source: Queen Kong

Queen Kong

Frank Agrama, the director of this spoof on the King Kong theme is better known for his wildly searched horror of 1981 Dawn Of The Mummy. But before that he left us with this weird British remake of King Kong on a extreme low budget. Just look at Kong, just a man in a suit. And there is singing in it, there is a bit of inside jokes in it, this isn't a horror to be honest even as it is stated on the box, full uncut. But everything you see in the original King Kong they remade, the fight with the Tyrannosaurus Rex is unbelievable, it isn't done in stop motion but it's again, well, a man in a suit. But being so stupid and badly done you really want to see this cheesy piece of stupidity. The acting is okay, really, if you can catch this than you just wont believe that this kind of flick could be made in the seventies, really looks like a Carry On...but still, it's out there to be seen, well, see it.

When they announced the first remake of King Kong in 1975, other Countries scrambled to make they're own Kongs. There was China's Mighty Piking Man and Thailand's APE, both sucked to high Heaven. But one of these Kong wanna-be's stand out and that was Queen Kong. While the rest of the world went out of there way to rip off the classic Kong storyline and fail. The British decided to go another direction, not imitate, parody. Thus Queen Kong was born, of course made quickly and cheaply there are some production value issues. But it is clever and funny and I feel that Benny Hill had a hand in it somewhere. I find the story hilarious, the effects passable and the acting over the top, in the funny way. In my book as Kong rip offs go, you can't go wrong by doing right. This is the best of the rip offs, it's clever twist makes it not only worth watching, it makes it worth owning. 9 BIG STARS.

This feminist spoof of "King Kong" (with jabs thrown at "The Exorcist", "Jaws" and "Airport" along the way) reverses the gender of the main characters, re-locates the second half of the action to London, and has a happy ending, but otherwise follows the story of the original quite closely! The optical effects & miniatures are actually better than they need to be for this kind of film, and Rula Lenska gives a very good deadpan performance. The film is bizarre, goofy, and kinda cute. **1/2 out of 4.

To say Queen Kong is campy is an understatement. Some might say they spared no expense on special effects for the movie but l say they they spent no expense on the special effects. Be prepared for more stock footage, rip offs of popular movies and the worse script and directing since Ed Wood Jr.'s "Plan 9 From Outer Space" Why did I give it 7 stars you might ask? Because I absolutely loved everything Ed Wood Jr. made. In the end it's a pretty good spoof of King Kong when you consider all the indignities thrust upon poor Kong since the big ape's first appearance on the silver screen.

The less said about this steaming pile of dung, the better. It's hard to imagine that someone actually put up the money to finance this. What was the pitch? "Oh, we're making a King Kong spoof with women in all the roles previously done by men. And instead of Fay Wray, we're going to put a man in that role. And, here's the best part, his character's name is Ray Fay!" I'll never understand how anyone could find any of this remotely entertaining. It's meant to be funny, but none of the jokes work. Add to that some of the worst song and dance numbers ever filmed and Queen Kong becomes one of the worst films I've ever seen. But, I can't rate it a 1/10. I have to give it a point just for the casting of Valerie Leon.

This gender bent spoof of King Kong was hard to see until the advent of DVD. Thats a shame because its better than the film that producers of the remake of King Kong unleashed on the unsuspecting world. Having not pretense at being anything other than a send up this film lets it all go in what is mostly a good but really dumb comedy. The problem with the film is that even at a running time of around 80 minutes this movie is way too long. There is only enough material to sustain a 20 minute short and its stretched to fill a feature. The lack of material leaves many dead spots and allows for some really bad material to creep in. Had this been shorter it would have been better (say as a sketch on SNL), but as it stands now its a very interesting side note to the debacle that was the 1976 King Kong remake.

This was a scene-for-scene parody of the original King Kong, with a merry but uncomprehending wink at the women's liberation movement. The better you know the original, the more you'll enjoy the in-jokes.