King Kong Escapes (Japanese: キングコングの逆襲, Hepburn: Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū, lit. ’King Kong’s Counterattack’) is a 1967 kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film was a Japanese–American co-production between Toho and Rankin/Bass, and stars Rhodes Reason, Linda Miller, Akira Takarada, Mie Hama, Eisei Amamoto, with Haruo Nakajima as King Kong and Hiroshi Sekita as Mechani-Kong and Gorosaurus. The film is loosely based on Rankin/Bass’ series, The King Kong Show, and was the second and final Toho-produced film featuring King Kong. King Kong Escapes was released in Japan on July 22, 1967, and released in the United States on June 19, 1968. It is the fourth entry in the King Kong franchise.
via Wikipedia
I honestly liked this movie, for several reasons, I’d like to list them for you.
- The lead female is very female, but she’s also the only one who can tell Kong what to do, and after a fashion, he does it. Strong female role models. Yes.
- There is are James Bond-esque villains involved. It’s very 60s and very dated, but I love it. Yes.
- The ending is very good. I won’t spoil it, but lets just say our strong female actresses make the most out of their screen time.
This movie is not entirely on the same timeline as the first two movies, I review them here and here respectively and they do follow each other. (The third one is basically just a show off, but still good and has no timeline.)This one does not, which is fine, as this movie doesn’t really destroy that timeline either.
Honestly, the best King Kong movie yet.
Ranking: ★ ★ ★ ★
Fellowship of Filming(s) 