I'm an open canvas to the film as I vaguely remember seeing king kong when I was a kid but not since. I remember watching Joe Little/Strong? (or something named similar which was about a smaller king kong) and that was good fun as a kid.

1) not so, thats quite a narrow viewpoint on all the films that regularly come out. Just grab a copy of empire and read through all the new and upcoming releases. Look past the blockbusters as there are some great smaller budget original films.

2) I enjoyed LOTR, they did an admirable job of trying to get close to the book. To say that the first book is fairly boring, they did a good job of livening it up. The second and third films did well in retelling the story and made a great character of gollum.
Didnt realise the frighteners was jackson's - I thought it was light hearted and fairly decent entertainment in not trying to be bigger than it could be.
Not seen braindead so can't say anything about it.

Just saw Harry Potter tonight and that was fairly decent, good general entertainment telling an average story and looking good