Peter Jackson, the mastermind who directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, is at it again with a remake of the 1933 classic: King Kong. Being Jackson’s personal favourite movie when he was growing up, it’s easy to see why he chose King Kong as his follow-up movie to the Lord of the Rings.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong isn’t a sequel, but rather a remake of the 1933 classic. Set in the 1930’s Carl Denham (Jack Black) is a filmmaker who takes his cast and crew to shoot a movie the mysterious Skull Island. There they find the incredible creature, Kong. Leading actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) quickly catches Kong’s eye, and is kidnapped by the King of the Gorillas. It is up to the rest of the crew, led by Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to rescue Ann.

Typical of a Peter Jackson film, King Kong has a running time of over 3 hours. Jackson likes to thoroughly introduce all the characters in his movies, and this one is on different. Once the crew reaches Skull Island, that’s where the movie really picks up. The action scenes are absolutely breathtaking and are helped by a fantastic musical score provided by James Newton Howard.

Jack Black, not known for dramatic roles, gives a surprisingly strong performance as filmmaker Carl Denham, and is helped by a superb supporting cast which includes Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody and Colin Hanks.

This is a typical Peter Jackson film. The characters are well developed, the acting is top notch, the action scenes are fantastic, the visual effects are stunning and all is topped off with a superb musical score. This film should be in every DVD collection.