Peter Jackson's love affair with filmmaking and special effects was first ignited by seeing classic 1933 movie King Kong as a child. Jackson's Kiwi-shot remake takes one of cinema's most iconic monster movies, retains the 1930s setting and iconic New York finale, and toughens up the "beauty" (Naomi Watts). The film also transforms the male (non-ape) lead from a lunkhead to a sensitive playwright (Adrien Brody). Exhilarating, Oscar-winning CGI brings the great ape to life, alongside rampaging dinosaurs, and oversized wētā inexplicably absent from the maligned 1976 remake.