Jack Black: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked
3. Carl Denham - King Kong (2005)
For all of the problems with Peter Jacksons King Kong - the production feels sloppy and rushed to an unfinished state (probably because the Lord Of The Rings trilogy had afforded the director too much time to polish) - Jack Black's casting as Carl Denham was as close to perfect as bringing back the monkey to play Kong. Strangely enough, Black wasn't entirely enamoured with the experience: it was too bloated and there was too much waiting around. It's difficult to imagine there's anything worse for such an energetic figure. But that frustration doesn't kill the performance, even if it seems to the rest of the film: perhaps it was his frustration that bled into Denham's own isolation, and there is a sense that he doesn't quite fit. Rather than a more typical action hero, Black's Denham is non-athletic, more Orson Welles than Bruce Willis, and it add fits the character perfectly.
