King Kong Lives! Original One Sheet! I Am An Idiot!

Because I am an idiot, I am now the proud owner of yet another piece of retarded movie memorabilia. Today I found the original one sheet poster for the fabulous, "King Kong Lives"(1986). The sequel to the 1976 remake. It is one of the most ill-conceived, idiotic films I have ever seen and one of the funniest bad movies ever made.

Apparently Kong's fall from the top of one of the twin towers of the then still-standing World Trade Center in 1976 didn't kill him...oh no...you see at the beginning of "King Kong Lives" he's hooked up to a gargantuan life support system and is retro-fitted with a gigantic artificial heart in a scene that plays very much like a Monty Python sketch. The entire film is so jaw-droppingly stupid in every way that it is almost unbelievable it was even finished. I first read about this in one of the "Golden Turkey Awards" books where it was mentioned in a write up of the 1976 remake. The next time I heard about this "film" was on Siskel and Ebert : At The Movies...I vaguely recall that they mentioned not even being allowed to see it for the show before it was rushed into theatres so it could dodge the inevitably horrified reviews it was simply doomed to receive....or something to that effect...I know they weren't given any footage of the movie to play during the show. My friend Ken and I finally found a VHS copy for rent at Long's Drugs in Fairfield and immediately snatched it up.

It was one of those rare viewing experiences in which the grotesque stupidity you are witnessing transforms its self into one of the most hilarious things you're ever seen...each stupid moment topping the next. I almost ruptured an intestine I was laughing so hard...granted I was high as a kite, but still...this shitfest was a LAUGH RIOT...if you go for that sort of thing...and I sure as HELL do! It was much like the experience of seeing "Out For Justice" starring Steven Seagal for the first time...a movie so gory and violent that it starts to seem like a Three Stooges short directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. I am even the proud owner of the soundtrack album for "King Kong Lives"...who even knew they bothered? I must own the only copy...and now I own the poster...and I am quite happy about that...perhaps I have mild brain damage.