Bell swats away a bunch of big bugs with a machine gun. With his eyes closed. Oh, Jamie Bell, what are you doing? He was in Tintin, Peter Jackson's Tintin also. Oh, as Tintin? The titular Tintin? He was the titular Tintin. So was Andy Serkis. They're both the titular Tintin? They're's Tintin also. Oh, as Tintin? The titular Tintin? He was the titular Tintin. So was Andy Serkis.

They're both the titular Tintin? They're both Tintin. Whoa. Two Tintins. Bottom half, top half? Yeah, that's right. Left half, right half. There's supposed to be a Spielberg sequel to that as well.

Remember that? Yeah. Or maybe he'd, no, he did the first one. Spielberg did the first one, Peter Jackson was supposed to do the second one. Or vice versa. Yes. I'm not a fan of Tintin. Captain Haddock.

Captain Haddock. That's right. Do you remember the bit where Jamie Bell's running on the edge of the cliff? Yep. And then the cliff's falling down. He's doing like a weird Muppet run to make it happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Real Looney Tunes vibes.

That's right. But the bug pit scene, though, it's actually a homage to a deleted and missing scene from the original Kong movie. Right. Because the old one, because it was released in the 1930s, it would have been released before the Hays Code, all the censorship rules were put in place. So I think over the years, every time it got a new release,

somebody was like, I find this questionable, let's take it out. Quite spooky, yeah. So apparently, yeah, it did. It sent audiences screaming from theatres. And whenever I hear that, I'm like, I don't think anybody left. I don't think anybody went, oh, this black and white image I'm seeing, it's too visceral. I paid my 25 cents.

I'm going to sit here and poop in my seat like a gentleman. But yeah, you're right. And I think that makes sense. If, you know, this is one of Peter Jackson's favourite movies, the original, that he would want to do justice to everything that was in it before. Yes. Which is why it's so long. Yeah.

And speaking of, that bug scene, the original, they recreated it using methods from the 1930s. And you can see that. So it's a scene that you could slot back into that original King Kong film that they just made on the side of this as like a DVD bonus extra. So there you go. There I go. There you go.

Also, the bonus extras on this film is actually shorter than the movie itself, which is like, that says something, doesn't it? It really does. That really says something. Okay, let's talk about New York. I reckon, right, because they take him back to New York City after chloroforming him right in the schnoz, and he's all tied up, and they're like, look at this gorilla,

and everyone's like, very good, we love this, because we've never seen anything and we love this. I reckon if you went back to the 1930s, you could make a big stuffed gorilla and put like a broom behind its head and just like wiggle it about and just be like, yeah, this is a giant gorilla. And people would be like, probably. I think you could go back in time to the 30s and just wiggle a broom about

and people would be like, that's not what that's for. This man's insane. I'm going to sit here and poop my pants. I paid 25 cents for this. But I know the theatre scene is a bit wonky at times

but there is something about seeing a giant monkey which is what he is we've established. That's right. People are flippant. People are unliking that. They know we're joking

but they also don't like it. Just like tearing apart an old time cinema. To be clear we're not joking. No we think that and we know that. I think that's good and I think the rampage through new york is you know it's it's a little bit of fun the ice skating slows it down a bit but then of course we get to the uh the iconic climb up a building get shot off a building fall off a building that's right yeah

how do you how do you feel about this i was checked out by this point yeah like i watched it but and i know how it goes. Yeah. And it wasn't Beauty Twas Killed the Beast. It was those machine guns. We all know. Or it was Jack Black who hit him in the schnoz with a bottle of chloroform and dragged him to New York.

He's trying to avoid a lawsuit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we all agree. Everybody here agrees that this was actually a woman's fault. That's right. That one specifically. You all saw her. She was up there.

She pushed him. Probably hit him with his, with a handbag. Yeah. So that's kind of crazy, isn't it? But that's of course a homage to the original movie. Yes.

And originally they were going to get Fay Wray back to do that line. What? Just to wander up and be like, yeah, which is kind of strange. I heard beauty killed the beast. Yeah. Specifically that woman. Get her. Yeah, I guess kind of strange, right? I heard Beauty killed the Beast. Yeah. Specifically that woman.

Get her. Yeah, I guess. I mean, you know, it's a homage, so I can understand it. Well, she is referenced earlier in the movie. Yes, she is, yeah. At one point, Jack Black's character is like, we should get Faye, presumably Faye Ray, but she's doing a picture with Radio Pictures,

which is RKO, which is the studio that made King Kong, original King Kong. Exactly. Oh. Does that mean they the studio that made King Kong, original King Kong. Exactly. Whoa. Yeah. Does that mean they were already making a King Kong movie during this movie? Maybe the King Kong movie that came out was based on this real world event.

Whoa. Do you think that's entirely possible? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They did it found footage style. It's called Clover Monkey. Go on. Monkey Field? Monkey, yeah.

Either of those is fine. We'll get some posters? Monkey, yeah, either of those is fine. We'll get some posters made up, weekly plan of posters if you could. Check him out on Twitter and Instagram. He's doing great work. That's right. Yeah. Do you want to do some trivia? Yeah, of course I do.

It's called Low Key Trivia. Just a bit of trivia. Wow, not Monkey Trivia? We say it real soft. Monkey Trivia. Here we go. We're changing it up. Bow, bow, bow.

Low Key Monkey Trivia. Here we go. We're changing it up. Bow, bow, bow. Low-key monkey trivia. Blam. Okay, so it took 18 months to craft the CGI version of the Empire State Building, but the real building was built in 14 months. Could have just built a real one. Built a real one, right? Yeah. Exactly.

So I don't know if you saw this also. There was a bunch of production diaries that were released during the making of. I did not see this. Some before, some after. And there was one on April Fool's Day which talked about a sequel to this where they put a lot of rough animations together and got the actors involved to say we're making Son of Kong the movie. And they went well out of their way to kind of make this thing happen.

And it's fairly convincing if you didn't know. Yeah. I mean, not now. You've spoiled it for me. I have, haven't I? You should have. April Fool, Mason. I got you.

You got me. That's true. You didn't get me. I have, haven't I? April Fool, Mason. I got you. How about this one? Jack Black wore no makeup in this movie off the back of a rumour that Clint Eastwood never wore makeup, which also isn't true. It's a rumour. But he's wearing a wig. Jack Black's wearing a wig.

I don't know what. I love Jack Black. I just don't. I don't know. You know what I loved in this? I love Kyle Chandler as the 1930s Hollywood big wig star. I just don't know. You know what I loved in this? I loved Kyle Chandler as the 1930s Hollywood big-wig star. I thought it was great. Just the perfect mix of ego and even more ego.

That's right. I loved it. And he pops up in the Godzilla monkey-iverse, doesn't he? He's in both continuities. Isn't that wild? How does he do it? And it's also an interesting look into how people view Hollywood looks because in original, he's a Hollywood star playing a Hollywood star. And in the new ones, he's a Hollywood star playing some sort of financial comptroller of some kind.

But a handsome one. He's very handsome, isn't he? He's everybody's dad, that guy, isn't he? Very true. The bit where he's got the comb and he's pretending it's a moustache? I enjoyed that. Right? If there was one bit that I would keep from this movie, just one,

and I scrapped the wrist, I would put that scene in. And maybe the bit where he goes, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. Yeah, for sure. Last bit of trivia, monkey, monkey, what are we doing? What is this? Low-key monkey trivia!

Bap, bap, bap! Rick Baker, special effects and creature designer. He played King Kong in the 1976 remake and is one of the pilots to shoot down King Kong in the 2005 version, meaning that he both the pilots to shoot down King Kong in the 2005 version, meaning that he both played and killed King Kong. So, awesome. Well done.

That's pretty cool. Very cool. I think so. I love when everything comes together like that. Me too. Rick Baker, what a legend. Anyways, look, Caravan of Garbage happens here every week, doesn't it?

That's exactly right. But some weeks we're like, what are we gonna do? We mentioned how long this is, and recently the Justice League movie came out. A lot of people are saying, do the new Justice League league movie but i feel like we need a bit of space between now and then we do have a podcast episode on it don't we that's exactly right we talk about that very thing but we kind of want to see you know the future of this before we start you know

unraveling that movie if you will so what do people want to see it's not just a movie it's an experience that's very true so i had no an idea. I have the 2005 King Kong game, which is like a survival horror game in addition to you're just a big monkey. Cool. But, you know, another thing. Whatever. Leave it below. Tell us what you want and we'll do it.

That's right. Yeah. Your wish is our command. Unless we decide another thing. Then we'll just do what we want. Yeah, that's right. You can't stop us. Anyways, though, yeah, look, as I said, we do this every week, but they actually go up

early on bigsandwich.co. That's right. Along with a bunch of other stuff. If you do want to sign up, there's bonus podcasts. There's movie commentaries. That's right. What else have we got there, Mason? There's an ad-free feed of our regular podcast.

That's right. The regular podcast has ads in it. That's right. Some people like the ads. Some people love them. Some people can't get enough. So, yeah, you can check that out if you want. It helps us out in a big way.

But, really, thanks for watching this video. You're very welcome. And thanks for Ben for watching this movie, which I know that he loved. He loved it. And Ben reaction shot. Here we go. He's loving it. Look.

Look how much he's loving it. Look, he's loving it. Oh, my God. He's doing a cartwheel. Ben, that's really impressive, that perfect cartwheel you did. All right, guys, we'll see you next week. Let us know what you want to see. And yeah, we're doing the Mortal Kombat movies, all right?

They're coming up, all right? All right? You happy? Yeah, I really am. Okay, grab that jammie, guys. We'll see you next week. Goodbye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network.

Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want. It's up to you. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it

before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.