Congo

Dir: Frank Marshall

1995

***

Bruce Campbell, Michael 'Jurassic Park' Crichton and a talking Gorilla? In 1995 this was an irresistible mixture and even though it was something of a let-down, I've still got fond feelings for Frank Marshall's odd adventure. Marshall, along with wife Kathleen Kennedy, produced some of the best, most iconic films of the 1980s and 1990s, and Marshall directed the surprise hit Arachnophobia in 1990. Michael Crichton wrote The Andromeda Strain, Westworld and the screenplay to Coma. Bruce Campbell is a B-Movie god and everyone likes monkeys - talking monkeys even more so, especially cute ones wearing back-packs called Amy. The film also stars personal favourites including Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Joe Don Baker, Joe Pantoliano and Delroy Lindo, as well as the voice of Megatron himself, Frank Welker. The problem is the screenplay was from by the same guy who wrote Moonstruck. I'm not hating on Moonstruck - at all - John Patrick Shanley just wasn't the first person I think of when I think Adventure film featuring killer Silver-back Gorillas. Also, Bruce Campbell is in it for around three minute’s tops. Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh and Grant Heslov are good in their main roles and Ernie Hudson and Tim Curry are wonderfully over the top in their performances but there was always a certain level of disappointment for me that the great chin himself didn't have a larger role. Two years after the great Jurassic Park, Congo had to impress but unfortunately it just doesn't compare but looking back at in now I think the response was harsh. It really isn't a masterpiece or even above average in its genre but there is a certain charm about it that makes me watch it every time it is repeated on television. Bruce Campbell might only be in it for three minutes and it might not be the most faithful adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel (it really isn't anything like it) but it does have a talking gorilla in it and one out of three isn’t bad. It isn't the big blockbuster everyone had hoped it would be but it is a damn fine B-Movie and that's okay with me. Jurassic Park is just a B-Movie that had millions of dollars thrown at it after all. It was up against Braveheart, Batman Forever, Apollo 13, Judge Dredd and Pocahontas. That's a popular superhero franchise, a Disney film, a hotly anticipated comic adaptation, a Space film starring Tom Hanks at the peak of his popularity and Mel Gibson in a skirt back before people started hating him. I feel a bit sorry for poor old Congo. They might have miss-sold the finished product but I think the camp performances, reassuringly familiar formula and Amy the talking gorilla actually went a long way in making up for it. Bruce Campbell is only in it for three minutes but Bruce Campbell is still in it, obviously improving the film by at least one star. Congo is that little kid in the playground wearing the superman costume getting picked on. He can come to my birthday party if he wants.