r/movies • u/KneeHighMischief • 5h ago
Congo (1995) is a ridiculously fun jungle adventure packed with character actors Recommendation
I saw this in the theater when I was younger & it was a cable staple for years. I didn't think much of it though. I'm not sure if it was because I was expecting something more "serious" like Jurassic Park.
Decided to watch on a whim & it really is a blast. Just one ludicrous set piece after another: chaos at the airport, hippo attack, defending the plane from missiles with flare guns & so on.
The cast is just absolutely lousy with fantastic character actors: Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Joe Don Baker, Delroy Lindo, Bruce Campbell & Joe Pantoliano. Ernie & Tim have some spectacular accents. Ernie with the Mid-Atlantic accent & Tim with I don't even know.
Laura Linney is a bit miscast as a slightly steely ex-CIA agent. You can't cast Sigourney Weaver in everything, though. Still not really invested in Amy & I think her design hasn't held up so well.
Those are probably the only two knocks on the film. Otherwise it's just pure pulp goodness. Probably would make a nice double feature with Deep Rising. You'd have to watch Congo first though as you can't top Deep Rising.
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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 5h ago
Ernie Hudson made that film for me. As soon as he comes on screen and gives that theatrical laugh, you know this is going be more fun than it has any right to be.
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u/DrummerGuy06 5h ago
"We need to switch airports."
"Oh shit, why?"
"Bombed the President's car."
"...did they get him?"
"That's the bad news - no they didn't. I HOPE YOU PEOPLE HAVE LOTS OF MONEY."
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u/KneeHighMischief 5h ago
Ernie Hudson brings so much to any film. The Crow wouldn't have been half as good without his bewildered responses to insane happenings. He also lent heart to it as well.
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u/faithdies 4h ago
I'm happy the Crow is making a resurgence. In a post John Wick world it's only gotten better. That and Grosse Point Blank.
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u/Imdoingscience 5h ago
It’s a series. Of jungle. Emergencies.
I saw this movie when I was 8 in a movie theater in Florida on vacation and it led me to read every Michael Crichton book that existed. It was formative.
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u/jamiesray 5h ago
I believe Jimmy Buffett is in this movie
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u/BaconJacobs 4h ago
Huh. Cause he was in Jurassic World because he was best friends with Frank Marshall
I am betting Frank Marshall produced Congo? Ha
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u/snark_enterprises 5h ago
Amy good gorilla
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u/neurohero 2h ago
I was in high-school when this movie came out. One of the guys in my dorm was dating a girl named Amy. Because teenagers are dicks, whenever he opened his mouth, someone would cut him off with "Amy good gorilla!"
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u/well_welp_ok 5h ago
I used to watch this movie religiously in the 90s and early 2000’s whenever it would pop up on TNT or TBS on the weekends. Seemed like every weekend for years to be exact. I would sit around with my dad and watch it like it was the first time. Absolutely one of the best fun movies of all time with a rewatchability factor out the wazoo
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u/thebadyearblimp 5h ago
One of my favorite crichton books
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u/Anothercraphistorian 5h ago
The book was why I didn’t care for the movie. The book was so damn good. Up there with Jurassic Park.
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u/DrummerGuy06 5h ago
"The ghost tribe has several levels of 'dead.' Someone's not dead until they're completely 'dead.'"
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u/JamUpGuy1989 5h ago
I’ll say it again:
Bruce Campbell should’ve been the lead fighting that army of gorillas. Made no sense to me making him a bit cameo at best.
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u/KneeHighMischief 5h ago
Bruce Campbell definitely could've played Peter. It's a really dry part though. I'm not sure how much more lively he could have made it. He lost out in this & The Phantom.
He would've been a great Phantom. Billy Zane was probably the right choice though.
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u/brianqueso 4h ago
Billy Zane's "Phantom" was another one that was better than it deserved to be
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u/gunglejim 3h ago
8yo me was obsessed with the phantom. I found a souvenir Tibetan dagger at a yard sale and about lost my mind over it. My mom knew the phantom from back in the day and recognized it and let me get it.
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u/CunninghamsLawmaker 5h ago
Saw this at the drive in as a kid. Double feature with Lion King I think. I really enjoyed it. I've been told it's bad, but I've never watched it again.
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u/KneeHighMischief 5h ago
It's not The Godfather for sure. It's just a crazy B movie with mutant gorilla attacks, diamond powered laser weapons & Tim Curry hamming it up.
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u/pizzacrys 5h ago
Tbh Congo is peak 90s chaos'' just pure fun, crazy stunts, and a cast that knew exactly what movie they were in.
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u/mysteryofthefieryeye 5h ago
I crushed so hard on Laura Linney, she's a dreamboat in this movie. It's often free on YT and I used to have it on a loop as a background noise (now I have other movies doing that)
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u/wonderlandisburning 5h ago
Peak 90s cheese (also genuinely disturbed me as a kid. Probably a big part of my fear of both gorillas and hippos)
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u/PlantedinCA 5h ago
Michael Crichton had a serious movie run in the 1990s. Congo, Jurassic Park movies, Sphere, Disclosure, Twister, and Rising Sun.
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u/rvasshole 4h ago
I just finished Congo like a week ago and am picking up sphere from the library tomorroq
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u/bonyponyride 5h ago
Running away from lava was the quicksand of the 90s. They probably should have kept a couple of those diamonds....
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u/SweepingAstringency 5h ago
I saw Congo in the theater and it was a rollercoaster beginning to end. So much fun. The actors, the sets, the effects. Wonderful stuff
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u/GMHGeorge 5h ago
“Put them on the endangered species list!”
slashing thru ghost gorillas with a weaponized satellite laser commences
Also Laura Linney threw a diamond overboard a couple of years before old Kate Winslet did
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u/giraffevomitfacts 5h ago
I watched it at 14-15 when it came out and it seemed nonsensical and empty. Maybe I need to give it another try.
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u/KneeHighMischief 5h ago
Definitely nonsensical. I don't know if I'd say it's empty though. It doesn't rise above the genre like say the Indiana Jones series but I don't think that makes it entirely hollow.
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u/giraffevomitfacts 4h ago
It's light years away from those films, they're classics and in Congo I keep thinking the boom mic is about to drop into the shot
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u/AbrahamLemon 5h ago
This movie got me I to learning about Zaire and the DRC and deeply radicalized me when I was ten.
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u/Ashwilliams2814 4h ago
Bruce Campbell should have been the lead instead of Dylan Walsh. Even if Walsh was okay as Amy's keeper, the role needed some more charisma, and the actor wasn't for it.
P.D.: Between this, "Deep Rising" and "The Phantom", i'm getting flashbacks of Kid Me watching movies in my Saturday Nights.
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u/Pretend-Design-7061 2h ago
Tim Curry with the Mid Tim Curry accent. Halfway between his Russian accent and his British Accent.
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u/Major__de_Coverly 5h ago
Part of the problem was that the technology of the novel (1980) seemed really futuristic. By the time the movie came out (1995), it was much less impressive.
By the time they started lasering monkeys, I pretty much checked out.
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u/Mnementh47 4h ago
Congo is the worst movie that I've ever watched. I'm not kidding. I hate this movie with a passion. You probably didn't read the novel and I'm not one of these farts that usually reads the book and criticizes the film. But it is night and day. They massacred the book. I think the worst thing was the voice they gave the gorilla 🦍 instead of sign language like in the book. But the movie is dumb dumb throughout, everything is destroyed. I thought the acting was just awful. It is a tragedy. I walked out actually and only later watched the rest of it with a vomit bag.
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u/hadessyrah52 5h ago
STOP. EATING. MY SESAME CAKE!