Congo (Film Review)
1995 Paramount Pictures
Congo features dual protagonists, a woman who's looking for her company's missing diamonds and her probably dead fiance, and a man who's trying to return his talking gorilla charge to the wild. Both destinations lie in the jungle, and a trip to the Congo is expensive, so the duo inexplicably join up, along with a shady philanthropist who believes the place they're both looking for is the mythical lost city of Zinj. They're led into the jungle by a great white hunter, who in his own words, "...just happens to be black." This motley crew, along with a bunch of hapless, redshirt porters, doesn't know that trained evil gorillas are guarding their final destination. These gorillas are smart, deadly, and ugly, and also, a special effects disaster. Looks like it's goofy humans and their talking gorilla friend versus guys in suits...er, attack gorillas, battling for the diamond prize. It's stupid as hell and it's terrible.
Am I bitter that this film doesn't have even a karat of respect for its source material? Sure. Is this movie horrible either way? I think so. Characters spout utter stupidity, act stupidly, and scenes either crash and burn, or are fun for just a couple of seconds then end. Nothing satisfies, unless the viewer is absolutely overjoyed by trash, or has some weird sense of nostalgia for this film. I don't. I hate it. It sucks. Congo sucks.
Directed by: Frank Marshall; Written by: John Patrick Shanley (adapted from
Michael Crichton's novel of the same name)
Starring: Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Grant Heslov, Joe Don
Baker, and Tim Curry
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 108 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 2/10
Michael's Crichton's 1980 novel, Congo, is not his best. It gets a
little too obsessed with the technology it features, but it does have a fun
core adventure, and solid centrals ideas. Overall, Congo is a fun, if flawed read. A
cinematic adaptation could easily chew away the fat, and become a classic
adventure film. Or it could do what the Frank Marshall 1995 adaptation did.
Marshall immediately dismisses any ideas that he's going to go the
high-concept, prestige route, ala Jurassic Park, released two years before. Just by his
choice of title font, and the film's goofy, sloppy opening scenes, it's clear
B-movie is the highest aspiration Marshall has for this material. Congo features dual protagonists, a woman who's looking for her company's missing diamonds and her probably dead fiance, and a man who's trying to return his talking gorilla charge to the wild. Both destinations lie in the jungle, and a trip to the Congo is expensive, so the duo inexplicably join up, along with a shady philanthropist who believes the place they're both looking for is the mythical lost city of Zinj. They're led into the jungle by a great white hunter, who in his own words, "...just happens to be black." This motley crew, along with a bunch of hapless, redshirt porters, doesn't know that trained evil gorillas are guarding their final destination. These gorillas are smart, deadly, and ugly, and also, a special effects disaster. Looks like it's goofy humans and their talking gorilla friend versus guys in suits...er, attack gorillas, battling for the diamond prize. It's stupid as hell and it's terrible.
Am I bitter that this film doesn't have even a karat of respect for its source material? Sure. Is this movie horrible either way? I think so. Characters spout utter stupidity, act stupidly, and scenes either crash and burn, or are fun for just a couple of seconds then end. Nothing satisfies, unless the viewer is absolutely overjoyed by trash, or has some weird sense of nostalgia for this film. I don't. I hate it. It sucks. Congo sucks.
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