“We are watching you….”
While plenty of films based upon Michael Crichton novels were released prior to it, the success of 1993’s Jurassic Park ignited film studio interest in Michael Crichton’s books like never before. In quick succession, films based on Crichton’s work were cranked out by the Hollywood machine. None of them came close to matching the success of Jurassic Park, but a few of them did quite well at the box office. Others were out-and-out clunkers on the big screen. Timeline (2003) and The 13th Warrior (1999) were two such films (although I personally enjoyed them. Then there is Congo (1995), a jungle romp that I saw in theaters and absolutely loved despite its having a number of differences from the novel.
Congo is the story of Amy, a young gorilla that communicates through sign language, who is brought back to her native lands by a brilliant primatologist named Peter Elliott with the help of a Romanian philanthropist named Herkermer Homolka (a character not in the book). Of course, Homolka is interested in locating the Lost City of Zinj, the purported location of one of King Solomon’s mines and home to untold riches. Also along for the ride is Karen Ross, who is secretly in search of her ex-fiancee and an expedition that was also seeking out the lost city’s riches, but for use by a telecommunications company. Leading the group is Monroe Kelly, a “great white hunter….who happens to be black.”
As the group gets closer to finding Zinj, the real motives of Homolka and Ross are revealed and Peter feels as if he’s been duped. After a number of dangerous encounters, the group eventually discover what is left of the telecom expedition and what murdered everyone in the group: hybrid killer gorillas! What happens next? Watch Congo to find out!
I know that on paper, Congo sounds absolutely ridiculous and, truth be told, it is. It tries very hard to capture the essence of old jungle adventure films from the first half of the 1900s and throws in a modern (at least for 1995) spin on the tale. The addition of Homolka was completely unnecessary as well. As dumb as it appears on the surface, however, Congo works. It performed quite well initially at the box office, debuting in first place. The next weekend, however, it was booted by Batman Forever. It would eventually find itself in regular rotation on basic cable as one of those films that someone always seemed to have on in the background but never really watched.
The film’s strengths lie in the performances of Ernie Hudson (Monroe), Laura Linney (Ross), Dylan Walsh (Peter), and Grant Heslove, who portrays Richard, Peter’s friend and assistant. The special effects aren’t too shabby, either. Sure, there’s a ton of cheese provided by Tim Curry as Homolka, but there’s also some solid humor from Amy the Gorilla (an animatronic creation). The film is in no way a national treasure and doesn’t come near to the perfection that is Jurassic Park, but it is a fun jungle romp.
Give Congo a shot if you haven’t watched it. It’s a very good middle-of-the-road adventure flick with amazing performances by most of the cast and excellent special effects.
As always, thanks for checking out my posts. Talk to you soon!
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