Monster Munch

The 3-disc extended edition of Peter Jackson's King Kong can be had for around a fiver from all kinds of places at the moment - Amazon, some of the supermarkets - which makes it a pretty good bargain.

I saw it on the big screen but had no urge to pick up the DVD until now, where the pricing point makes it ridiculous to pass it up. I thought it was great filmmaking, but not a great film. Great execution, eye-popping sequences, but structurally... bloody hell. It was like being forced to shovel down a vast meal consisting entirely of treats and cake.

Here's a thought. Instead of a cut with even more sequences and extended scenes, what I'd like to see is the Merian C Cooper cut - by which I mean Jackson's footage, edited by him to conform to the structure and pacing of the 1933 original. Which, let's face it, moved with the speed of a cat out of a bonfire and still packs a wallop.

Incidentally, if you're picking up the Cooper/Shoedsack original and quality's an issue for you, make sure you get the restored and remastered version. British reissues at the time of the Jackson release featured an older, not-so-good transfer.