With King Kong's release on DVD, Slate's Stephen Metcalf has taken it on himself to rehash (or re-evaluate) the reasons why the movie flopped (or was not nearly as successful as its projections, costs and P & A costs required it to be).

"But aside from dazzling spectacle, what is this movie really about? With no half-buried race panic to animate it, we're left to examine the central romance somewhat more literally. Where once there was blackness, now there is only a kind of blankness. Look closely at this Kong and, prodigious and finely detailed as he is, you'll discover nothing between his legs."

Pat yourself on the back for that one, Stephen. But let's face it, based on all the hype and all the size, the more appropriate, although less literal metaphor, is one of Elephantiasis: unfathomably bloated, grossly fascinating, but in the end impotent.