When you think about it, when was the last time the major studios gave us an honest-to-God creature feature?

Not a grand epic reimagining of classic movie monsters (although 2014’s Godzilla WAS pretty great), not a dramatic appreciation of classic monsters (such as 2005’s Peter Jackson-directed King Kong), I’m talking a full-blown, cheesy, ridiculous B-movie romp.

Thankfully, the drought is over, and we have Kong: Skull Island to thank.

Set in the final days of the Vietnam conflict, the Jordan Vogt-Roberts directed film updates the Kong legend, moving it forward from the standard 1930’s set story of an ape and a beauty, instead making it an action-packed journey into an island of monsters.

The setup is simple - the mysterious Monarch group (who you may remember from the aforementioned Godzilla reboot) is desperately trying to retain its government funding. Lead by the passionate Bill Randa (John Goodman), Monarch is attempting to prove the Hollow Earth theory of geologist Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins), and apparently there is no better place than a cursed island in the South Pacific, known for being a site of death and tragedy - the aforementioned Skull Island.

With government approval, a crew is quickly gathered: a Vietnam-based US helicopter force, lead by an intense Colonel (Samuel L. Jackson), an ex-British Special Forces tracker (Tom Hiddleston), and, for some reason, an anti-war photo journalist (Brie Larson).

You may’ve noticed that I haven’t really mentioned character names, and that’s with reason - while the film has them, the human characters are secondary to the creatures and wonders of Skull Island.

Filled with creepy crawlies and dominated by the God-like ape Kong, this movie is all about the awe and destruction created by these creatures. If you’re in for this film for the actors, you’re seeing the wrong picture. But if you plop down the money to see incredible computer animated creatures (including the largest version of King Kong yet), you will find an embarrassment of riches.

The acting isn’t bad per se - it’s just mostly wasted. I can’t really figure out why actors with the heat of Hiddleston and Larson were brought into the film beyond name value, as they don’t really get too much to do - but for the skilled character actors in the film (Jackson, Goodman), Kong: Skull Island is an incredible piece of cheese for them to sink their teeth into.

With no character or performance is this more apparent than John C. Reilly’s Hank Marlow, an unhinged World War II pilot who crashed on Skull Island and made it his home for decades. Reilly goes all in with his performance, laughing about his inevitable death and swinging a katana with gusto. He truly personifies everything that makes Kong: Skull Island enjoyable: his acting is big, dumb, ridiculous, and absolutely undeniably entertaining.

It’s interesting too to see the visual touchstones in play here - Kong: Skull Island carries homages to everything from Apocalypse Now to Mad Max: Fury Road to first-person-shooter video games, and it all works, a strong modernization of the creature feature, even if it’s set 40 years ago.

Kong: Skull Island isn’t a prestige picture, but as a large-scale B-Movie, it delivers. This is the type of movie to be seen at a drive-in, to be enjoyed on a weekend afternoon, to be laughed at, and to blown away by the technical mastery. It is simply big, dumb fun, and if you give yourself to it, you won’t be able to wipe the smile from your face.

Additional notes: My screening of Kong: Skull Island was in IMAX 3D, and while I did not see the value in the 3D projection, I do recommend IMAX (or Dolby Cinema) for the powerful sound. I also recommend sticking through the credits, especially if you’re a big fan of other giant monsters.

Kong: Skull Island is in theaters now.