KING KONG - peter jackson - 8.7 / 10

Although the film is a touch on the long side, there's enough jaw-dropping action crammed into its three-hour running time to satisfy all but the most demanding action junkies. I say a bit on the long side but it's really only in a few specific moments that some judicious editing would have made the film better (and even those elisions would only amount to a few minutes). For instance, as Ann and Kong watch the sun rise over the New York skyline, it takes Ann so long to figure out what the ape is trying to indicate that I started to worry that she was dim because she should have figured it out a full minute earlier.

But that minor grievance aside, I can't say enough about how spectacular the action sequences in the film are. One on top of the other (especially the scenes on Skull Island) and each one more spectacular than the last, there's never been anything like it in the modern computer-generated-character age. Kong's fight with the T-Rexes for instance takes them from the top of a mountain, down a crevasse and finally through the jungle with Ann balanced in between the entire time. This sequence (as well as the one in New York City and the Brontosaurus chase on Skull Island ) is like a complete film unto itself. It has separate acts and rising and falling action. It also has a distinct plot aside from just having cool shit happen. I just can't get over them.

Add to all this the fact that Jackson and company (Naomi Watts deserves a lot of the credit here) have created a real and deep emotional connection between Kong and Ann and you have one tremendous film. It's tremendous on an old school level. It works the way a John Wayne / John Ford picture works. And its also tremendous on an I-can't-believe-they-did-this level. It's a filmgoing experience unlike anything I've ever had, being completely enraptured with the film itself and simultaneously dazzled by the level of filmmaking prowess on display.

Interestingly, I think it's just that sort of enjoyment on two levels that has led to the less than stellar box office thus far despite unanimous critical acclaim. Critics and people involved with filmmaking can easily appreciate the film on both those levels but the average moviegoer is oblivious to that second level. And, that being the case, they just think it's too long and not interesting enough when Kong isn't kicking ass. I guess, then, that I feel sorry for those people because the film I'm watching is pretty damn good.

SYRIANA - stephen gaghan - 5.7 / 10

There's just way too much going on in this movie; it's trying to do more than any film, even a ten-hour miniseries, would be able to do. It's not a bad film per se, but because of the amount of stuff writer-director Stephen Gaghan is trying to cram into the film, there's just no room for little things like character development and plot clarity. The real shame of it is that a lot of the stuff that pushed those essential elements aside is beside the main point of the film. For instance, why make room for Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) and his wife's marital troubles? For that matter, why does Gaghan bother having Woodman's oldest son killed in a freak accident? It wastes a lot of screen time and doesn't add anything at all to the oil discussion.

There's also the matter of the overwrought names. The surnames of the two CEOs of the oil companies are Pope and Killen. There's also Bennet Holiday, a lawyer, and the aforementioned Bryan Woodman, an oil analyst. The names and subject matter cry out that this is a capital "I" important film and must be taken seriously. The problem (besides trying to discuss a very complex issue from all sides in less than three hours) is that the film isn't any fun and lacks any real forward momentum.

As the film slipped past the two-hour mark, I started to wonder what would signal the end. There hadn't, as yet, been any sort of coherent plot whose conclusion would lend the film some sort of climax, so I had no idea what was going to happen to signal the end of this "story." It turns out, unfortunately, that some late in the game violence and a tacked on emotional moment serve as the climax to this opus. But these are both cheap and out of left field and, until this climax came, I had quite forgotten that the people involved were even in the film at all.

That being said, you do have to give Gaghan and his team (especially George Clooney who packed on thirty extra pounds for no reason for his role as Bob Baer) credit for trying to make a popular film that has something to say about our modern world. And I suppose some of the credit for that goes to Mark Cuban (who put up the money to make it), which is pretty much just bananas.