Kong: Skull Island (4K UHD BD) [Blu-ray]

Although I think Peter Jackson's version of Kong a few years back had a lot going for it, especially in terms of scale and some of the cinematics on the island (including the dinosaurs giving Jurassic Park a run for its money), this new version is so much tighter and looks absolutely incredible on the big screen. The island is breath-taking and all of the wide screen landscapes really do look magnificent, as do all the special effects which are top notch - especially a lot of the various giant nasties Kong is up against which are also a marked improvement.Kong also looks much better I think - cinema has come a long way, but also he just seems much more realistic and has lost some of the goofy big friendly monkey aspects of his persona in the previous version, thankfully, along with the childish humour. He's a much grittier and much more impressive version.The action is great and the pacing is very good - the film never drags and each of the main human survivors trying to survive the island have just enough going for them as characters to keep your interest beyond the amazing landscapes and the spectacle of the huge creatures attacking them (and each other!). John Goodman who is partly responsible for kicking everything off is super, Brie Larson is also is very good, if underused, as an anti-war photographer who heads out with the exploration team and their army escort to document the island, Tom Hiddleston is OK as a mercenary tracker leading the good guys, though sometimes a little light and airy for such a role and Samuel Jackson is mostly OK as the colonel who heads up the army escort, but does start to feel a bit text-book colonel-turned-crazy in his performance as he becomes obsessed with destroying Kong. And John C Rielly who is found on the island having survived there for decades after crashing there during the war is superb - his character brings some great humour to the film and he carries it off effortlessly.Matching the film's setting of the early 70's is an awesome soundtrack throughout which is used really well and compliments the film nicely. Hopefully they stick with this version of Kong and revisit for a few more adventures!

You like CGI??? Plenty excellent examples of it throughout this wonderful hotchpotch of a film. Full of action, cliches and pot holes (EG Kong is SO BIG he couldn't possibly hide anywhere. Also check the number of helicopters on the aircraft carrier, and then the number in flight!!!) I digress. No point in doing the plot. It is bonkers. The film is great, big, very noisy fun (the sountracke is excellent.) Good picture and subtitles, but poor extras if you lokk forward to them. Having watched "Death In Venice" the night before, this was quite a smack in the brainbox and eardrums. Highly recomended. Just park your serious side, and enjoy.

A new monster movie. From the studio that brought you the latest American attempt at Godzilla, from a few years back.This is set in the 1970's. Although King Kong is named in the title, it's not primarily a King Kong movie. It just happen to be a film in which he features.This tells the story of a human expedition to a mysterious and uncharted Island in the pacific. Some of the humans on this expedition are officials [John Goodman]. There's an SAS man [Tim Hiddleston]. A photographer [Brie Larson]. And a US military Colonel fresh from Vietnam [Samuel L Jackson].All the visitors have various things they are looking for.But when they enter Kong's territory, their battle just begins....There's not a lot to any of the human characters here. And there's really not much for Tom Hiddleston to work with. But all are pretty good, thanks to charismatic actors and solid acting. In particular from John C. Reilly, as a US pilot who has been stuck there for years. As the visitors explore the island they learn more about it, and encounter more monsters in the process.This is a solidly enjoyable romp. It does manage to do what Godzilla didn't in that respect, because there is a good balance between character moments and action set pieces. There's some excellent location work and set design, memorable monsters. And one of Samuel L Jackson's best performances of late, as he gives his character a decent amount of depth.A good piece of escapist entertainment. And there should be more to come. Stay to the very end of the end credits for a few hints about that.A four star movie. But a very good watch.The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:Languages: English. Castilian Spanish.Subtitles: English, Castilian Spanish, Danish. Finnish. Greek. Norwegian. Swedish.It's also English Audio captioned.The disc goes straight to the main menu when loaded, with no ads or trailers.Extras are:Tom Hiddleston: The Intrepid Traveller. A six minute long video diary of his time on location. A short but affable watch.Deleted scenes: four of these. They can only be watched all in a row. They run in total for three minutes.There's also the usual flyer with code to use to download a copy of the film to a digital device.

Good film. Thank you

Great movie. 5*.