KING KONG ESCAPES

Directed by Ishirô Honda
Written by Takeshi Kimura
Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
Music by Akira Ifukube
Cinematography by Hajime Koizumi
Cast: Rhodes Reason, Mie Hama, Linda Miller, Akira Takarada & Eisei Amamoto

1967/96 mins/Color/Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
2.35:1 anamorphic/English/Japan/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Universal DVD

The evil genius known as Dr.Who has created a mechanical replica of King Kong. This Mecha King Kong was created so it could dig the radioactive Element X needed for Japan to rule the Earth. Unfortunately for them, the mechanical monster get stuck in a giant mineral hole in the North Pole. The even more evilish Madame X (Madame Piranha in the original Japanese version) decide to capture the real Kong to do her evil deeds.

Meanwhile, Lt. Susan Miller, Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura and Commander Carl Nelson have encountered the giant gorilla on Skull Island. Not surprisingly, Kong falls in love with the lovely lt. Miller. Madame X takes this oppotunity to capture Kong but the beast escapes and heads to Tokyo. Dr.Who manages to re-awake Mecha Kong and send him to destroy the real Kong in a battle of the monsters.

After the success of KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, it took five years for Toho to have another adventure of Kong on the big screen. This is not a direct sequel to the previous movie but more of a live action version of the animated King Kong serie that was very popular in Japan back in 1966.

While not as good as the previous one, KING KONG ESCAPES is still a lotta fun today. The fx are surprisingly good and very impressive. And for once the humans characters are actually entertaining and not annoying like in most of these movies. Unfortunately, the Kong suit is still very bad... he looks way too happy for a giant ass kicking gorilla. For me the hightlight has to be the fight between Kong and the dropkicking wrestling T-Rex! Mecha King Kong is also very cool looking.

Universal have released the movie on DVD in a two pack along with KING KONG VS. GODZILLA. The movie presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and it is anamorphic. The image looks surprisingly good with little grain and dust from time to time but nothing alarming. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono English track sounds good. Sure the dubbing is terrible but in some ways it makes the movie even more enjoyable and funny. English, Spanish and French subtitles are available. The disc features nice static menus, 18 chapters stop and comes without a booklet, inlay card or any extras which is a shame. During its theatrical run, in Japan the movie was released in its original 104 minutes while the American version released the next year was 96 minutes, just like this DVD. The movie was also released on DVD in Japan.

(original title: Kingukongu no gyakushu)

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2006. ©