"B" Day

Yes, it's true. My birthday was yesterday, and thanks to family and friends who called up and sang "Happy Birthday" on the phone, sent thoughtful gifts, and mostly made me feel like there are people who love me and take the time to remember me. These are the things that give me that little catch in my throat so that I have to make an extra effort to act like a tough guy.

Seriously, I feel the love and want to tell you how much it means to me.

Now, ever since I got married to a woman who had three children, I made an attempt to make my birthday a family event. See, I came into a fairly well established family situation and wanted to make myself feel part of it. So my birthday celebration always included the sinful pleasure of Pizza Hut Pepperoni Pan Pizza and the family movie of the year. It started out with stuff like Toy Story and The Santa Clause.

Not that the kids were that young, it just felt like a family event and we used appropriate entertainment.

When Titanic came out on December 19th some years ago, we graduated to more mature themes in movies. Over the last few years, Lord Of The Rings made the yearly decision a no-brainer.

I was never really a fan of the original King Kong, but since Peter Jackson directed the just released version, King Kong won out over The Chronicles of Narnia this year. So last night my wife and I took in the blockbuster at the local theatre.

I don't want to ruin this movie for anyone, but let me tell you that it is fairly faithful to the original, as well as I can remember it, but that it adds the depth and pathos that the original lacked, on a human level. And expect to come out of the theatre believing that a gorilla has an actual shot at an acting Oscar.

I've been a special effect junkie since Star Wars, but WETA is really starting to get scary. I saw one mistep in a scene with Jack Black and Adrien Brody running from some large . . . uh . . . dangers, but I defy you to watch this movie and tell me what is real and what is CGI.

Overall, I'd give King Kong three and a half stars filled with surprising performances from lesser known actors, another star quality performance from the faceless, and faced Andy Serkis, and solid if understated performances by Brody and Watts.

As for Jack Black, well . . . you're not going to see him, are you?