Dom Robinson reviews
Congo
Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE
Producers:
Kathleen Kennedy and Sam Mercer
Screenplay:
(director of "Joe Versus The Volcano" )
Music:
Cast:
Karen Ross: Laura Linney (Primal Fear )
Peter Elliot: Dylan Walsh
Monroe Kelly: Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters 1 and 2, Leviathan )
Herkermer Homoika: Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue )
R.B. Travis: Joe Don Baker (Cape Fear, Goldeneye )
Moira: Mary Ellen Trainor (Executive Decision, Die Hard, Ricochet )
Charles Travis: Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead trilogy, Adventures of Brisco County Jr. )
From "Jurassic Park" , comes "Congo" the story
of gorillas in the jungle in which YOU become the endangered species... making
for obvious comparisons to be drawn with the aforementioned dinosaur-starring
classic.
Following the discovery of a new civilisation in a remote part of the jungle by
Charles Travis and his crew, they are promptly bumped off by an angry mother
gorilla.
So the scene is set for Peter Elliot, a man who has taught a younger gorilla
to talk; Karen Ross, played by Laura Linney, one-time girlfriend of Richard
Gere, in the Laura Dern-type role seeking to find out what exactly went on,
especially as a favour to her boss R.B. Travis, the father of Charles.
Also along for the ride is Tim Curry as Herkermer Homoika, a Romanian version
of Richard Attenborough's authoritative figure who five years ago led a
disasterous expedition looking for the city of Zinj which resulted in the
deaths of most of his party.
The question remains: does the city of Zinj really exist, as Homoika seems to
think? After all, he's been looking for it the whole of his life; or is it,
as Monroe Kelly seems to think, nothing more than a myth? If it really does
then everyone will be very rich considering it's a massive diamond mine...
Picture quality is very good, with colours coming through well, and the sound
is first-rate with surround sound coming into its own any time gorillas make
themselves heard to all concerned, and an unexpected explosion at the airport
packs a meaty punch at exactly 24 minutes 30 seconds into side one. Also
the sound of the finale certainly sorts out the men from the boys so to speak.
The aspect ratio is approximately 1.75:1 (no ratio is stated on the sleeve) and
nothing appears to be missing from the sides, but no doubt the film would have
been screened in cinemas masked to 1.85:1.
No theatrical trailer is included on the laserdisc which would have been nice,
and a few more chapters would have helped to break up some of the longer ones.
For computer owners, a PC CD-ROM game has been released to rave reviews
entitled "Congo: Descent Into Zinj" .
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1996.
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As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
