'Congo' review by Jake Boyle
Nobody makes good old-fashioned, mildly stupid movies anymore. Action fare often either has to be po-faced and taken entirely seriously (Taken! Get it?), or as self-awarely ludicrous as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or Machete. Harkening back to the older days when films were genuinely dumb rather than 'ironically' dumb, I watched 1995's (practically prehistoric) Congo, a film about deadly apes from Frank Marshall, the man who brought the world Arachnophobia and produced absolutely every film of the last 30 years.
It was immediately clear from the beginning that Congo was going to be the good variety of preposterous when one of the first faces on the screen is Bruce Campbell. Ash is on hand to help set up the 'killer ape' premise, which never actually shows up until the final fifteen minutes. That might sound like a recipe for boredom, but there's enough ludicrous filler material to keep momentum going - homing missiles, hippo attacks and civil war all interrupt the journey. It has to be said that even within Hollywood, this is an exceptionally stereotypical depiction of central Africa. The audience isn't shown a single African character who isn't either a rebel militant or a jungle-dwelling tribesman, and patience is tested further by Tim Curry's cod-accented Romanian, who despite being only mildly morally dubious is played with moustache-twirling camp evilness. Dylan Walsh and Laura Linney make decent leads, but it's the cool charm of Ernie Hudson that makes up for the more troubling elements of the film. His charisma is especially necessary given the briefness of Bruce Campbell's appearance.
The shooting locations and sets are very atmospheric and give the film a real sense of adventure, but the special effects are an embarrassment. The rubber monkey suits are bad enough, but the digitized lava looks like it was rendered on a ZX Spectrum, and this is all made especially disheartening as it's coming from the legendary Stan Winston. A good sense of humour and a commitment to its own ridiculousness helps to keep the film afloat - it's not quite self-aware but it is, at the very least, arch enough to know that anything vaguely serious went AWOL two seconds after the title card was shown. The characters, while familiar stereotypes, all have their own motivations and agendas, and at least of half of them are pleasingly amoral, which is one nice differentiation from the norm. The execution of the action is occasionally sloppy (often poorly shot in order to hide as much of the subpar special effects as possible) but passable enough to be enjoyable, and it's impressive that such a ridiculous premise can register any sort of palpable threat level at all.
Congo, really, is exactly what it says on the tin. It's pretty asinine and in some respects lazily made, but it's amusing and pleasingly silly and vaguely exciting, so in terms of quality it overall ekes out a positive experience. The only serious mark against the movie is its treatment of Congo itself and African characters, which while not mocking or overtly bigoted, could quite easily turn a frivolous experience nasty. It marrs an otherwise pleasant film that serves its purpose well enough as daft, cheesy entertainment.
The shooting locations and sets are very atmospheric and give the film a real sense of adventure, but the special effects are an embarrassment. The rubber monkey suits are bad enough, but the digitized lava looks like it was rendered on a ZX Spectrum, and this is all made especially disheartening as it's coming from the legendary Stan Winston. A good sense of humour and a commitment to its own ridiculousness helps to keep the film afloat - it's not quite self-aware but it is, at the very least, arch enough to know that anything vaguely serious went AWOL two seconds after the title card was shown. The characters, while familiar stereotypes, all have their own motivations and agendas, and at least of half of them are pleasingly amoral, which is one nice differentiation from the norm. The execution of the action is occasionally sloppy (often poorly shot in order to hide as much of the subpar special effects as possible) but passable enough to be enjoyable, and it's impressive that such a ridiculous premise can register any sort of palpable threat level at all.
Congo, really, is exactly what it says on the tin. It's pretty asinine and in some respects lazily made, but it's amusing and pleasingly silly and vaguely exciting, so in terms of quality it overall ekes out a positive experience. The only serious mark against the movie is its treatment of Congo itself and African characters, which while not mocking or overtly bigoted, could quite easily turn a frivolous experience nasty. It marrs an otherwise pleasant film that serves its purpose well enough as daft, cheesy entertainment.
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