(Frank Marshall, 1995)
From the director of Arachnophobia and Eight Below comes the jungle adventure film where "you are the endangered species," along with tonal consistency and entertainment value. Congo features a cast that might fool you into thinking it's worth seeing: Laura Linney and Tim Curry star as explorers with different motivations. Former Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson is their guide, and star of Mitchell Joe Don Baker is the megalomaniac "Communications" mogul who cares less about his own son than he does about recovering diamonds from the Congo that somehow activate a high-powered laser. The "son" is played by screen legend Bruce Campbell, and the film begins with him having recovered the laser-enabling diamonds. At this point, I'm thinking: "Bruce Campbell traverses the Congo with a high powered diamond laser? Great! I'm in!" Congo--obviously a movie that follows Bruce Campbell with a laser gun in the jungle--then shifts to a tonally incongruous plot line involving a gorilla named Amy who speaks via a high-tech sign language-interpreting backpack rig. Amy (played by an actor in a gorilla suit) drinks and smokes her way through the movie like she's in a remake of Every Which Way But Loose. The entire trajectory of the movie is a dull search that leads to a lost city of ancient ape monsters and Campbell's dead body. To be clear: this movie begins with Bruce Campbell shooting a laser gun, and for the next hour and forty minutes this movie is defiantly not about Bruce Campbell with a laser gun. I still really want to see that movie. It has to be better than Congo, the most sinister misdirect in cinema history.
Jen's Award for Best Dialogue
Dr. Karen Ross: Are you serving that ape a martini?
Up next: A fantasy favorite?
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