Movies
“Congo” Is Bad, Even On Second Go-Around
It’s never good when you watch a movie and it turns out you have seen it before, but you remember absolutely NOTHING about it.
“When an expedition to the African Congo ends in disaster, a new team is assembled to find out what went wrong.”
Director: Frank Marshall
Writers: Michael Crichton, John Patrick Shanley
Cast: Laura Liney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry
Release Date: June 9, 1995
IMDB
It’s never good when you watch a movie and it turns out you have seen it before, but you remember absolutely NOTHING about it.
Such is the case with Congo (1995).
This Michael Crichton adaption takes scientists deep into the jungle and pins the out-of-place personalities against deadly environments and apes. Dr. Karen Ross (Laura Linney) is seeking a lost colleague while battling her overbearing boss. Dr. Peter Elliot (Dylan Walsh) is focused on returning his talking gorilla home. Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry) mysteriously seeks a secret place with invaluable diamonds, and all are relying on Captain Munroe Kelly (Ernie Hudson) to navigate the always dangerous jungle.
Skipping right to the end, the concept of a gun-filled battle between explorers and albino gorillas is WILD. Even as a non-animal-loving person myself, it was strange to see Ernie Hudson, Laura Linney, and company gunning down apes with reckless abandon. Sure, these apes are an essential supernatural aspect of the jungle, protecting a secret. Still, that context is not enough to make me cheer on silly humans against nature’s natural inhabitants.
Director Frank Marshall has made many respected documentaries and a few live-action features. By any metric, Congo is the lowest rated of anything that he has had a direct hand in. I don’t think Marshall is dwelling too much on the past, however, seeing how he has been nominated for five Best Picture Oscars as a producer, the last being The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2009).
Switching topics in this meandering review, what if I told you that there are unofficially 18 movies based on Michael Crichton works? What if I told you that Crichton branched out from paperbacks and started partaking in screenplays and directing himself?
It began in 1971 with the adaption of Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain and stretched further a few years later with Westworld (1973), which Crichton wrote and directed himself. Decades later, HBO expanded on his ideas of robots and humanity with Westworld, which still has one of the best first seasons of TV ever.
Jurassic Park (1993) is the most famous adaptation, spawning legs for years. Jurassic World 4 is in production now, and seeing how the entire movie is based on characters created by Crichton, his estate will benefit financially once again.
An excellent trivia fact is that Crichton co-wrote Twister (1996) with Anne-Marie Martin and gets his name attached to this summer’s Twisters (2024).
Crichton, who passed away in 2008, has a great quote on his official website that shows that cinema was a part of his life from the get-go, and writing was a welcomed way to get his foot in the industry.
“I always wanted to direct movies. My first hero was Alfred Hitchcock – I knew who Hitchcock was long before I knew who Charles Dickens was. I was a very strange kid, I think part of it was that I wasn’t allowed to see movies. My parents thought it was bad for my moral development or something like that. So movies were really forbidden fruit.”
But just because you love the industry doesn’t mean it loves you. We must return to reality and remember that Congo is a bad movie. It’s not worth watching, and I have to debate whether or not the book is worth reading. I am currently reading The 13th Warrior and plan on finishing it before watching John McTiernan’s adaptation starring Antonio Banderas.
And while I am not a book guy, I strongly encourage reading Jurassic Park. I have the same gusto for that recommendation as I do for making sure no one watches Congo without fair warning.
I have to read the book because there is no way the book can be worse than the movie. If you do want to watch the movie, it is streaming on Paramount+ as of August 2024.
STANKO RATING: F+
Stanko Excel Lists | Movies, Books, Podcasts. TV Shows
Stanko Letterdbox Account
RECENTLY WATCHED
Ranking The Mission: Impossible Films: #7 – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)
There is a lot happening in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. One could argue that there is too much going on.
Ranking The Mission: Impossible Films: #8 – Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Much maligned as the worst of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Mission: Impossible II doesn’t do itself any favors upon rewatch.
Four Shorty Reactions: “MaXXXine” (2024), “Monkey Man” (2024), “Raising Arizona” (1987), “Scoop” (2024)
MaXXXine (2024) “In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.” Director: Ti WestWriter: Ti WestCast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Halsey, Lily Collins, Kevin Bacon, Bob Cannavale, Michelle…
Stanko's Stance 