'Kong' Comes To Screens Nationwide

Second Remake Of 1933 Classic Monster Movie Cost $210M

(CBS)  It's the 800-pound gorilla of Hollywood blockbusters.

As Scott Rappaport says in reporting for CBS on the $210 million remake of "King Kong," the latest take hits theaters nationwide Wednesday after premiering Monday in New York.

This time, Jack Black plays a movie producer of questionable integrity who persuades an aspiring actress, portrayed by Naomi Watts, to board a ship and set sail for a faraway, forbidden island to film his movie.

When they get there, they're immediately attacked by native savages. Watts is strung up as a sacrifice. But for whom?

Enter the mother of all monkeys, King Kong who, as Rappaport puts it, goes ape over Watts and protects her from the island's gigantic reptiles, dinosaurs and bugs.

Ultimately, the king is captured and taken to New York.

Bad idea, opines Rappaport.

Proving, he says, that you can take the boy out of the jungle but can't take the jungle out of the boy, the gorilla goes bananas, leading to an eye-popping climax at the top of the Empire State Building with the beauty and the beast.

In both the 1933 and 2005 versions, Kong climbs the Empire State Building carrying his blonde "love interest." In the 1976 remake starring Jessica Lange, the Empire State Building was replaced by the World Trade Center.