Congo (1995)

Director: Frank Marshall

Starring: Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Grant Heslov, Joe Don Baker, Stuart Pankin, James Karen & BRUCE "THE CHIN" CAMPBELL!!!

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Where you are the endangered species

Plot:
A megalomaniac C.E.O. sends his son into the dangerous African Congo on a quest for a source of diamonds large enough and pure enough to function as powerful laser communications transmitters (or is it laser weapons?). When contact is lost with his son and the team, his sometime daughter- in-law is sent after them. She is a former CIA operative and, accompanied by gee-whiz gadgetry and a few eccentric characters (including a mercenary, a researcher with a talking gorilla, and a a nutty Indiana-Jones-type looking for King Solomon's Mines), sets out to rescue her former fiancé. What they all discover is that often what we most want turns out to be the source of our downfall.

 

My rating:

Will I watch it again? Yes.  

I've heard nothing but bad things about this for over a decade.  That normally won't stop me from watching something but it can certainly delay it.  I guess I was ready.  Holy crap was this fun.  I guess my expectations were so low I was bound to like it for not sucking so bad or maybe I was simply in the right mood for it.  I LOVED Laura Linney's character.  She was a strong, no-nonsense character that wasn't the cocky badass type you see all over the place in Hollywood.  She behaved like a professional that had a brain and relied on it to survive.  NICE! The other standout for me was Ernie Hudson.  Fuck his performance in GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), he's having a blast in this picture and for the fun factor, he took the prize.  Boy he was great fun to watch.

OK so it was a tremendous stretch that we had an ape that could talk using a computer or something semi-to-completely retarded.  BUT, and this is a HUGE but, it was handled about as well as it possible could and keep it in the realm of a fun adventure flick rated PG-13.  My eyes only partly rolled from time to time but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  And don't forget Jerry Goldsmith's score.  He's almost always a welcome addition to any picture (I say almost because I've seen RUNAWAY (1984)).