Metacritic reviews

The special effects are marvelous, the good-humored script is comic-bookish without being excessively campy, and there are two excellent performances.

I’m still deeply fond of De Laurentiis’ King Kong now, no doubt in part because we’ll never see its likes again. Whatever the failings of its ape effects, they have a tangible quality that even Jackson’s great CGI work couldn’t fake.

Faithful in substantial degree not only to the letter but also the spirit of the 1933 classic for RKO, this $22 million-plus version neatly balances superb special effects with solid dramatic credibility.

The movie is a romantic adventure fantasy--colossal, silly, touching, a marvelous Classics Comics movie (and for the whole family).

De Laurentiis' Kong may not be a grand, glorious modernization of a classic tale, but it's two-plus hours of big-scale, occasionally-foolish entertainment.

The lamest of the three versions but the performances are bearable.

The results of this technological bonanza are pretty mixed.

Reducing one of the most compelling cultural icons of the century to a comic book character, this $22 million project makes a passable kiddie show, and not much else.

It's a series of big, foolish but entertaining spectacle scenes.

Without a doubt, De Laurentiis' remake of Cooper and Schoedsack's classic is the biggest con job ever pulled on the unsuspecting American public.