Normally, I don't review mainstream films here on my website, but this one deserves the review treatment. This is a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat, action-adventure with a hint of comedy and a great deal of tenderness and sadness. Director Peter Jackson does something with Kong no other filmmaker did-he gives Kong personality. He's not just some big lumbering ape in this one. The film starts out in New York City during the Great Depression, 1933. A struggling young filmmaker, Carl Denham (played by Jack Black) is looking for a cast for his next picture. He needs a young lady to fill out a "damsel-in-distress" role. He finds her in Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts). Assisted by his screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), he and his film crew take a boat allegedly to Singapore, but it is actually an uncharted island with the ominous name of Skull Island that Denham wants to use to film his picture. Unfortunately, Denham has some trouble with an uncooperative captain and crew, until a weird freak occurrence puts them on the island. Once there, they run into the natives who are definitely not friendly to outsiders. The filming is put on hold when the cast and crew have to return to the ship, where Ann is kidnapped by the natives and taken back to the island and kidnapped by a 24-foot-tall ape the natives call "Kong". Embarking on a rescue mission, the cast and crew run into some extraordinary creatures on the island, and attempt to resuce Ann from the clutches of Kong. But Ann seems a bit reluctant to be rescued, because she seems to have gotten attached to her captor. After being drugged with chloroform, the beast is taken to New York and expolited by Denham, and escapes, wreaking havoc on New York. I may have given away too much already, but suffice it to say, if you've seen the original film, this one takes it up a few more notches, and the ending is emotional and spectacular. The film is wonderful and touching and very exciting, and well-worth the price of admission. There is also a cryptozoological joke that many crypto-enthusiasts will appreciate (as I did) in the film. The cryptozoological implications are there as well in the film-a giant, apelike creature talked about by natives but never seen by white men in a remote location (sound familiar?). Go see this movie.