Jordan Vogt-Roberts
76 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
The screenplay, which borrows some of the plot touchstones from the original 1933 “King Kong” but reshapes them, is credited to Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly.
The giant ape returns, though this Jurassic Park knockoff takes place neither in the Depression era, which gave us the original King Kong (1933), nor in the present, when satellite photos would surely alert us to the existence of a 100-foot gorilla.
It is worth remembering that when the original King Kong (now acknowledged as a classic) was first released in 1933, critics called it “a super goofy yarn about a 50ft ape who goes for a five-foot blonde”.
We are meant to recall “King Kong,” from 1933, when Fay Wray was similarly cradled, and other flickers of that film emerge: the finding of a lost tribe, and the hearty disagreements between Kong and his next-door neighbors—prehistoric monsters, which in this case pop up from underground.
Audiences have been going ape over “King Kong” since the “Eighth Wonder of the World” made his film debut in 1933.
Set in 1973, Kong: Skull Island repackages Hollywood’s 1933 King Kong along with other action-adventure movie trivia.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Characters Visuals Themes
Hungry for a war he can win, Packard’s thread leans into the obsession and thirst for destruction of “Apocalypse Now,” giving the PG-13 adventure violence so shocking and graphic that it’ll likely have parents slapping protective palms over the bulging eyes of younger audience members.
Apocalypse Now influences paint an untamed, humid island with luscious accents, which are doubly-intense when “Skullcrawlers” threaten normality.
Jackson’s character, Packard, goes a bit down the Apocalypse Now path, which felt a little heavy-handed and forced at times, and while I enjoyed Larson’s performance in the film, too, I do wish the script had given her character more to do throughout the story.
Quick as you like, we're 'coptering through a storm to reach Skull Island, which the team immediately pelt with high explosives, waking Kong, who begins swatting them out of the sky like flies – so begins a conflict between the humans and the beasts of the island, hopped up on a '70s soundtrack and packed with visual nods to Apocalypse Now (right down to the poster and individual shots).
Even though the film’s trailer drew comparisons to Apocalypse Now, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts seems less inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War film than its iconic poster of a setting sun , an image Skull Island returns to over and over.
Mix King Kong with The Lost World, spike it with a bracing dash of Apocalypse Now and you've got Kong: Skull Island, in which Warner Bros. finally gets the effects-driven fantasy adventure formula right again after numerous misfires.
The slight but captivating indie-comedy The Kings of Summer has the ragtag look and feel of a movie made in some teenager’s basement: lots of slow motion; a blaring, catchy soundtrack that opens with a joyous rendition of Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song;” and themes inspired by classic films about youthful friendship like Stand By Me and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
"The Kings of Summer" has been compared in certain circles to 1986's quintessential, possibly ultimate, coming-of-age film "Stand by Me."
The film is now called “The Kings of Summer” and while it may recall Rob Reiner’s fondly remembered “Stand By Me,” it’s really quite different from that film.
Obvious Stand By Me references aside, The Kings of Summer comes across as little more than a TV sitcom with enough swear words included to earn it an "R" rating.
And while it openly evokes the spirit of pictures like “Stand By Me” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” it scores originality points in the shading of its characters and its utter fearlessness in going for the big laughs.
More Thoreau’s “Walden” than Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,” “The Kings of Summer” could have gotten away with using the tagline for Rob Reiner’s “Stand by Me,” which is: “For some, it’s the last real taste of innocence, and the first real taste of life.
Vogt-Roberts is on record calling this film a parable of the United States military getting swallowed by the jungles of Vietnam, just in case you didn’t notice all the homages to classic Vietnam movies, particularly Oliver Stone ’s “ Platoon ” and Francis Coppola ’s “ Apocalypse Now ” (the IMAX poster for “Kong: Skull Island” is even modeled on Bob Peak’s 1979 poster for Coppola’s film).
There are Platoon and Apocalypse Now references everywhere, and the film wholeheartedly embraces several of the Vietnam clichés so thoroughly sent up in Tropic Thunder almost 10 years ago, starting with era-specific musical cues.
The film does attempt intellectualism through its cultural references and anti-war message (not to mention its cinematographic and thematic homages to Platoon and Apocalypse Now), but it’s all lipstick on a monkey.
As the team explores the island, “Kong: Skull Island” consciously apes (sorry) the iconography of Vietnam War movies like “Apocalypse Now” and “Platoon.”
His take on Kong is densely packed with references to earlier movies; not just the original King Kong, but also contemporary monster movies like Predator and Jurassic Park (there’s a very cute shout-out to that film in Jackson’s dialogue) and even left-field homages to, oh, Cannibal Holocaust.
The most notable of these involves a scene in which a giant spider impales one man from the mouth to his bottom, eerily recalling the famous impalement scene from Cannibal Holocaust that got its filmmakers brought up on charges of obscenity and later murder.
One minute, it’s bombarding you with comic ultraviolence and gore that would not be out of place in The Evil Dead or Cannibal Holocaust, and the next it’s legitimately very funny.
Censors would have never allowed him to stab a man through the throat with a spider leg, an image lifted directly from the banned 1980 exploitation flick Cannibal Holocaust.
Once they land, they hunt one another in the jungle (it may be the first Tinseltown blockbuster to reference Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune’s Hell in the Pacific) until something appears to make them realize that their mano a mano battle is, in fact, small potatoes.
Coppola’s classic is his chief visual, if not tonal, touchstone (And it’s no coincidence we have characters called Conrad and Marlowe), but really the film is pulling from all kinds of Vietnam-era (And WWII – Hell in the Pacific gets a nod early on) media, giving us a cool soundtrack, some gnarly hardware and a crew of ass-in-the-grass grunts for the various beasties to chew on.
It opens with a Hell In The Pacific-style prelude set in 1944 and involving a Japanese officer and an American airman waging their own private war on the island before being interrupted by a gigantic creature with a huge furry paw.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Themes Characters Plot Visuals
He even adds a dusting of unexpected Easter Eggs with nods to Jurassic Park (Jackson sneering, “hold onto your butts”) and Adult Swim’s Tim and Eric Awesome Show (Reilly wearing a jacket emblazoned with Steve Brule’s motto “For your health!).
Instead Skull Island takes its visual cues from war movies, via Journey to the Centre of the Earth, with the wonder and world-building of Jurassic Park and an environmental subtext that links it to Godzilla.
Imagine taking Ian Malcolm out of Jurassic Park or Ripley out of Aliens.
In many ways, “Kong: Skull Island” is a “Jurassic Park” movie — and if viewed that way, it’s the best since the first.
Put King Kong out of your mind; this is neither sequel nor remake, but a whole new approach to the premise, with passing nods to Heart of Darkness, Jurassic Park, Moby Dick, and a host of other classic and pop culture touchstones.
In a normal cinematic climate, this wouldn’t be a novelty, but sci-fi action has so degenerated in recent years that to see one that’s not a succession of undifferentiated explosions feels almost nostalgic, like a throwback to the 1990s (think “Jurassic Park”).
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Directed by Michael Dougherty
influenced by Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Visuals
This re-think was introduced in the follow up Kong: Skull Island, which setup not only one of cinema’s most beloved monsters, but also a mythology that hinted at Legendary , who produced these films, would be bringing Toho’s entire rogues gallery of monsters to this new cinematic universe.
Directed by Michael Dougherty and distributed by Warner Bros, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the direct sequel to 2014’s Godzilla and the followup to 2017’s Kong: Skull Island .
Because, yes, this is supposed to be part of a bigger MonsterVerse, all leading up to a showdown between Godzilla and King Kong, the latter of whom was featured in 2017's Kong: Skull Island .
In terms of how the action is filmed on a technical level, I’m still a bigger fan of Edwards’ Godzilla and Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island.
Directed by Michael Dougherty (Krampus), Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the third film in Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment's ongoing MonsterVerse series, following 2014's Godzilla and 2017's Kong: Skull Island.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Directed by John Hughes
influenced The Kings of Summer (2013)
Themes
The slight but captivating indie-comedy The Kings of Summer has the ragtag look and feel of a movie made in some teenager’s basement: lots of slow motion; a blaring, catchy soundtrack that opens with a joyous rendition of Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song;” and themes inspired by classic films about youthful friendship like Stand By Me and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
It's similar in the way you'd suspend your disbelief while watching an old-school National Lampoon comedy (like Vacation or Caddyshack), or John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off, all of which knocked around in my brain during Toy's House.
No, this one is closer in spirit to the oddball sequels and spinoffs that have cropped up from time to time over the years that have taken the giant ape into increasingly weirdo situations in the likes of “Son of Kong” (1933), which offered up a kid-sized take on the story, the immortal “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962), the slightly-less-immortal “King Kong Escapes” (1967) and the jaw-dropping “King Kong Lives” (1986), in which the big ape was brought back to life from his plunge from the World Trade Center with an artificial heart the size of a car and hooked up with a similarly-sized female ape who give birth to his child in the climax.
He has the infectious grin of a young Matthew Broderick— the similarities between them might be distracting if it weren’t such a pleasure to be reminded of what it was like to discover that earlier cheeky grin back in the WarGames, Project X and Ferris Bueller era.
It is, Randa promises, “the land where God did not finish Creation”—a line borrowed from the opening of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo.
Brie Larson, por su parte, deja mucho qué desear con su personaje Mason Weaver (en entrevisa con el director, nos señaló que era una clara referencia a Sigourney Weaver y su personaje en Alien ).
The island's creatures include spiders, water buffalo and what you might call "Alien"-looking secretaries of the interior, who give the mighty but melancholy Kong his daily workout.
He has the infectious grin of a young Matthew Broderick— the similarities between them might be distracting if it weren’t such a pleasure to be reminded of what it was like to discover that earlier cheeky grin back in the WarGames, Project X and Ferris Bueller era.
The (final?) entry in Legendary’s carefully planned “MonsterVerse” - which started with Gareth Edward’s stylish “Godzilla,” continued in 2017’s vintage throwback “Kong: Skull Island” and flatlined last year thanks to “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” - “Godzilla vs. Kong” not only gets this series back on track, but it’s tons of fun that comes every bit as advertised: Two behemoths clobbering it out for total domination.
So begins Godzilla vs. Kong , from director Adam Wingard ( Blair Witch ) , the fourth entry in Legendary Entertainment’s “MonsterVerse” series, which started with the 2014 Godzilla , continued with the 2017 Kong: Skull Island , and then added still more creatures to the mix with the 2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters .
For those who missed the film’s predecessors (2014’s Godzilla, 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters), the basic idea is that a couple of dozen giant beasties called “Titans” (presumably because Guillermo del Toro already claimed “Kaiju” for Pacific Rim) have crawled out of the earth’s crust all over the globe and are being monitored by a shadowy government organization called Monarch, and an equally shadowy corporation called Apex Cybernetics.
The 2017 blockbuster Kong: Skull Island was set in the mid-1970s, at the tail end of the Vietnam War, while its new quasi-sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong, opens in the present day, with the ape visibly aggrieved and surrounded by all new characters.
And yet, here we are with Adam Wingard‘s overly stuffed sci-fi actioner brandishing a script of sorts from a duo of screenwriters who were clearly having an off day, compiling nonsensical material that feels wildly disconnected from even a narrative involving said giant ape and radioactive lizard; Eric Pearson, who was a co-writer on Thor: Ragnarok , and Max Borenstein, who penned 2014’s Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island , arguably the two brighter spots of the series, serving as scribes here.
This doesn’t feature the crass Vietnam references of Kong: Skull Island (2017) or the visual incoherence of a rain-soaked San Francisco in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
Directed by Colin Trevorrow
influenced Kong: Skull Island (2017), The Kings of Summer (2013)
Director Marc Webb parlayed (500) Days of Summer into the pointless new Spider-Man saga, and in the most extreme example, Colin Trevorrow, who helmed the insufferably kooky time travel comedy Safety Not Guaranteed, was recently hired for Jurassic Park 4 (a project that has since been placed on hold, presumably after Steven Spielberg sat down and actually watched Safety Not Guaranteed).
Sometimes these combinations work quite well—with his take on “Godzilla,” Gareth Edwards came up with one of the very best films in the 50-year history of that franchise—and sometimes, as was the case when “Safety Not Guaranteed” auteur Colin Treverrow was given “Jurassic World,” the results have been dire personality-free messes.
The script by Dan Gilroy ("Nightcrawler"), Derek Connolly ("Safety Not Guaranteed") and Max Borenstein ("Godzilla") handles the character introductions with unusual finesse, and I loved details such as the Nixon bobblehead parked on the helicopter control panel, indicating the difficulty of flying through "perpetual storm system" to get to paradise/hell, aka Skull Island.
Regardless: Plenty of mileage in the scenes connecting the chaos stems from the script (by a trio of writers separately responsible for the great “Nightcrawler,” solid 2014 “Godzilla” remake and under-appreciated “Safety Not Guaranteed”) and the cast, particularly an excellent use of Brie Larson’s natural curiosity, integrity and generosity as photojournalist Mason Weaver.
Their directors, Jurassic ’s Colin Trevorrow and Kong ’s Jordan Vogt-Roberts, landed the gigs on the strength of a single, comparatively micro-budgeted indie feature debut ( Safety Not Guaranteed and The Kings of Summer , respectively).
Working from a screenplay by Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler”), Derek Connolly (“Jurassic World”) and Max Borenstein, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (“The Kings of Summer”) keeps things moving as he updates the old-fashioned adventure flick.
There seems to be a renewed interest in creature features, first with Godzilla in 2014, then with Jurassic World in 2015, but Kong outshines them all with a smart, fun, action-packed story, stellar cast, and stunning special effects.
Sometimes these combinations work quite well—with his take on “Godzilla,” Gareth Edwards came up with one of the very best films in the 50-year history of that franchise—and sometimes, as was the case when “Safety Not Guaranteed” auteur Colin Treverrow was given “Jurassic World,” the results have been dire personality-free messes.
This is the rousing special effects extravaganza that Jurassic World should have been: director Jordan Vogt-Roberts barely has any pretense of a story and instead lets the creatures—who are frightening, awesome, and vivid—bellow and shriek for themselves.
With a story by John Gatins ("Need for Speed"), screenwriters Dan Gilroy ("Nightcrawler"), Max Borenstein (2014's "Godzilla") and Derek Connolly ("Jurassic World") have reimagined Kong as a Vietnam era anti-war movie, the film's real villain Lt. Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), itching to kill after having 'abandoned' the war in Vietnam.
The eager, teeming screenplay is credited to Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler,” “The Bourne Legacy”), Max Borenstein (“Godzilla”) and Derek Connolly (“Jurassic World”), with story by John Gatins (“Flight”).
The man-eating sequences dwarf those from any past film, including those created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen in "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), where the one-eyed giant Polyphemus eats several of Sinbad's sailors --- terrifying at the time.
The Land That Time Forgot (1974)
Directed by Kevin Connor
influenced Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Themes
Drawing from films like The Land That Time Forgot (1974), with Kong not the only oversized beast on the island, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts strikes a fine balance between action, drama and humour.
Set in the contemporary Cleveland suburbs, The Kings of Summer vaguely recalls the more nostalgic, more self-conscious Moonrise Kingdom .
And while it openly evokes the spirit of pictures like “Stand By Me” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” it scores originality points in the shading of its characters and its utter fearlessness in going for the big laughs.
Like Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” but with greater emotional warmth and less stylistic affectation, it offers a tale of youngsters leaving home that’s touched by magic and good spirits.
There’s an argument to be made that a lackadaisical teen comedy like “The Kings of Summer” is a modest rebuke to the over-amped shenanigans of button-pushing peers like “Project X” and “21 & Over.” (And to be fair, it’s also probably a more “realistic” portrait of young love than Anderson’s finely tuned eccentricity in “Moonrise Kingdom” or “Rushmore.”)
Writer Chris Galletta and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts ('Funny or Die Presents') make an auspicious feature debut with this charmer that plays like "The Lord of the Flies" meets "Moonrise Kingdom" as sponsored by Boston Market (a running gag in the film).
In his first produced screenplay, Chris Galletta walks the path previously trod by "Stand By Me," "Moonrise Kingdom," and "Lord of the Flies," but at a pace all his own.