Name: Retro Film Review: Congo (1995)
Item: Congo
Rating: 15
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Best-selling author Michael Chricton, same as his colleague Stephen King, hadn't got much luck in adaptations of his books into movies. At least this was the case in 1990s when all those efforts, with an exception of Jurassic Park, produced disappointing results. The worst disappointment of them all was probably Congp, 1995 adventure thriller directed by Frank Marshall.

The plot begins in the jungles of Central Africa, somewhere on the border of Congo and its politically unstable neighbours. R.B. Travis (played by Jon Doe Baker), greedy CEO of Houston-based corporation, has sent his own son Charles (played by Bruce Campbell) into the area in order to search for world's largest diamonds - necessary ingredient for the lasers his corporation was about develop. When communication between Houston and Charles' jungle camp gets lost, Travis hires Charles' former fiancee and ex-CIA agent Dr. Karen Ross (played by Laura Linney) in order to locate him. When Dr. Ross arrives in Central Africa she is soon accompanied by few characters who are going to join her expedition for their own reasons -Dr. Peter Elliott (played by Dylan Walsh) is a researcher who wants to bring his talking gorilla to a natural habitat; Herkemer Homolka (played by Tim Curry) is "Romanian philantropist" who dreams of finding a treasure within a lost city somewhere in the jungle, while Monroe Kelly (played by Ernie Hudson) happens to be U.S. mercenary with his own agenda.

Congo was supposed to be a combination of late 20th Century techno-thriller and old fashioned adventure film about lost treasures in distant, exotic lands. Unfortunately, Patrick Shanley's script failed to properly employ both components and the movie fell flat, not even managing to become a parody of those two genres. The result is an anachronistic mess made of cliched characters and situations that looks like a cheap copy of Indiana Jones films and ends with unsatisfying deus ex machina finale. Director Frank Marshall is definitely unable to compensate flaws of such script, and some actors don't help either, including Tim Curry whose over-the-top performance looks more irritating than funny. His colleagues, on the other hand, look mostly disinterested, probably knowing that even with their best efforts Congo won't be a film to be particularly proud of.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on September 25th 2001)