Have Ape; Will Battle
Bill A. | Indianapolis, IN | 04/24/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is pure nostalgia for me! After my begging, dad took me to see King Kong vs. Godzilla at the drive in; still one of the best times I ever had. What could be kooler than 2 giant monsters tearing apart buildings from opposite sides?! Not to mention this was a color movie!! Most TV sets in the early 60's were black & white... I didn't see Kong Escapes til decades later on cable. At the time of it's release, I only knew of it from magazines like Famous Monsters and Castle of Frankenstein.
Japanese monster movies; how do you even defend them? The Kong suit is horrible, but the Godzilla suit is classic. The miniatures are very realistic. The giant octopus in KvG was real! I even hear the director ate it for dinner after shooting; Ha; maybe 'that' should have been in the movie! Kong Escapes does it's best to cash in on the Bond movie craze, with MechaKong as the ultimate kool gadget...
Fyi, in case you're waiting for a blu-ray release, you may have a long wait: I heard the Universal fire destroyed KvG, if not both films."
TWO great Kong films!
Jon | NY | 06/25/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Okay look, I'll be honest - when I finally decided to relive my mispent youth and purchase all the 'Showa' era Godzilla films on dvd I was a little ticked off that seemingly the only way to get "King Kong VS Godzilla" was to buy this two-pack for almost $20.00, especially when I'd only spent ten dollars each on the others.
It took me weeks before I watched "King Kong Escapes", hamstrung by the urge to simply list it on eBay. I didn't remember it until I put it on... then -
WOW! This is truly one of the best of the daikaijû films by Toho. While it's plot is a little zany for a film that tries to be a continuation of 1933's "King Kong" it does fit in well with the 'Kong Koncept'. And they do a lot more with Mecha-Kong than ever was accomplished with Mecha-Godzilla (love that high frequency beeping when he powers-on!).
I'm glad I kept it, especially since I now recall having a juvenile crush on the lovely Linda Miller, the 'girl with a head on her shoulders... on Kong's shoulder'.
Great fun double-feature and well-worth your time and money. Enjoy!"