Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

King Kong

(2005)

First, it’s very, very good in most respects. The effects are stunning, the story is a bit deeper than the original, and Andy Serkis as Kong is so good that the Academy will almost certainly ignore him for his work again, as they did for his portrayal of Gollum, because they can’t imagine that there’s a real actor behind the CGI ... Read more »

King of California

(2007)

Comedies about crazy people are a hard sell with me. They have to be handled in a certain way. One example I can think of is the classic King of Hearts, where the inmates of a French asylum are temporarily freed during World War I, and take over a small town. They are all delightfully loony, in the way almost no real people are. And it’s clearly metaphorical and ... Read more »

The King of Marvin Gardens

(1972)

This is the movie that Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson made right after Five Easy Pieces, while they were both hot. Rafelson was never this hot again. It’s a quirky little film, shot almost entirely in Atlantic City in the winter, before the town was infected with casinos. The boardwalk is almost deserted in every shot, unlike it was the one time I visited, in ... Read more »

King of the Corner

(2004)

Produced, directed, written by, and starring Peter Riegert. Obviously a labor of love, and it’s quite a nice little trifle, sort of like the films Woody Allen used to make without quite so much angst. The hero, Leo, is basically having a mid-life crisis (ho-hum) but he doesn’t rant and rail about it. You’ll be reminded of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, but ... Read more »

The Kingdom

(2007)

Let me say it right up front: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a seriously sick society. They are by no means the only one, but as they are our “allies” in the “War on Terror,” it makes me hate them all the more. If there were a button here on my desk that, when pushed, would cause every male adherent of the Wahabi sect of Islam to vanish (whether to Paradise or to Hell, I don’t really care; ... Read more »

Kingdom Hospital

(2004)

Stephen King’s adaptation of a Danish or Swedish TV mini-series by Lars Von Trier. Looks like there were about a dozen episodes of this version; now out on DVD with 3 episodes per disk. It’s a real stinker. I only lasted 20 minutes of the first installment. This guy was running down a country road when he got hit by a van whose driver was trying to keep his dog from getting into a cooler ... Read more »

Kingdom of Heaven

(2005)

I think it’s a genetic thing. If you have the DNA for being a movie director, the irresistible urge to film a big cavalry charge goes with the territory. For the guys, anyway. Some real good guys have done a cavalry charge. Laurence Olivier put one of the best ever in the first movie he directed: Henry V. Michael Curtiz and Tony Richardson did it 24 years apart ... Read more »

The King’s Speech

(UK/USA/Australia, 2010)

Just as good as everyone said it was, and, other than True Grit, the best of last year’s movies (of the nominees I’ve seen). All three principal actors do a wonderful job. And it contains one priceless scene, which is one more than even the best movies usually contain. The wife of the speech therapist has not been told that her husband ... Read more »

Kingsman: The Secret Service

(UK, 2014)

Samuel L. Jackson is a crazy billionaire with a hair-brained plan for world peace that involves killing about six billion of the seven billion people now living. He plans to do this by giving out free SIMM cards to everyone who has a cell phone, which by now must be at least six billion people. Trouble is, when he activates them people go into a berserker rage, ... Read more »

Kinsey

(2004)

I had an unusual perspective on this film. I recently read The Inner Circle, by TC Boyle, which covers almost the same ground. It was fun to compare, and what was immediately obvious was that Boyle and Bill Condon, the writer/director, used the same source material. Some scenes might almost have been lifted from Boyle’s book, but I assume they came from other ... Read more »