japan goes "ape" for "kong"

if you grew up in the 70's like me then these are fond rememberance of things past.first let me say that i was very shocked at the transfers,on most cheap sets the color and sound is very poor and forget widescreen,but they through me a curve here,widescreen and the color and sound(as near as i can tell) look just like new. if more of these sets were like this the major studios might get a run for there money. now there are no extras for those who like and want those.(they are nice but for the price i understand why they have none)
the movies are in fact large cheese sticks,but thats the fun of these movies. if you like these giant monster movies and you like a good deal, try this great old films.

A fun two-pack

The main event in this two-pack is the matchup between the two biggest names in giant monsters. While there are shortcomings here, it's hard to believe anyone who likes either the the big "G" or the big "K-K" wouldn't want to check this out..

Die-hard Kong fans probably won't like this. Let's be honest, it's probably impossible for a single movie to be loyal to the style of both monsters considering the differences in the underlying movies. The original "Kong" and Peter Jackson's worthy sucessor/remake are both driven by non-human special effects--stop motion and CGI. Godzilla on the other hand uses "suitmation" (and a few years ago, we all saw how unsuccesful the American attempt to convert him to more hi-tech effects was). This movie was produced by Toho and, with one exception, it uses the latter technique--suits and all. Go into it expecting something like "Destroy All Monsters" and you won't be disappointed.

This two-pack includes the American repackaged version of the Japanese orginal. It contains awkwardly-inserted scenes containing caucasian actors and sadly deletes of the original musical score by Arika Ifukube. While I would prefer the original version, I will settle for the sake of the bargain price.

The other benefit is the added-on movie, King Kong Escapes. Like the main movie, this is an odd spin on the big ape (Mecha-Kong?!?).This is probably a movie I would not have watched but for its inclusion here...but as a wacky, light-hearted fantasy, it works.

In short, if you appreciate the idea of Kong done kaiju-style then come for the main bout versus Godzilla. Stay for the match-up with the evil robotic twin.

Is there a reviewer out there who gives a damn?

I looked at the reviews to try to find out something about these releases particularly King Kong vs Godzilla. Is it the Japanese version? Does it have the American musical soundtrack? Does the disk have any extras? What is the picture quality like? Is it a good transfer? Instead there are a whole bunch of reviews that recap the plot, tell me whether or not they like it, take a moment to sneer at the special effects and then move on. Has anyone out there actually seen this DVD?