Congo

Name: Congo
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Mystery
Released: June 9, 1995
Duration: 109 min
Rating: 22
Cast: Laura Linney, Tim Curry

1995

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 19 Critics

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 49 Ratings

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5.9

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5.9	Your Score
5.9	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 49 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 9, 1995

Starring: Laura Linney, Tim Curry

Summary: From the best seller by Michael Crichton comes an action-packed adventure filled with state-of-the-art technology and primal fear. (Paramount)

Director: Frank Marshall

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Mystery

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 109 min

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Awards & Rankings

27	#27 Most Discussed Movie of 1995
70	#70 Most Shared Movie of 1995

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert

The result is not a movie that is very good, exactly, but it's entertaining and funny. Read full review

USA Today - Mike Clark

As in "Arachnophobia", director Frank Marshall can't decide whether he's making a thriller or a laff-it-up lark. [09 Jun 1995, Pg.03.D]

Newsweek - Jack Kroll

Congo is basically the old African ooga-mooga movie brought into the P.C., high-tech age. Read full review

Washington Post - Desson Thomson

As if aware that Congo is the least interesting adventure ever filmed, screenwriter John Patrick Shanley (who once wrote a funny movie called "Moonstruck") tries to inoculate the activities with humor. Read full review

San Francisco Examiner - Barbara Shulgasser

In stupidity, this movie ranks up there among the greats. Read full review

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) - Liam Lacey

Without Spielberg's technical pizazz, and with a gummy mixture of homage and spoof, Congo chokes on its own tongue in cheek. Read full review

Austin Chronicle - Steve Davis

Jawdroppingly bad, this adaptation of Michael Crichton's 1980 novel about a talking ape named Amy and a fabled lost city deep in the jungles of central Africa is as sophisticated in execution as a Jungle Jim movie. Read full review

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User Reviews

Ragesucks

Jul 1, 2015

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie is a shining example of what cinema should strive to be. Set in the deep jungles of Africa, this action packed thrill ride provides moviegoers with almost 2 hours of non stop fun. One of the best characters in this movie is actually a Gorilla named Amy portrayed by renowned African actor Adewalé! Throughout the course of the movie, I always on the edge of my seat, heart pounding wondering what misfortune would befall the amazing team of actors including fish-face and many but not all of the Harlem Globe Trotters. Tyler Perry has truly outdone himself this time! I give this movie a 4.... out of "4".… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Zarathesus

May 14, 2011

22?
Some of these critics just need to have a nice, relaxing dump.
Does not deserve such a rating. Not every movie needs to be a Stanley Kubrick masterpiece. Avatar was a complete hack of Dances with Wolves and Ferngully with worldwide success....yet this kind of original popcorn fun is22?
Some of these critics just need to have a nice, relaxing dump.
Does not deserve such a rating. Not every movie needs to be a Stanley Kubrick masterpiece.
Avatar was a complete hack of Dances with Wolves and Ferngully with worldwide success....yet this kind of original popcorn fun is buried.
It's unbelievable how much some of these crotch stains love the smell of their own farts.
Rent it. This is a classic B-movie. It's not nostalgia that's guiding my view on this. This movie is still good by today's standards.
It's not as deep as Jurassic Park, but it's still a memorable flick.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JackZ.

Aug 17, 2008

Fantastic film. I fail to understand why the critics hated it so much. This is Big Trouble in Little China for the 1990s, set in an African jungle. It may not be as good as BTILC, but it's a damn fun adventure yarn. You've got action, adventure, romance, a crazy guy who talks Fantastic film. I fail to understand why the critics hated it so much. This is Big Trouble in Little China for the 1990s, set in an African jungle. It may not be as good as BTILC, but it's a damn fun adventure yarn. You've got action, adventure, romance, a crazy guy who talks funny, the cool African-American from Ghostbusters (he is SUCH a cool character), really cool special effects (the aeroplane flaregun scene was awesome), plus LAZERS! Come on people, how could this film get any better? Really, the only thing that let's it down is some excess sentimentalism regarding Amy the talking gorilla. It's pure non-stop fun, and anyone who criticises it needs to get their fun glands checked. If you like films like BTILC, Golden Child, and other awesome 80s films, then watch this. It's a retro-styled blast from the past, and it is awesome.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

DudsiH.

Jan 8, 2006

I saw this movie as a kid and I remember finding it quite entertaining. So I guess it isn't as bad as the critics say it is.

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xolve

Sep 12, 2015

There is something weird, screwed up and interesting about this film -
it's mainly because it's the style of film that can't be made any more-
a massive blockbuster film with huge sets, but without CGI, with overtones of racism and bizarre stunts, including an entire species of gorillaThere is something weird, screwed up and interesting about this film -
it's mainly because it's the style of film that can't be made any more-
a massive blockbuster film with huge sets, but without CGI, with overtones of racism and bizarre stunts, including an entire species of gorilla being violently made extinct with a giant ad-hoc laser rifle - by the main characters. It's preposterous in all the right ways, although by the end you're truly wondering what exactly the point was. I guess, don't like diamonds? Or mess with Susan Sarandan? Perhaps.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

[Anonymous]

Oct 7, 2006

This Crichton adaptation isn't as disastrous as the critics say, but it's ultimately a disappointment. The volcano

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Spangle

Oct 27, 2016

In rating this film so lowly, I must endeavor to explain that everybody needs to watch Congo at least once in their life. How bad can a film about a team going to the jungle to discover a hidden city, diamonds, and return a gorilla to its home, actually be you ask? Well, in this film, aIn rating this film so lowly, I must endeavor to explain that everybody needs to watch Congo at least once in their life. How bad can a film about a team going to the jungle to discover a hidden city, diamonds, and return a gorilla to its home, actually be you ask? Well, in this film, a talking gorilla is far from the weirdest thing that exists. As Amy the talking gorilla (she uses sign language, which translates into words from a voice box...) is having nightmares and draws the forest, her trainers Peter (Dylan Walsh) and Richard (Grant Heslov) resolve to return her to her home in the Congo jungle. During a presentation to attempt to get research funding, a Romanian investor named Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry) notices an eye in a painting by Amy that is the exact same as one in a ring he had that depicts the eye of Zinge, a lost city of King Solomon said to be overflowing with diamonds. As such, Homolka forks over the cash and off the go. But not so fast! A team from some communications company is already in the Congo jungle and is attacked and killed by killer apes! Karen Ross' (Laura Linney) greedy boss, set on finding diamonds to make some kind of weapon that can pierce the moon (...) dispatches her to find the missing research team and the diamonds.

From here, the film really becomes all the more insane. Up to the point described, it is merely a jungle adventure film blended with some kind of statement about capitalism at all costs. Many a good film has had a worse start. What makes Congo bad really comes later, once they leave for the Congo. Here, Amy the gorilla drinks a martini, the team fights a band of killer apes who were trained by the original diamond miners to be guard dogs only to turn on their masters, and of course the team finds the diamonds. Having killed the killer apes, the team is set to turn back, but not before Karen Ross shoots a satellite with the gun to stick it to her boss. She shot a satellite. Somehow, Congo descends from a solid adventure romp to a ludicrous science fiction film that could have only been concocted after a night of heavy drinking and even more gratuitous smoking. Yet, her shooting a satellite down without first locating it is not the most impressive marksmanship in the film. Together with Munro (Ernie Hudson), their guide, the two of them shoot down heatseeking missiles with flare guns. This is one of those movies.

Somehow, the bad in the film can only continue as Ernie Hudson and Tim Curry sport the weirdest accents in the history of film. I have no idea what they were supposed to be, but if they were supposed to be Congolese and Romanian, respectively, they missed the mark. The special effects of the gorillas are bad at the very best. And by bad, I mean that the apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film that came out nearly 30 years prior, were far more realistic looking. These look like the apes one finds in a grainy shot of Bigfoot that even six-year olds can spot as being just a man in a gorilla costume. The gorilla from that really weird episode of Spongebob looks far more representative of the species than the ones found in Congo. For a primatologist, Dr. Peter Elliott has no idea he has been working with a man in a gorilla suit this entire time.

Additionally, the film is brought down further with classic 1990s cheese, from bad jokes to just generally bad dialogue. The 1990s are often plagued with attempts to recapture the glorious one-liners of the 1980s and Congo most certainly tries. Not necessarily with one-liners, but with an attempt at a witty script. Instead, it comes off as incredibly awkward and weird rather than any type of humor recognized by humans.

Following an interesting beginning and a seemingly harmless plot, Congo smokes a few too many joints on the way to the finish line and becomes an absurd and off-the-wall disaster that must be seen to truly be believed. If the thought of Laura Linney shooting down a satellite or shooting flairs at heatseeker missiles sounds like a good idea to you, it may be time to sober up.… Expand

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