Commentary Track: Congo

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome Friends podcast podcast is do show JACKI again Ryan.
They're talking about Booby mom.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Ma in the race for the world's most advanced communications technologies.
Together they will search and the more they discover, the
greater the danger.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
An animal move like that.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
We're getting out of here.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Put them on the indangered species left from the best
selling novel by the author of Jurassic Party.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Congo, where you are the endangered species.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Welcome to a movie film commentary track. My name is
Zachi As. I'm here with Brian Hall.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Brian to be here.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
And without you even having had your your your customary martini.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Hey, we're here to watch Congo.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yes, and for me, this will be my second time
watching Congo, because I watched it for the first time
to prepare for this commentary.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well, this will be my third time because that's I've
only seen it once more than you.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Oh wow, okay, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
So this is a movie that celebrated its thirtieth anniversary
just a few weeks ago as we were recording this,
and it is a movie we have gotten a ton
of requests for and so you know, as tends to
be the case, I pitched it to Brian. I was like, hey,
it's under two hours.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
He knows my love language.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's all it took. He's like, go on, Yeah, so
this is this is based on the novel by Michael Crichton,
although I think that's the extent of the involvement that
Michael Crichton had in this film, right, and it is
certainly a time capsule. I will say that.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I love your tone. I'll certainly say that.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
No, I think this is gonna be a fun one
because I, as I often say, I love revisiting these
nineties movies that I missed because I just by virtue
of my age, I'm just very endeared to the filmmaking
style of the nineties and so seeing new artifacts from
it is always delightful, especially ones as wacky as this one.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Indeed, Yeah, and that is I think that is the
right word for it. So with that in mind, I
figured like, hey, let's just let's just dive right in.
What do you think I'm ready? So we will do
the usual thing. We will play on three. So one,
two three play and are we gonna do that right now? One?
Two three play?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
So this is two years after Jurassic Park, right, two years.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, so by way of context, the genesis of this
pro project began many years before, but in the heat
of Jurassic Park Afterglow, Hollywood was just ready to jump
on anything that had the Crichton name attached, and this
one had been working its way through the collective GI
tract of the industry before it was finally expelled in

(03:13):
nineteen ninety five. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Michael Crichton's interesting because I was introduced to him. I mean,
I think as most people around our age were through
Jurassic Park, and later I learned well, so then it
was interesting to me to watch that Simpsons episode where
they go to Itchy and Scratchy Land, and I think
that that's based on Jurassic Park, and it partially is,
but it's mostly based on Westworld West World, Yeah, right,

(03:40):
and so.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
I would say more so West World than Jurassic Park.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Definitely, definitely. And so later in life I realized that, oh,
Michael Crichton didn't sort of begin in the early nineties. Yeah,
you know, he was a successful author, director, screenwriter in
the seventies.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, a computer programmer. I mean, he's a true jack
of all trades.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah. So this book came out in nineteen eighty Congo. Yeah,
and from everything I've heard through the research I've done,
it's different, a little different than this movie. But and
you know, any of the things that you nitpick in
this movie, it sounds like the book is actually pretty good.
Like people.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, it's more of a straight ahead adventure. And I
mean the genesis of the story began with Crichton having
directed a movie called The Great Train Robbery, which I
think outside of the US was called the first Great
Train Robbery, but it starred Sean Connery, and so he
was so enamored of his time with Sean Connery that

(04:40):
he wrote Congo with Sean Connery in mind to play
the adventurer who would lead the movie, you know, a
great white hunter Charles Monroe and kind of a character
in the vein of Alan Quartermain of King Solomon's minds.
And obviously that movie version of the movie didn't get made,

(05:01):
although ironically, you know, Sean Connery did play Alan Quartermain.
It was his last movie, you know, The League of
Extordinary Gentlemen.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's pretty wild, the movie that pretty much made him.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Retire exactly, so you know, but yeah, this had been
Crichton had planned to direct this okay. And what it
came down to this was when it was at twentyeth
century Fox, and he said he would not do it
unless he could have a real gorilla play the character

(05:32):
of Amy Amy being a gorilla, just to clarify, and
and Fox was like, are you insane?

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, this is the early eighties attempt at making this movie.
And you know what, though, I can appreciate his thinking
because I'm sure at that time, you know, I mean,
you think of this, was it seventy seven King Kong, Yes,
seventy six, seventy six. I enjoyed its great, but it's
a very much like a monkey suit guy in a suit,

(06:04):
guy in a suit. And we still have guy in
suit in this one. But the you know, you have
servos in the head and great care being taken with
their eyeballs and irises and the like, you know what
I mean, Like they've come a long way in terms
of suits with I mean San Winston, for goodness sake,
he's the other guy who made the suit.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
So.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
I can see his apprehension in the early eighties wanting
to do that. Yeah, I'm stiking to screaming Bruce Campbell.
I was surprised to see this.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Bruce Campbell was always a bridesmaid, never a bride when
it comes to these movies because because he he auditioned
for the role of doctor Peter Elliott and that went
to Dylan Waalsh, so they let him be you know,
guy guy the Hey, that guy who gets killed off early.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
See. Now, I didn't know that, and I thought, oh,
I had no idea this was a Bruce Campbell movie.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
And uh oh when you were watching.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, yeah, I knew nothing about this except that the
gorilla could talk, you know, through technology. I gotta say,
I mean, just right off the bat, this movie, I
almost felt like I was watching an inside joke I
didn't get as I was watching it. I think it

(07:23):
helps if you're gonna watch this for the first time
in twenty twenty five, to either have a fond nostalgia
for it or to know what you're getting into. And
I think I'm gonna have a lot more fun watching
it this time with you knowing what it is. But
all have to say, like, I just didn't find the
leads very dynamic, no, which I think is a big problem.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Well, and it's it's puzzling because they're all decent actors.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, but they just don't pop. And it kind
of makes me wish Bruce Campbell had been one of
the leads in this thing. I think he would have
brought an energy that would have really helped propel it
a lot.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
I agree with that. You could have put him in
as Doctor Ellie. You could have made him Monroe Kelly.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Oh sure, yeah, yeah, either way, you could.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Have bought him. Although I like Ernie Hudson, but I.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Gotta say me too, I really love what he's doing
in this.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
But yeah, you know, it's just like in Dark Man
five years earlier. You know, he had auditioned to play
the main character. They gave him a little cameo at
the end, and then ly Bruce Campbell in this.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, and then he's in the Doctor Strange multiverse of
Madness and basically just gets to punch himself in the
face for two minutes. You know, like that's right, you
just can't get a break.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
And in all three Sam Raimi Spider Man movies also right.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Right, But it's interesting because and when I say with
dynamic leads, it's not star power, because I mean, you
look at Jurassic Park two years earlier. Those people weren't stars. Really.
I mean, it wasn't Harrison Ford or whoever, like, but
they're perfectly cast there. Whatever it is that they possess
as people they make those character is interesting, and unfortunately

(09:01):
I'm not getting that shining off of this cast.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah. Well, what it is really is that everybody is
kind of in their own They're they're on each on
a different highway. They're not even in a different lane.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Please expand on that, because I agree.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah. Well, like Joe Don Baker over here, who is
energetic to maybe a maximal degree, I'm like, bro, like,
just tone it down a little man.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Like yeah yeah, yeah, well well and Tim Curry, like
it feels like Tim Curry understood the assignment he did.
He's playing this really fun, colorful side character. Well that's
the thing too. I was reading people's takes on this,
and it was saying some people realize they were in
a comedy and others didn't realize they were in a comedy.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah, well, so rewatching this. Yeah, generally you don't want
to find an eyeball in your hand, you know, it.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Makes you think of Minority Report. I just eyeball stuff
is just.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, not a fan, No, I'm not a fan, and
I should say Jodn Baker rip because he just like
within the last two months he passed away. Oh, a
very unique presence. I put him in the same bucket
as like mm At Walsh, you know, totally just a
type all by himself, you know, totally Yes, But no,

(10:27):
as I said, I had watched this. I rented this
on VHS from from Hollywood Video shortly after it came out,
and then you know, I haven't watched it since. And
rewatching it now for this commentary track, I was like, man,
this is I'm getting WPWR syndicated right, like Saturday afternoon

(10:50):
syndicated show Energy Zachy.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
This is literally what I wrote word for word in
my notes. It feels like a cross between a WGN
Saturday Afternoon syndicated television series with a Disney Sunday night movie. Unbelievable. Yes,
that's exactly what this is. And so but here's the thing.

(11:17):
As I'm watching the screen now and we're talking about it,
I am feeling more charitable toward it, sure, and like, oh,
this thing right right, And then I know that this
guy is very funny and doesn't care about his son.
He cares more about diamonds and like I'm I kind
of a chuckle already at the ready as I'm watching this,
and the first time I thought I was watching I

(11:38):
certainly not Jurassic Park, but like, oh, a pretty good
blockbuster from the nineties, that's what I thought I was getting.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Sure, well, I would assume that's what audiences thought they
were getting, which would which would explain why it did
very well.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah. Yeah, it opened really well. It was a fifty
million dollar budget ultimately in the US and Canada made
eighty one million worldwide, one hundred and fifty million, undred.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
And fifty ninety five. Yeah, so I mean it ended
up doing okay. I will say I remember very distinctly
my interest in this film was twofold number one. You know,
the criton of it all got me, got me intrigued,
and you know, they had the whole marketing campaign. They
had a whole bunch of toys and things, which, dude,

(12:24):
the notion of a toy line for this movie is
like comical, right it It might as well be like
the Philadelphia Action figure line on SNL, you know, because
this is not a particularly toy atic movie, right. However,
so it was like, oh, kids, go see this, but
also in the mid nineties. I remember this was in

(12:45):
the lead up to potentially a New Planet of the
Apes movie. Oh interesting, And at the time there was like, oh,
stan Winston's going to do the effects, and I was like, well,
stan Winston's doing the apes in this. Let's see, let's
see like how that might look, you know. And then
he had Jerry Goldsmith doing the score and I'm like, hey,
Jerry Goldsmith doing the score, but adjacent movie, you know

(13:07):
very much, not that.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, yeah, I'm just to place it in the timeline
of you know, the era. This beat Casper, which is
kind of interesting, and then the next week it was
overtaken by Batman Forever. So that's kind of what was
going on when this came out. But interesting, you know

(13:30):
what's funny though, I mean, well, I guess we're getting
to it right now. Well we should talk about what
happened a little bit. So we open where this like
telecom company. I guess they're mining for diamonds in this
remote area that will I don't know, make their the
stuff that they produced function better, right, And so they
have this team over there on an expedition and it

(13:51):
looks like they're getting attacked you know, we see like
a blurry gorilla type figure in front of the camera.
They don't know exactly what's going on. And in the
head of the company that's his son who's over there right,
who looks like he's being attacked by a guerrilla. So
his Bruce Campbell, the guy over in the encampment, his
ex fiance ex fiance, ex fiance, is like, we have

(14:13):
to go over there and and help him, and the
dad's like, yeah, absolutely, and then he's.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Like, diamond diamond, uga booga, diamond diamond.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Exactly, and she's like, no, no, I need you to
tell me. We're doing this because you love your son.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yes, I love my diamond, I mean son exactly.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's basically what the first like ten minutes of this
movie are. Yes, so we know that this guy is
capital e evil, willing to let his son die so
he can get diamonds that will help his business. And
we have the you know, ex fiance who's willing to travel.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
They should have had him absent mindedly polishing a diamond
and then he looks up and says, huh, yes, I
mean my son, and then he goes back to polishing.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yes. It's sort of like mister Blackheart from the Citizens
with the ivory, the ivory boots, the iphy. Yes, exactly exactly.
I will admit it took me a minute. No, no,
not a minute. When the movie was over, I was like,
how did all these people come together on this same expedition?
I didn't understand.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
You have to connect the dots a little bit.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, two thirds of it makes sense to me. I'm
not sure how Laura Lenny was aware that this plane
was leaving, but she's the one who's willing to fund it,
so they need That's how they all need one another basically.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
But yeah, I think it's happenstance.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Amazing.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
I think, right, maybe I'm wrong.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Well, hey, I don't know, but it seemed like it
was a little different in the book, a little streamlined.
But anyway, No, that's Mary Ellen Trainer.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Look at that. We got a little mini Goonies reunit
in here, because we got Joey Pants in just a
little bit too.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
I was surprised and delighted to see him. Yep.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, And it's weird. It's it's it's episodic, where you
just have people kind of wander in and out, people
who are just familiar enough wander in where you're like, hey,
where are you going?

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah? Yeah, you expect them to be bigger characters.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah yeah. And by the way, the grantaslov as a likable,
doomed partner. Yeah, I wonder you couldn't see the bull's eye.
And that guy's had a.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Say I know, I know, And I was actually thinking,
like he had to go out there. I don't know
where they are, like Costa Rica or something, And there's
entire scenes where he like doesn't say anything, He's just
standing there. Yeah, and then he gets like one line
like I don't like the looks of this, you know
kind of stuff, And I was like, man, what a
sort of thinkless role. Although I every time it focuses

(16:37):
on him, I'm happy. If I was in a test
screening on the card, I would put please a little
bit more of his flavor.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
A little more Faisal or whatever his name is in
this movie. Yeah, Richard, that's it.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
So speaking of this suit, I don't know Tim Curry
is up to no good there, Brian, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah. I almost wish he had something the showed a
little bit more adventure her like in his costuming, Like
why he stands out like, why is this guy in
this meeting? You know what I mean, like a Indiana
Jones hat and a scarf, a handkerchief or something. I'm
turning it into a full cartoon. But the Amy speaking of,

(17:16):
like the gorilla costumes, look, do they entirely hold up
to a twenty twenty five? I? I don't know. That's
kind of up to you. Amy completely worked for me.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
I think Amy and the Silverbacks worked. I think like
the normal gorillas, not the mutant gorillas.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Agreed, Yeah, no, yeah, the silver Back that looks incredible.
Amy looks a little slightly more humanoid, I think because
they needed her to have an expressiveness. Yeah, which I
really loved. I loved Amy. I thought she was sweet
and I was like.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
No, take care of her.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
She needs to be protected. So I in terms of that,
all that completely worked for me and this movie.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
So there's James Karen, another character actor who's long list
of credits. He's in the original Return of the Living Dead,
and he is in Superman Returns Wow, and actually, well
we're talking about Superman. Dylan Walsh he was recently a
regular on Superman and Lewis. He played General Sam Lay

(18:24):
and Lois's father.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
And he was, of course, about ten years after this movie.
He came to the renewed fame because he was the
co lead of Nip Tuck alongside Julian McMahon.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
I swear I didn't even put it together. I didn't
really watch Niptuk, so he's not at the forefront of
my mind. But I was like, man, that guy's face
looks so familiar, but he's got this really shaggy, curly
hair here, very different.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, it's weird because I'm sort of used to seeing
him with the old guy face.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, maybe that's it too.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah, it's like, oh, yeah, I guess I guess he
was young at one time.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Right, right. So this well, so, I mean the plot
again here is Amy is making all these drawings of
the jungle, and so her trainer or whatever you would
call him, is like, I think it's time for her
to go back home, right see.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
And and the thing what I bump up against is
I believe that these primates have a certain level of
innate intelligence. I think ascribing language to them is maybe
a bridge too far, right, Like even even these apes
that that are taught sign language. I mean, I think

(19:38):
that it's you know, I mean, they're not they're not
experiencing cognition the way we do.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'm glad you brought that up, Zachy. So Amy obviously
reminded me of Coco of Coco, right, who was a
very famous gorilla geez whin like that when we were
growing up.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Right, And I actually just wait, hold on this, this
is the thing. See, I wasn't quite tracking. So obviously
he's going and he just did a seminar doctor Peter
Yes talking about how Amy can communicate, and it sounds
like she wants to go home, so we're gonna take
her home. And she's been making these drawings and in
her drawings of the jungle, she included a picture of

(20:19):
an eye, right right. So Tim Curry, who's attending this.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
He is her kermer Homolka.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah, I'm gonna call him Tim Curry. Just I'm just
making a note at the beginning of this so people understand.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
But you put some respect on mister Homolka's name.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
It's like Bob blah blah. So anyway, uh, Tim Curry again,
I don't know why he's attending the seminar, but he
sees this eye that looks just like an eye. And
it's like that is that looks like that very specific
guy that I have on this ring that comes from
this lost city, and.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
And this sinister music on the soundtrack accuse us in
that that something, something is afoot with this fella.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
He has motives. Yeah, so so he wants to get
in on this journey because he thinks wherever he maybe
this ape or a gorilla has seen the very place
that he's looking for where he can find all these diamonds. Right,
so that makes sense why he's like, okay, buddy, let
me join you. Right. Yeah, I just didn't understand how
Laura Lenny's character because she needs to go over and

(21:26):
save her coworkers. Yes, I didn't understand how she ended
up at the airport on this flight. Now obviously they
need her because they're out of funds. They can't pay
for the fuel and she has unlimited funds. Yes, I
just didn't understand how she knew, like you said, happenstance.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
She shows a piece she had said to the at
the company, find an expedition that's going, Ah, we'll be
on the next one, I see, And it just so
happens to be the Expedition with with with Peter Elliott
and Amy.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Okay see and mister Homolka. This rewards a multiple view.
Here you go, make sure you catch every detail.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
Now, tell me if you didn't think that at some
point in the movie it would be revealed that Tim
Curry's accent was just a put on.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Like I wish I had, but I would have loved that.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
It's so over the top. You know, we're going, I'm happy,
will fund your trip, you know, and then at some
point he's like, right, don't I don't really talk like that,
you know, and.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
If that yes at gunpoint or something, yeah, you know,
I'm just like, no, please, please, you know, kind of
kind of like Alan Rickman does in a diarhogy exactly
flip into that kind of a thing. Oh no, you know,
like that would be amazing missed opportunity.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
I'm just saying, you know this, this movie is full
of actors who are putting on these accents where you
have to imagine at least somebody was like, are you.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
Sure right right?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Because because we got all kinds of fun We got accent, music, chairs,
he got Delroy Lindo doing one thing. We got Ernie
Hudson doing another.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yes, yes, okay, well we're gonna get the martini. You know,
Amy needs her martini while she's on the plane. I
like this actually by the way, where she's like what
is happening? Yeah, the Amy looking out the window and
like where's the ground? Where's the ground? I don't know.
I was very endeared too. I gotta give it to
Stan Winston because I really cared about this character.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah. But but what we were talking about earlier, if
if you, if you uh look at like how apes communicate. Uh,
they never ask questions.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Oh I didn't know that. That's is interesting. Well okay,
so I did wanna I did. This is from Wikipedia,
straight from Wikipedia, because I thought all of it was
interesting and I didn't want to.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Pair so consider the source.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, well true, But this is this is about Coco, who,
when you're growing up, was a famous gorilla that could sign,
and I think people got really endeared to the idea
of like, wow, isn't it amazing, Like maybe we could
talk to one another. So Coco, which was a nickname
was I'm reading now, was a female Western Lowland gorilla
born in the San Francisco Zoo and cross fostered by

(24:10):
Francine Patterson, who used conducted ape language experiments. Coco gained
public attention as the subject of two national geographic cover
stories and in nineteen eighty five, the best selling children's book,
Coco's Kitten.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
I Remember that book.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
So Coco's communication skills were hotly debated. Coco used many
signs adapted from American sign language, but the scientific consensus
to date remains that she did not demonstrate the syntax
or grammar required of true language. Patterson has been widely
criticized for misrepresenting Coco's skills, providing insufficient care for Coco
and her companion gorillas, and inappropriate treatment of Gorilla Foundation's

(24:49):
staff members. Despite such controversies, Cocos story changed the public
image of gorillas, previously assumed to be brainless and violent.
Science I Think is a magazine, noted in its obituary
that Coco helped transform how human the human world viewed
animal emotion and intelligence. So, yeah, in my memory, I
was like, oh, yeah, yeah, it was a gorilla, it

(25:10):
understood sign language and if I met it, it could
talk to me. Yeah, And that's just I mean, of course,
in nineteen eighty five, I was a kid, So of
course I believe that reading is getting but apparently that's
not exactly the case.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, well this is that's that's exactly it, right, Like
I think the fact that that these amazing, beautiful creatures
are are vaguely human ish, you know, we ascribe a
human level intellect onto them, and I think I think
that's what gets people into a lot of trouble, you know, Yeah,

(25:45):
and I think, you know, the animals exactly.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
I was gonna say the same goes for even house pets, dogs,
sure of court, Like dogs can understand, generally speaking, a
certain amount of words. You know, when you say walk
or you know, dinner or something, they know at least
what that sound means for them, right. But it's like
we want them to think, oh, he's hugging me right now,
and it's like kind of you.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Know, right exactly, that's exactly it. I remember uh reading
about in a similar vein to Coco, you know, the
Travis the Chimp. I don't remember driving, and I guarantee
you know the story. It's about a woman who raised
this chimpanzee and she raised him like a son, and

(26:29):
then at one point he attacked her neighbor. You remember
this vaguely, he he, I mean he did such damage
to her face that she needed a full face transplant.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
See, I think I remember that part of it. A woman,
the transplant and dealing with yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Right, and the end the ape was eventually the ape
was put down, and I mean it was It was
a horrible story, right. And my point is that they look,
I mean, they're still animals, you know, yes, so they
should be treated with kindness and compassion, and they should
be left alone because they're not people.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Yeah, the understanding that they're not going to ever fully
behave or have the like moral sense of humans, right,
Like they're gonna have these instincts that could come out
at any moment.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah, you know, so so any the point I'm making
is this movie presents Amy as if Amy is a
fully uh you know, interactive, a cognizant creature, and and
there's never any sci fi gobbledygook explanation for that.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, she hasn't been altered.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, And I'm like, I would have almost preferred that
because that would make it easier to swallow, you know, sure, yeah,
yeah right, because because there there is like a fantasy
element to this movie. And it's weird how the the
movie doesn't really prepare you for that. No, yeah, right,

(27:55):
it's about an hour and a half of just you know,
trapes through the jungle and then twenty minutes of you
know what feels like a universal stunt show.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yes, right, it really does, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean it's the way that the sets look and yeah, yeah,
very static. Yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Ernie. So, Ernie Hudson, the man, the myth, the legend.
I think I speak for you when I say that
here at movie film we celebrate Ernie Hudson and all
his configurations.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Absolutely. I even had the pleasure of meeting him. He
voiced a dog that I wrote for Puppy Dog Pals
and I got to go to the record shake his hand.
That was really special.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Now he has said that Monroe Kelly is the favorite
character he has played.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
I completely understand why. Right, He's gonna have some fun
with this.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
He is the de facto, you know, adventure lead of
this movie.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, and he's got this sort of debonair you know,
affect and like O course, you know, because the Jungle
is a house of many mysteries, you know, kind of
a speaking kind of thing which is really fun.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
So that all being said, as much as I do
enjoy Ernie Hudson in this movie, I would say maybe
the accent wasn't wasn't the best choice.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, you know it's funny. Yes, the objective answer is yes. However,
if I'm just going to lean into what's going on
here and everything is as wacky as it is, if
he's having fun, it can pretty much sense it. I
can sense it coming off of him, how much funny's
having and I'm in And frankly, if they had done
more stories with him, sure, you know, like more movies

(29:42):
or a series with him as the lead, leading different
sorts of interesting people through the jungles or whatever that
would be. I think he's an interesting enough character.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
It's out on that opportunity. Yeah, and he does get
one of the best lines, I'm the great white Hunter
except on black right.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
That's right, written by a Pulitzer Prize winner by the way,
this movie, I don't know if we brought that up yet.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah. So so Michael Crichton had nothing to do with
with this once it landed at Paramount and and I think, yeah,
I'm your great right Hunter. Though I happened to be black.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, but you've basically like karaoke det right. For me,
that's perfect. It was fun with looking at him and
hearing your voice come.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
My less impressive voice. I'm telling you, give me more,
Ernie Hudson, give me. You know, if they do another
Ghostbusters and and the the the other ogs decided not
to come back, and we just get four clones of
winston' z ed Moore, I would still be down with them.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Same same.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
But yeah, Michael Crichton had had no involvement in this,
and so you had you had the amblin uh connection
because of Frank Marshall. Is I don't think the movie
is amblin.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Wow, great point. I don't think it is either. And
does that have to do with it being released through Paramount?

Speaker 3 (31:03):
That would be my guess. But nonetheless, Frank Marshall and
Kathy Kennedy did produce it.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, and Frank Marshall directed.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
And Frank Marshall directed. Frank Marshall is an interesting director, right,
It's like because I think there's like I think he's
a competent director, but I don't know that he ever
really elevates the movie.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, you know, I mean he did a lot of
second unit for Spielberg. So's he's got chops, He's got a.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Knock on raiders, right, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, yeah, and that's where he met Kathleen Kennedy and
they got married. And then yeah, he did like a
rack Noophobia, which I think is an ambulin movie. Yes,
those are live? Oh did he do?

Speaker 3 (31:44):
I've never seen a live Actually live is good. I
think I was a little.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Afraid of it, honestly. Sure, but I'm a little old,
like being a little older, I think I might be
able to handle it now. But now he does like
music documentaries, you know, like Beach Boys and just interesting,
a very interesting career.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah. So I the movie was offered to Steven Spielberg
at one point, which you can completely imagine. Yeah, absolutely,
And this is pre Jurassic This is like in the eighties,
and he passed. John Carpenter had been offered it. So
I mean it was it was working its way. And
again the hook really came once Jurassic Park just started

(32:25):
minting money. And and so you can understand the calculus
a paramount being like, hey that they made all that
Michael Crichton money, we want we want some of that
Michael Crichton money.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
However, I think the miscalculation is this idea that people
will treat mutant apes the same way they did you know,
living cgi dinosaurs.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agreed. But well when I alluded
earlier about the Puelitzer Prize. So John Patrick Shanley wrote
the screenplay. I mean he wrote Moonstruck Doubt.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yeah. What an Academy work for Moonstruck. If I'm not mistaken,
I believe so.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, And I think the peelds are for doubt and
and Congo, so very funny thing is.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
And he directed Joe Versus the Volcano.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
I love Joe Versus the Volcano.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
I mean, what an interesting that's a I'd call that
an aspirational writer's career. I mean, you got your goofy blockbuster,
say what you will about it. You've got your like
prestige piece, You've got your weird Joe Versus Volcano, kind
of like your weird indie film. That's very quirky and fun. Interesting.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, it's being of quirky and fun Delroy Lindo again,
he just wanders in for a scene and leaves a kind.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Of amongous impression.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
He really doesn't. There's another one like same with Joey
Pantsy just leaves the movie and Delroy Lindo. You're like, hey,
where are you going?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, but no, he's great in this. It needs to
be bribed.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
I saw this one time thirty years ago, and yet
to this day, just randomly, I'd be like, stop eating
my sesami cake. See.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
That was fun for me because I remembered that. I
was like, what is happening? And then when I started
reading up on this movie afterward, I just kept seeing
that quote everywhere. I was like, Oh, that that's what
lived on from this. I love this too. The bribing
giving him the money, he's like more just smiling. That's sucker.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
I love to this little detail he puts the money
in a in a like a brown grocery sack and
then he just starts stapling it. What a great detail.
Here we go. If we want to call out possibly
the moment of the movie.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
You don't need a man sesame cake, Brian. That's what
this movie taught me. So there's some things you just
do not do right.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Well, speaking of you know Spielberg and all those connections,
this was shot by the DP of ET Alan Davia,
so he was the DP on ET color purple. He
also did Bugsy Albert Brooks movie Defending Your Life. Yeah,
you know, actually I got to see him speak once.

(35:16):
He spoke before screening of ET at the New Beverly.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
That was really special and he just he could not
stop talking about Congo. Right, but I know you guys
are here about ET, but let me tell you about Congo.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Well, it's fascinating because you look at this scene and
it's lit great, and there was a scene on the
airplane earlier where Laura Lenny was lit really beautifully and
dramatically and stuff. But then to your point, we can
dig into it more when it happens. But in the
third act it doesn't look very good at all.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, it's it's there is like a sudden and pronounced
tonal and visual shift.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, and I'll save it so make sure we still
have something to talk about at the end. But there
was stan Winston digs into that a little bit in
a way that I just hadn't crossed my mind that
I've kind of fascinating and instructive for anybody looking to
shoot a movie.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
So, oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I my understanding, I have
not read the novel, but my understanding is that in
the book you have multiple expeditions that are sort of
competing with each other to get to it's a race
study of Zinge, right, yes, And my thought watching the
film is, well, why would you not keep that element

(36:25):
of drama in the movie, because there is something weirdly
languid about the entire front front two thirds?

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, I mean it's I like Lord of the Rings,
but I think some people the criticism is like, so
they just walk for like two and a half hours
and that's that's But you know, I would argue that
it's very interesting, and the characters are very interesting, and
they encounter a lot of interesting things along the way.
And this one, Yeah, the first two thirds is literally

(36:53):
just them trapsing through the joke.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
It's it's literally here to hear something happened, something happens,
something else here to hear something happens, something happens, something happens.
To here, to hear something happens, something happens, something happens.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
And it's not all really related either, Like there's no
I'll call it out early, but there's a really random
moment where a snake shows up, yes, and then the
guy just goes oh then like cuts his head off
with the sword, and it's like then cross fades and
they continued to walk, you know, like it's just like
such a non event.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, the pacing is off for sure.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, So I don't I don't know why they didn't
keep that extra tension element from the book.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Well, And I think the problem is that if you say, oh,
we're we're going to rescue Bruce Campbell m h even
that it it feels so out of sight, out of
mind mm hmm. Right, So maybe increase that element. Maybe
maybe he's you know, he's not dead yet and he's

(37:57):
getting these messages out and and you know, Laura Linnie's
character is receiving them, and so there's a sense of
like we got to get to him before it's too
late kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I totally completely agree. So Amy there just kind of
with her hand on her the doctor's leg and just
the way that they're close. And then the people who
are loading the plane are like husband and wife. But
you know what's so funny. I was like, hey, shut up,
like because I was like, it's so sweet. I was

(38:27):
listening to the how did this get made? About this episode?

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (38:31):
Interesting, okay, And they were joking about how like kind
of gross and semi erotic it seems between huh, and
I was like, you know, I get it for like
comedy sake and whatever, and maybe if.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
I was I don't really get that sense.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
I was gonna say, if I was in the right mood,
like oh yeah, yeah, okay, But no I didn't either.
I actually found it very sweet.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
Yeah, So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I thought they calibrated that pretty well. Their connection and
and and how much Amy you know, loves her, I
don't know what you call him, trainer the husband apparently
husband he exactly. So this is kind of a crazy moment.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
I know, Hecker, it's her murker homolka, thank you very much,
you know what.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
I yeah, okay or her.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
Kermer whatever the hell.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
I'll keep it open on my laptop so I have
it in front of me. But yeah, we see some
racist undertones here.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
He goes from zero to N word pretty.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Fast, yeah, which feels like, why are we doing that?

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Yeah, it's it's weird. Well, I think I think a
couple of reasons. I think number one, they want to
situate Homolka as not a good guy. Sure, and that's
a if you didn't get that sense already, you know,
that'll take you the rest of the way. And then
they want to situate uh Monroe as the the alpha

(39:54):
if you will, mm sure, Like he ain't standing for
that ship.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Sure yep ye. And he's not rattled by it, like
he doesn't even not rattle's not even the like he's
not like sent into like an angry mode, like he's
still confident in like a few you know.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
See, I would have liked, and I'm not even saying
this as a joke. I would have liked if he
just like popped him in the face, like it doesn't
doesn't get angry.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
But just like a pop right with a smile. Yeah
exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
I think I like that too, Like what was that,
you know kind of thing?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, not a smile, that's the wrong, but yeah exactly,
Like it's still like a confidence like I'm yeah, yeah,
yeah exactly, I'm the alpha here. Yeah you know, so
I uh, this this is leading to something very fun.
They have to sedate Amy, so they put a little
pill in her banana because there's no way you're gonna
get Amy to jump out of an airplane makes sense,

(40:47):
totally makes sense. This is what I was gonna say,
something with this kind of interesting like them almost being
shot out of the sky here these rocket launchers. Yeah, dude,
I even watching Amy now freaking out. This is a
complete success.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
To me.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
I felt everything they wanted me to feel for her.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
I think I think that the I mean, considering that
we're talking about a thirty year old effect, I think
it's it's it does the trick, you know. I I
think obviously technology has improved to the point where where
now you could do something much more compelling via motion capture,
but given what was available at the time, I think

(41:31):
I think it does the job, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah, you know, I think, yeah, they're getting better and
better at that, these fully CG characters. I think sometimes
the mistake is they make them behave like animated characters
in a live action setting, and that always throws me off.
They move in this very Disneyesque, overly gestured manner. Yeah,
and it's just not how people move in the real

(41:55):
that's right. So maybe that's why I'm responding a little
bit better to this because it feels a bit more tangible.
But yeah, like you're saying, I mean, they've gotten much
much better at it and the planet, like when.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
You look at the recent Apes film, certainly the and
Andy Cirkis ones. I mean, I think I think on
the whole they've done a good job, you know. Yeah,
and this is how we know Karen is a badass exactly.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah. We get to see her fire a weapon, and
it is funny. I mean they mentioned that their heat seeking,
but it still feels like their aim is pretty impeccable,
you know, shooting like flares. I don't know that those
are the most accurate, and they're well maybe they are,
what do I know.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
And we know she's a former CIA agent, which really
means that she is a current CIA agent, because anybody's
a former CIA agent, you know.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
So we get this kind of funny moment here where
it's like, well, someone's got to get Amy out of here.
So basically Captain Monroe wears her like a backpack yep
as he jumps out of the plane. It's kind of funny.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
Now now we were talking about the Tim Cray character.
I think I think what's interesting also is that he's
he's like a bad guy, but he's also kind of
not really you know what I mean, Oh totally yeah, right,
which which was also kind of weird to me, like
you're sort of expecting a much more drastic heel turn
from him, Yeah, where he's like willing to sacrifice everybody

(43:25):
or something. He's yeah, he's interesting. I'm not quite sure
he's he's I wouldn't call it. He ends up he
ends up being kind of like Kevin J. O'Connor and
the Mummy.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Whereas like the way, the way that you know, the
first time we see him and we had the dramatic music,
you expect a kind of a thing where he points
his gun at the other people in the expedition and
he's got his little satchel full of diamonds. That's what
he's like, smellulator suckers.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Exactly Like I'm taking the plane, yeah you know, what
about us? Like what about you? And then like shuts
the door or something. Yeah yeah, And then he.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Turns around and there's all the gorillas and they bash
his head in or something like that's a true spot.
That's great.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
And then the plane starts rocking because he's being killed inside,
and we're like, oh, I love it. I love it,
but nope.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, something substantially lesser than that.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Yeah, I forgot.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
To mention, by the way, mister Echo, Oh yeah yeah,
and I will not even attempt to pronounce his name.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
I know, I feel bad out of respect and also
possibly disrespect nuts. Yeah, what was I gonna say?

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (44:35):
Oh, somewhere I kind of missed it, but I guess
Jimmy Buffett plays a pilot in here.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
That's kind of his thing, right, he just plays pilots. Yeah, yeah,
because he was in something else as a pilot. And
now I'm trying to remember pilot.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
I don't remember. I remember Jurassic World. He's the guy
grabbing his margarita or whatever.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah, at the Jimmy Buffett restaurant yep, yep, as the
dinosaurs are attacking.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
No. I thought this was kind of interesting. So speaking
of Ernie Hudson's character, and well, I'll get to that,
but basically, as I do now with these older movies,
I go straight to ciskel Nieberd afterward.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
On YouTube they had some disagreements about this one.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Oh man, Well it was hilarious because, yeah, they had
their back and forth. Honestly, felt like the war inside
of me after my first viewing, so Ebert kind of
enjoyed it as like a silly like kind of throwback
jungle adventure, probably like movies he watched when he was
a kid. Then Ciskel is just like, what are you
talking about? And he's like, I wasn't laughing with it.

(45:40):
I was laughing at it, and I was like, yeah,
that's funny. I kind of feel both inside of me
and Ebert was like, oh, come on, you know, like
Ernie Hudson's playing this kind of carry Grant style figure
and Ciscl's like, what are you talking about? Yeah, it
was really funny. But anyway, eber then went.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
On to he called Ernie Hudson a lightweight, and I said,
how effing dare?

Speaker 1 (46:06):
But Ebertt wrote later he does say Congo is a
comedy that was mislabeled as an action drama and has
suffered as a result. And I was like, that's interesting.
I mean, I'm sure I don't know how the filmmakers
would take that. I don't think I would call it
an out and out comedy, no, but it I think
it could have leaned into a little bit of.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
A Teeters on the edge.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, yeah, I think it could have leaned into its
camp possibly a little bit.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Right. Well, well, look, I mean listen, it's very simple.
Paramount wanted a Jurassic Park, Yes, And that's essentially what
it comes down to is that I think, as written,
when you say it's kind of a kind of an
Allan Quartermaan King Solomon's minds type thing, that was the
angle it should have taken tonally totally, yes, right, and

(46:56):
that means it should have been a little more heightened
from the jump. And I think that's the big problem
is that is, you know, and you tell me if
you disagree, but by the time we end up in
the Lost City, I'm like, what what in the what? Right?

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Right?

Speaker 3 (47:16):
Because it's it's it's such a left turn from everything
that we're led up to at this point, you know.
And and I think what what they really needed to
do was seed that storyline more methodically throughout, so you know,
and I don't know, I you know, it's not like
you can have them encounter the mutant gorillas much earlier.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Mm hmm. You seed sort of a heightened the Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
So let me put it this way, when when when
they opened the arc at the end of Raiders, you
are mentally prepared for that because the movie has has
done the job of walking you there.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yes, we've starten with odd things along the way.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
That's right, right, So so yeah, you know, like when
we see the arc on the boat and it burns
us and not see symbol, or even at the very
beginning when Indy cracks the book and he's like here
you going, there's a power of God whatever, right, and.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
So when they're so when he's in that household and
they're talking about going to the ark and then all
this huge wind comes through, like basically God being like stop, yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
You know very well. So the movie is saying it's
letting you know, okay, this is the kind of movie.
This is right, And I think like, like, you know,
what what Jurassic Park does, when you think about it,
is the very first scene. It helps you. It helps
establish the exact tone of what you're going to get

(48:44):
for the rest of the movie. You know that with
the with the Raptor and Muldoon and all that, you know, shoot,
exactly right it it it sets your compass for the
whole movie. However, what Ascid Park also does is we
see the dinosaurs within you know whatever. It is like

(49:04):
twenty minutes, right, So it's not like suddenly we see
a brachiosaur at at you know, in our forty right, right,
right right, whereas this movie is. Oh and by the way,
here's some mutant apes.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, like I think that's the
problem is it's playing kind of weirdly comically earnest right again.
You know, Jodn Bakers as evil makeevilman, Yeah, Johnny mustache
twirler in your parlance. And and I think it needed

(49:48):
more of a heightened adventure tone so that when we
get to the Lost City, it feels of a piece
with everything we've seen up to that point.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
I totally agree.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Yep. Now, does it feel like the movie couldn't decide
whether they were going to have a romantic relationship between
Karen and Peter.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
You know, I'll be honest with you, I don't remember
enough because I but yeah, they probably had some moments
where they Yeah, they could have had a moment like
Sharon tenttent. We have our own tents, Okay, Yeah, Like
maybe you could have had like some playful things like that.
But then she thinks she's going to rescue someone who's
very close to her. So maybe that's the.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
Right, but I mean, you know, you can he is
her ex fiance after all, so that's true, it'd be
that close. Come on.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
But you know what, frankly, to your point, it would
have been nice if Campbell was still alive. Yeah, and
this is like rekindling something for her in a way,
or at the very well, it doesn't even have to
be rekindled, but there's like something powerful there between them
that's compelling her to go through hippo infested waters. Yeah,
you know, hell or high water or whatever, hell or
hippo invested waters, Yeah, to go get them. You know,

(50:57):
I would have enjoyed seeing that energy from that character.
Think might have heightened things a bit.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
I think the problem is that Peter is kind of
just a void, Like he's just not a particularly compelling
character beyond his affinity for Amy.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
I agree, yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Right, And and I generally like Dylan Walsh as an actor,
so I know he's capable of more. But it's really
like it's just the character is a whole lot of nothing,
and he's ostensibly the lead of this movie. Yeah right,
and and he he gets brushed aside almost you know.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
No, I completely agree. Yeah, he's too he's too realistic.
He's probably so many would encounter like this in real life.
And it's like, you know, in the movie you want
someone I don't know, Well, you.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Can see the energy that Bruce Campbell would have brought
to this role. Mm hmm. So it does feel like
a shame that that they didn't go like maybe you
swap it.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
I yeah, well, and then him going toe to toe
with Humbuck Homlocker, you know what I mean, like you know,
like slow your role there, Homlocker. You know, like that
kind of energy from Campbell would be kind of fun
seeing them go toe to toe. But they're both in
pursuit of the same destination, but for different reasons, different energies.
This is that snake thing I was talking about that

(52:10):
felt yeah, yeah, and it just ends like it's not
a set piece, you know. It's like almost feels like
they actually killed a snake and they're like, well, out
of respect, we should at least include it.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
We should leave it in for some of the family.
His family knows what happened to him.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
That's poor snake. His family's in the movie theater, Like, wait,
isn't that Jeff, He's been missing for nine months.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Yeah, mom when his dad coming home? Oh yeah, lie down, kids,
or just stay where you stay where you are exactly.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
I feel bad for this poor frog. Frog doesn't know
it's in a movie.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Was that a real frog? I mean it could have
been like a little dudadder, you know what.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
That's probably true. Where was I reading? There was something
about they thought about Oh yeah, I have it here,
So I guess Frank Marshall thought about using computers for
the apes. Yes, that's because of you know, obviously Jurassic Park,
but it was the hair. Yeah, computer is just more
capable of it yet.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Yeah, and it's it's extraordinary because you had, you know,
by the way he generally the prospect of leech on
penis is probably reason number one. You're not gonna see
me go into the into the deep dark woods.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
But it's it's funny and it's like an interesting, like
moment you remember, But like, doesn't it just feel so random?
Like you can just imagine they're like, all right, well,
what's some stuff that can happen in the jungle, like
a bullet point leech on penis?

Speaker 3 (53:41):
You know, Well, the fact that he's like I got
everybody's like, I know, I'm like, I helped the guy out.
I mean, it's not it's not nothing. I know.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Well, I love then Monroe gives him his cigar to
burn it off, which yikes. And then and then I
love that gives them the garback. I even I would
have enough sense to be like, all right, I think
this cigar is through.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Oh shoot, I was saying something I can't remember that. Shoot.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Sorry, well we were talking about fur and.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
Computer Yeah okay, so you had Jumanji right around those time,
was ninety five, right, yeah yeah yeah, and and they
had some chimpanzees and that, and yeah, I would imagine
that that was the thinking like, oh we could do something,
you know like that. You know.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
It's funny though when you watch Jumanji now it they
look basically like what animatics look like.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Yeahhh it doesn't hold up.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Yeah, yeah, so I can understand why they did.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
I mean, going back to what I was saying, I
mean that's what made the recent apes movies such a
quantum ly forward as they really licked that.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it's incredible. I highly recommend
those ILM documentaries on Disney Plus.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Yeah, I started watching.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
I mean they're just fascinating to begin with, because you're
hearing people who are their first hand working on these films.
So just hearing stories about movies you love is interesting
right off the bat, but they actually get into Okay, look,
we need to create a water simulation. Like it sounds
cool when you see it finished, but like this is math,
Like we have to figure out how mathematically like these

(55:25):
things would bounce off one another and write some sort
of program and then we can turn these little triangles
that somehow now understand how they would react to one another,
can actually act like droplets and blah blah blah blah
and fur and what. It's it's fascinating stuff.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
That's really interesting.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Yeah, when you think ninety five is when Toy Story
one came out also, and it's I mean that movie
completely holds up, but you do see the animation and go, oh,
it's interesting, like how the humans, you know, their hair
looks kind of it was easier for them. You can
imagine they did Toy Story with toys because it's like, well,
they're made a plastic in their shiny and we don't
have to deal with too many textures, right, you know

(56:04):
that's right, So definitely early early phase of things. You know,
jar Jar is like four years away.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
Yeah. Well, well and this year you had you know,
you mentioned that Casper. M hm. That was the first
time you had a fully cg character who was the
lead of a movie essentially right right, right right, And
you know, because Casper is in that movie for like
forty minutes or something.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Yeah, and it's kind of perfect for that because Casper
is a really simple shape, yeah right, mostly just eyeballs
and acute smile. So it's kind of a good place
to start.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
Isn't it, isn't it. Devin Sawa is like the yeah, right,
the I don't know if he is he the voice
and he's the human.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
I definitely know he's the human at the end. I
don't know if he does the voice. I've only seen
it once. But this is John Hawk, dude, I didn't
even put that together. Yeah, that's amazing. It's weird seeing
him young.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
Yeah, he's also in Everest if you remember, yep, yep.
He's My point is John Hawk should not go on expeditions, right,
you know.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
I gotta admit I'm not sure I'm buying him being
scared to death, dying of fear. Yeah, like it was
a little silly.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
I don't know, right, isn't that a thing? Doesn't that happen? Due?
Do people die of fright? That feels like a.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Thing, right, I'm sure it's possible. But and I know
he's been through a lot.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
He saw he saw gorillas tear his friends to pieces. Yeah,
and then this other and then upsidles, this gorilla. I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
It's just feels like a lot for his heart to burst.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
But then again, you know, well, let's put you in
the exact same situation and let me know how it goes.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
I then I want you to lie at my funeral
and say something else. And then this adorable gorilla came
up and said, HI want breakf in sign language, and.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
I and Brian sh his pants, kissed himself and his
head exploded. Rest in peace, brother exploded.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that can go on the death certificate.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
But at my funeral, please say I died defending a
woman's honor or something. Okay, what do you think about
everybody in the congo knowing California dreaming?

Speaker 3 (58:39):
It seems reasonable. I suppose, right, it's a it's a
it's a catchy song. Yeah, cool.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
I'm just kidding. I mean I kind of liked that.
I was actually thinking, could I do all the lyrics
to this song?

Speaker 3 (58:53):
I definitely could not. I could I could do the chorus.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Maybe I'd be like, no, Winter Thursday, I'd be doing
that to church to pray.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
Yeah, that would basically be me.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:08):
See, well, you know, I think this is just a
testament to how there was a time when you know,
these cultural artifacts brought people together because because they transcended
the globe. You know.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
No, in all seriousness, I think it is kind of
a sweet moment, but it feels a little awkwardly executed
or something to me, Like it felt like it would
have been nice if there had been a lot of
misunderstandings between this crew or something. Yeah, and in this one,
I think that.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
Things they go through that bind them together.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
Exactly, And this is like something where that for the
first time they can speak the same language and it
brings them together. I think you could have wrung it
a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
You know. Well, I think that's the problem is is
that this entire you know, this whole portion of the
movie is very it's very rote. Yeah, because like we said,
they're just sort of they have their you know, a
little episode, something happens, and they move on to this
next thing, you know, and and I think all of

(01:00:12):
like this here, this is kind of an exposition scene.
We're finding out about you know, the Lost City and whatever,
but it should be in the context of them being
on the run or on the go.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
Yes, yes, yes, it's very uh like limp or something like.
There's no urgency.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
Yeah, because because think about it, You've got You've got
Tim Curry is trying to get to the Lost City
to get his diamonds. Karen is trying to find out
if if Charles is still alive. Peter is trying to
get Amy to her her fellow apes. But they should

(01:00:54):
have done something to kind of tie those three goals
together in a way where all three are press completely agree.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
There's there's just no urgency here. I'm not sensing it.
I'm not feeling it, you know. And yeah, I mean
even if there was a little bit of you know,
difficulty with the communication with this crew here and maybe
snapping at them and them being like hey, like kind
of snapping back in their language, and it's just like
we're helping you and not connecting, and then to have

(01:01:22):
them connect with that song and then get onto a
new page. I think that could have been a really
powerful thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
I think even even Monroe, right, like, what what has
him other than being paid? Why is he invested in
this expedition? Right? Yeah? You know?

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
I yeah, I agree, And.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Because he has that history with Tim Curry m hm,
so maybe tie tie that in, right, like they got
unfinished business from before m hm. You know, like I'm I'm, I'm,
I'm gonna take you there and I'm going to prove
what a piece of shit you are something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Something some business. Yeah, right, this is kind of interesting.
So this is where the hippo thing happens, right, Yeah, yeah,
it's pretty impressive.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Yeah, hippos the most lethal land animal. Did you know that?

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Because those killed more people than lions. Really, yeah, I
didn't know that. You do not want to get on
any side of a hippo.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
Hungry because hungry hippo.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
Yeah. Yeah. That's the ironic thing is you got this
childhood game that I think lulls people into thinking they're adorable,
and they will chew you up and shit you out
before you even realize you're dead.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Wow. Yeah, I mean I'm certainly afraid of its chomp.
Yeah right, I mean it does. I mean you see
those videos right where they stick these crazy things in there,
like watermelons and all sorts of stuff, and they just
always bananas.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
This is another you know, there's a story recently, maybe
in the last ten years or so, of a guy
who raised a hippo from infancy. Okay, and it was
his pet and and let me cut to the end,
the hippo ate him. Really yeah. Wow, because they're not pets, yo,
they're wild animals. Leave them alone, a way to go.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
I gotta see this hippo. I mean, see this. This
is executed really well because the only light we have
is moonlight, so there's basically you know light silhouettes on everybody,
and we can still tell what's going on. But it
also obscures this you know, animatronic puppet in the best
way possible because I think it I think it plays

(01:03:34):
really well, yes, this hippo puppet, but but it is
still just a hippo, meaning what like it's it's it
feels like they're straining for business. Oh ablute? Well because
it yeah, because then they just fire a couple of
shots and then goes away. It's like the hippo comes,
it chomps, they shoot at it, it goes away. That right, Like,

(01:03:55):
it doesn't lead them anywhere, It doesn't accomplish anything.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
This is my point, right, Like, like it's not you know,
a mosa sore or something, you know, like where where
it's an otherworldly or or an unnatural creature based on
what we're familiar with. And sure there's an added level
of tension, you know. I think what should have been

(01:04:19):
happening is we should have been should have been uh
you know, laying laying the track for the ending.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
M Yes, yes, like like was that like I know
they're on water, but like was that a gorilla?

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
That was no gorilla? Yeah, you know something like that,
you know. I mean it's it's it's kind of a
metaphorical descent into hell, you know, so like you're going
from the natural world that we know into something unnatural,
you know, so that it's not like you go into

(01:05:00):
the the caves and oh it's so crazy, like kind
of get us there slowly.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Totally agree. I have to point out I read that
most of the volcano shots in this film are of
ur and Allay, an active volcano in Costa Rica that
I have hiked, no kidding, Yeah, I didn't recognize it,
but with our friend Sean Seawan and I hiked it together.

(01:05:29):
We took a trip many many years ago, a guy's
trip to Costa Rica, and we actually while we were
on the volcano, it's an active volcano. We saw it
erupt We were on it as it was erupting. We
saw rocks shooting out of it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:43):
Get out of here.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
We weren't near it, but it was pretty wild, pretty wild,
So that was pretty that's scary. Yeah, And then we
are the night before we were in a hotel and
we heard like boom. We looked out and we could
see the top was red and little rocks flying out
of it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
It kind of kind of puts in perspective how how
inconsequential we are, you know, the oh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
If that thing wants to take us out, it'll take
us out.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
Right, like yep, you know, big picture, mother nature is
doing our own thing, and and we're more an annoyance
than anything else, you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Know, exactly, be grateful that it's mostly leaving us alone.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Yeah, right, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Man, that is so funny. I mean, just watching you've
really got it in my head now, like watching and
just looking at a map standing on the ground, like
there's just really no urgency happening here.

Speaker 3 (01:06:36):
It's it's weird, it's it's very languid, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
Now you mentioned it earlier, but this does, by the way,
I will say though, this does look really great in
that I mean, these are real locations.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
We have so many movies now that just simulate locations,
and you really, I think our eyes are kind of
adjusting to it. We're just getting you to it. But
you do get the sense of disconnect between the characters
and where they are. And this is pretty cool watching
them go through real fog trapsing around real volcanoes, through
real jungles. There's just a real palpability, you know, to

(01:07:17):
their sweatiness and just the leaves slapping their faces. It's
pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
So, by the way, I wanted to comment on this
so earlier. They jump out of a plane and they
land like few and then the plane blows up, it
gets hit by a rocket, and those poor freaking pilots
are dead right, and they're basically like, wow, that was close.
I'm like, not for the pilots, like they have this

(01:07:46):
real lack of like, I don't know, respect for the
loss of life that just happened. And so in this moment,
another plane that's been sent by Laura, Lenny's employer, like
a second expedition to go look for her, has been
taken out of the sky and they come across the
crash crest remains of it and they're like, whoa damn,

(01:08:07):
and then they just keep hiking. I'm like, Oz, people
are dying and they just don't seem to care.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
I mean, I would say even even later in the
film when when Grant heslov gets gets acted right, Yeah,
we barely let that register, you know. So this right here,
this gorilla, I mean I was looking at it like
is that is that a real gorilla?

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
It's pretty tough to tell, right, Yeah, And I like this.
I think this is filmed well. I think this has
acted really well by Dylan Walsh. I can understand that
feeling of fear but having to do the thing they
tell you, like, yeah, don't look in the eye, but
don't run and just I don't know this this scene
worked for me.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
The the myth of the killer gorilla, right, which they
allude to earlier in the movie, You know that that
is something that when you think about it, has been
so pronounced and you realize that, in fact, out of
all the great apes, gorillas are the most gentle hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
Chimpanzees are the one who who they're gonna lose their
shit at the drop of the hat.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Really. Yeah, See, this is the fun stuff you can
do in a story like this, right where you have
now Amy who's very much domesticated and can even speak
through this robotic right gloves. Yeah, like trying to communicate
with gorillas in the wild, and I just love that
her mode is Hi, hi'm Amy, how are you?

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
And they're like what the hell?

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
She turns to Dylan Wallher'd be like, kill me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Why did you do this to me?

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Father? Kill me? You are the enemy?

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:51):
It's it is kind of weird seeing Laura Lenny in
this movie, right, because like this is not her usual jam.
She's she created such a distinguished career as like this
really well respected actor and you know, dramatic actress. And
to see her her in kind of just a pulpy

(01:10:12):
summer blockbuster feels in congress to me.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
With like saying with pointing laser weapons and monkeys and
being like, let's put these suckers on the endangered species
exactly right.

Speaker 3 (01:10:23):
That's like something you'd see in like a Simpsons parody
or something.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
It is, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, I mean what
was Primal Fear, Because Primal Fear was kind of after this,
after this, okay, because because I know that for sure,
because this is the first time I ever saw Laura Lennie.
Oh okay, okay, you know, yeah, she well, and then
you know, she's in Truman Show a couple of years later.
Speaking of Truman I can't remember if that's part of

(01:10:48):
the commentary or a bonus thing, but.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
That that was the bonus thing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Yeah, but anyway, but she's great in Truman Show.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
Yeah, it's great in that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Yeah. But yeah, she did, like you said, she doesn't
tend to be in these sort of blockbustery sorts of things.

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
Well, and and I mean she had some competition for
this role. I mean they were, you know, they were
looking at like Nane Lane and Susan Sarandon a couple
other people, and I think, you know, I mean, she
was virtually unknown at the time of this movie. So
I think that ended up being kind of a good choice. Yeah.
I think all of these actors. The fact that the
movie turned out a hit and did okay, it benefited everybody,

(01:11:28):
you know, m hm, because because pretty much all went
on to have a decent career. You know, everyone in
this nobody nobody, nobody got left behind, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
Yeah. Well, you know, speaking of it being a hit,
I mean that shows that not only did people show
up because they were expecting another Jurassic Park esque kind
of adventure, but they came back you know. Yeah, some
people repeat viewed this thing, so it did connect with
you know, enough people.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
Well, so that's the thing, right, because you and at
least me, I'm like, you know, look, it's not I'm
not gonna say it's it's good, you know, but it
it fills a specific niche and it's nice when movies
are able to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree. I mean this is
we talk about this often. I mean, we want the
multiplexus populated with historical dramas, horror films, comedies, romantic comedies,
pulp you know, pulp adventures like when I give it
to all of us. But this seems like a moment
where maybe people were more willing to give all of

(01:12:41):
those things a shot, whereas now it seems like those
things are a little more fragmented, like, oh, well, the
rom coms we watch on streaming and the two hundred
million dollar plus epic things, you know, superhero movies whatever
we go to the theater for. But it was it
was nice when all of this stuff not only could
be in theaters, but everyone was showing up for all
of it all stuff. That's you know, when I play Cinematrix,

(01:13:02):
one of the categories is one hundred million dollars plus, right,
and you have to guess which movies potentially made a
hundred million dollars plus. And I told some people that
I play with and you and I share sometimes our
answers too. But if it's a movie in the nineties,
I almost always assume it made a hundred million dollar
plus because it was just a heyday, yeah, for movies

(01:13:22):
and theater going. Like, if if it's a movie I
remember from the nineties, it probably made a hundred million
plus at least worldwide. Yeah, that's just the way it was.

Speaker 3 (01:13:31):
That's a great point this summer. I mean, in addition
to Congo, you had Pocahontas, you had Brave Heart, You
had a water World paullout thirteen, right, like, like you know,
Judge Draid was this summer, you know, Johnny Monik, right,

(01:13:52):
like it was. Not all of them were hits, right,
but most of the movies I said were some degree
of successful. And that shows Oh and you know, I
think I said Casper, etcetera. You know, like there was
there was a real diversity of content and that's always
good good, I think, you know. And I would also
imagine that if you were ten or eleven when you

(01:14:15):
watch this, and if you saw it in the theater,
I mean, it would be a real nostalgic experience.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
I completely get that I just missed it, but I
can totally imagine twelve year old Brian watching this, loving it,
and then watching it again as an adult, like I know,
I know, I know, but I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Yeah, you know, you know, yeah, because I know there's
plenty of folks who have a lot of nostalgia for
this one.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
Yeah, you know, speaking of when you're talking about like
twelve year old and stuff, and then makes me think
of this and then Jurassic Park or whatever. Michael Crane's
kind of interesting to me, Like I was thinking about
this earlier who was Jurassic Park written for? So it
became because Michael Crichton's earlier stuff is pretty adult, you know, Westbrood,

(01:14:58):
and so is Jurassic Park the book. That's what I'm saying. Like,
so like West World's pretty you know, are rated in
a lot of his earlier stuff, and even like Disclosure
and things like those very adult stories, and then Jurassic
Park just happened to be this thing. Then that got
you know, Steven Spielberg, who everybody enjoys his movies, and
then you know, makes a movie about dinosaurs, and of
course kids are going to want to see that. So
I was just thinking about when Crichton sat down and

(01:15:20):
wrote Jurassic Park, it just feels like a family franchise, now,
that's right, right, But when he made it, was he
just thinking he was making another like adult thriller.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
Yeah, I mean it really when when you look at it,
it's it's a reskin of Westworld.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, totally right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
And and the book is I mean I haven't read
it since the early nineties, but it's it's much more violent,
it's much darker, yeah, and gory, yeah, you know, and
and you know this is something, you know, as James
Cameron and Steven Spielberg were, you know, sort of they
were in pole position trying to get the rights. And
Cameron has said he would have made allans yeah, and

(01:16:02):
and tonally that's more in line with the book, right right,
and and so yeah, I mean Crichton, Crichton had had
his he he had all to himself. This air like
grounded science fiction. Mm hmm, right, the same way Tom

(01:16:24):
Clancy had all to himself, you know, espionage techno thrillers,
and Grisham had adult legal thrillers, you know, like those
are that was like the the mount Rushmore of adult
fiction in the nineties. He had Clancy, Grisham and and Crichton,
you know, yep, yep. And I don't know who's the

(01:16:44):
for Danielle Steele. I don't know, yeah, you know, probably yeah,
right and and and I think that's that's really interesting
because because what oh, by the way, this the this
the guy who plays Claude. I was like, God, this
guy looks familiar and he's in Jordan of the Jungle.

(01:17:05):
Oh interesting, I've rend and Fraser playing basically the same character.
Really sound like, well, he's he's found, he's found the
character to play you know. Yeah, but but Crichton, when
you look at the the the books that he wrote,
not all of which became successful movies, but many of

(01:17:26):
them did. I mean that they they're kind of that.
They're adult sci fi thrillers. Andromeda Strain and uh, you
know what are Sphere Sphere which is not a good movie.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
Yeah, which I've never seen either.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
There's a whole run of not good Christen adaptations.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Disclosure.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
Disclosure was okay from what I remember, you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
Know, it's so funny. The only thing I remember about
that is Michael Douglass. They tried, but they were so
convinced that like VR with dazzle audiences and be like
the next you know, future sick looking sort of thing.
I mean, he got a lot more man and everything,
and then.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
Basically there he goes Grant Hasla. Never a good sign
when you have to slowly turn and face the camera.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
Well yeah, and then the poor guy just had this
really awkward social interaction and that's his last moment on Earth.

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
I know, he's like, oh man, do I have to apologize?
Should I get him a card? I know?

Speaker 1 (01:18:20):
Anyway, sorry you were by a killer eight. No, but disclosure.
I remember, basically Michael Douglas has to get like a
word file off of a computer. But they're like, but
what if he did it through VR? So he's like,
you see this like digital version of him walking through
you know, like tense music playing walking through like an
office building, digital office building, just to like recover literally
like a word file off of a computer. It was

(01:18:42):
so ridiculous. But no, I just the whole thing is.

Speaker 3 (01:18:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
I mean when you really look at Crichton's work, not
the film adaptations, but he seems like a very adult,
skewing like author. And it's just funny then to think that,
you know, Jurassic Park even before the film came out.
I was introduced to him by buying that book at
a middle school book flamm You know, it's just kind
of funny that it's like, well, Spielberg's making it, so
now this is for everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
Yeah, and you know what I mean, I think the
fact that the Jurassic franchise is still going many years
after his passing means that ultimately that's probably what he'll
be most remembered for, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
Oh easily yeah, right.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
He also you know, worth mentioning when it comes to Congo.
He programmed or helped program a video game adaptation because
he came up with the idea for the movie and
then he wrote the book. He sold the screen rights
to twentyth Century Fox, and at the same time he
was coming up with a game like this is like

(01:19:42):
early eighties, and then I guess what they realized later
that all the rights were sold.

Speaker 1 (01:19:51):
Yeah. Yeah, Well so he basically knew how to code.
He yeah, like yeah, and what you said, like, he
literally made the game himself crazy right, Yeah, based on Congo.
But then the contract that he had signed with Fox,
they owned any sort of ancillary things dealing with Congo,
so including video games. So then he was like, oh shoot,
so he had to tweak it a little bit, but
it still came out in nineteen eighty four. Is a

(01:20:11):
game called Amazon.

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
Amazon Yeah, and instead of Amy the Ape, it was
a parrot.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
Ah how funny.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
Yeah, so that that kind of works.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
That'd be funny if it was still just like Amy Gorilla.
He's like whatever, but whatever. The company that produced it
and put it out it was their most successful title.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
Yes, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:35):
It was a successful game.

Speaker 3 (01:20:37):
Yeah, and it predated the movie by about ten years
at least, you know, I think you know, you had Congo,
which did well, So you had Jurassic and Disclosure around
the same time, and then this, Oh that wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
Ninety five also, wasn't it Disclosure?

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
Pretty sure?

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
Pretty sure?

Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
Yeah? It was either ninety four ninety five. Yeah, And
then you had this run of movies that that weren't
so good so and they didn't do that well. So
he had Spear and what's the am I oh, of
course Thirteenth Warrior.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
Oh, I say, I even forgot about them.

Speaker 3 (01:21:16):
See Thirteenth Warrior. The book is called Eaters of the Dead,
I see, right. And and you know that movie famously
ended up with a unlike this where Crichton had no
involvement that one. He was like he was an ep
on it, I think, and he basically recut John mctiernan's.

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
Edit hm hm.

Speaker 3 (01:21:34):
And so the version that was released was chopped down
and it's the Michael Crichton version cut. Yeah, yeah, and
the McTiernan cut like does not exist. Yeah, and that
one tanked yeah. And then you had was it Timeline?

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
I think, oh, Timeline, that's right right, that was early
early aughts. I think I've never seen that either. That's
Richard Donner, right.

Speaker 3 (01:22:01):
Richard Donner one of his last movies that he.

Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
Did now, which people don't really tend to like.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
Right, Uh yeah, I can't say anything about it. Yeah,
I know Paul Walker is in it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:14):
Yeah, that's right, that's right, Paul Walker, Gerard Butler. So
now this is very speaking of aliens. You know, we
have these uh I don't want you to come like
century machine gun sort of things.

Speaker 3 (01:22:26):
Like yeah, see, okay. So I think what needed to
happen is the movie needed to introduce the idea of
these apes way earlier in the movie.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (01:22:38):
I mean we get like the little the little snippets
of them on the thing, you know, but we needed
the equivalent of some of Indie cracking the book and
being like these things here, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:48):
Maybe Tim Curry like it's it's guarded by these mythical creatures. Yeah,
you know, and they're like, oh, you're crazy, you and
you're made up city and you're made up.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
Monsters, right something like that, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
Yeah, and then they see weird like well the dressing
part you see like a giant footprint and go who.

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
Yeah yeah that yeah, or even you have the Ernie
Hudson character like he knows about him, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Yeah, so yeah, maybe Tim Curry says that sort of
thing and everyone's like, oh, come on, and then yeah
he legitimizes it and goes, oh, no, I've heard that
legend too.

Speaker 3 (01:23:23):
Yeah, you know something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:26):
Yeah, this does look kind of cool, these lasers.

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
It is definitely very very aliens.

Speaker 1 (01:23:34):
Yes, and this is a great idea too, like having
then the automatic machine guns fall over and then like
could possibly shoot at them. I think you could have
made more of a meal out of this.

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
Yeah. See, I think the movie just takes too long
to get here because essentially, now it's like twenty minutes
of you know, high adventure or whatever we want to say, you.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
Know, yeah, yeah, agree, And then do you kind of
feel bad when these white gorillas are getting killed?

Speaker 3 (01:24:08):
Okay? Yes, So this is the problem, right, because the
movie is essentially saying that these gorillas were bred so
that their most violent, you know, the most violent ones
were the ones that propagated, and so they killed their
their you know, creators or whatever. And so I think

(01:24:32):
the movie assumes that by telling us that we'll be like,
so kill them all right, and and yeah, I'm with
you where it's like, I don't know, maybe they don't
need to laser them in half. Maybe you just maybe
just leave, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:48):
Yeah, I'm like, you're kind of on their turf and
they're just doing what they do.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
So this is the thing, right, But what you needed
to do was have an in story you should You
needed to show that these gorillas are expanding out and
killing people.

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:25:08):
Right, So in other words, they are they are a
harm that needs to be dealt with, like these these
are these are vicious predators in a in a way
that's that's that's unnatural.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
Yeah, And I don't even know if this makes sense,
because then you could argue, well, people made them, so
maybe this is like fitting that they hurt people. But
like you could even I don't know how this works
in the jungle especially, but like some sort of innocent
animal mutilated somewhere and you're like, what would do that?
You know, something that doesn't even know what it's doing anymore.

(01:25:41):
It's you know something, you know. Yeah, they're a little
they're beyond some sort of to use the wrong word humanity,
you know what I mean, Like they they don't even
know what they're doing anymore. They're just killing machines.

Speaker 3 (01:25:52):
Yeah, because because what we have right now is is
it's it's the they are in they are in the city,
and they are protecting the diamonds as they were bred
to do, and obviously that's bad and weird and whatever.
But it's like, okay, we'll just leave then.

Speaker 1 (01:26:12):
Right, right, or at least I mean I get it,
I get it, But yeah, they're doing what they were
bred to do, and I just kind of feel bad
as they're getting lasered in half.

Speaker 3 (01:26:23):
Yeah. Really, Yeah, I think that that's a tough one, right,
because the movies view towards the gorillas in general is
an empathetic one. M you know, the silver backs and
Amy and whatever, and so it feels very bipolar.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Right, you know, but maybe even of its time in
a weird sort of way, like that joke of Lenny
says later about like trying to put these things on
the endangered species list. Yeah, I feel like we as
a society now have a little more empathy for that
sort of thing. Like where I could see that being
kind of a joke maybe in the nineties, you know,

(01:27:09):
where we didn't think about those things is sensitively.

Speaker 3 (01:27:14):
I'm trying to think, I'm trying to remember what the
general societal view was back then. I mean, I feel
like people were generally empathetic towards animals back then.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
You know, yeah, I don't know, I just I know
there was a little bit more of a reverence or
like a like it's so funny because like woke and
all that stuff is the words we hear now, But
like I remember when, like political correctness was a big
thing in the nineties and it was kind of a
funny thing to buy.

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
That's what used to be called woke.

Speaker 1 (01:27:38):
Yeah, yeah, but it was it didn't feel as like
nasty and pointed and calculated as it is now. H yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
But just using Jurassic as a point of comparison, right,
Like you watch the movie and you're not like, oh,
kill the dinosaurs exactly, yes, right, yeah, So you're in
awe of them, you're scared of them, we're trying to
get away from them, but you're not like laser them
in half.

Speaker 1 (01:28:03):
You know that's true. I mean, well, and it just
kind of shows what an amazing filmmaker, the understanding that
Spielberg has for his audience. Yeah, he knows how to
handle these killing Some of them are just killing machines velociraptors,
but like he knows that, like we wouldn't enjoy seeing
one completely destroyed human. Yeah, he finds that balance perfectly. Okay,

(01:28:26):
so something I thought, but I just didn't let my
brain go down that path. But then when I listened
to I have to credit that how did this get made? Podcast?
They were like, it's so funny when they go in
the Diamond mind and the diamonds are just randomly like
laying on top of the surface. It's so like, like,
what that's so true? Is that funny? I remember kind

(01:28:52):
of thinking it, but not again, I just wasn't as
plugged in enough to really let it sink in. But
like it is very silly.

Speaker 3 (01:28:59):
Well, okay, so maybe because we see bones of other
well I guess those are bones of other gorillas, right,
but maybe there have been people who made it this
far and and those are the diamonds that they tried
to escape with, and so they've just liked that there
you go.

Speaker 1 (01:29:16):
Well, you know, it would have been kind of cool
then to play off of that where maybe it's in
a satchel yeah or something. It's like, wow, someone was here,
But what do you think happened to them? Why did
they why did they drop this and leave it behind?
And then you go in a room and find all
these bones and go, oh, I think that that would
have worked better.

Speaker 3 (01:29:34):
Yeah, see, I think nowadays you would have much bigger
CGI hordes. Oh right, yeah, I think that's kind of
the thing, Like maybe maybe that's part of the problem.
Is it feels a little like there's probably like a

(01:29:55):
dozen of these guys here, you know, and we're just
lasering them, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
So so according to the book, there's an autopsy scene
at some point in the book and they see that
these these gorillas are the product of a gorilla DNA
and chimpanzee DNA and even human DNA, which let's wonder
how that happened. Moving on, Yeah, and that's why they're

(01:30:23):
they're freaking horrific looking.

Speaker 1 (01:30:26):
Yeah, maybe if you made him look more even more mutant, like.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
Let's let's pour one out for mister Homolka. Yeah see, okay,
so so and I'll let you get back to your point,
but that right there, when Tim Curry dies, I don't
think like I feel kind of bad for him, right,
And I don't think the movie knows what it wants
us to feel about him.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
Yeah, or even spends time to care.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
Yeah, sorry you were saying, no, no, I don't remember,
but I alluded to this earlier. But speaking of the
very similitude of the jungle and everything that I was
saying earlier, now you walk into what you said earlier
feels like a Universal Studio stunt show spectacular, which is
basically just like a box.

Speaker 3 (01:31:13):
Of a room.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
It has red. Yeah, you know, it's just I don't know.
You just don't buy it as this cool, dusty, dark,
dank hidden mine, like legendary mythic hidden mind, you know.
And so what I had read that I thought was
kind of interesting. Stan Winston he was never fully satisfied
with the gray gorillas and the way that they looked.

(01:31:35):
But he pointed out, you know, in something like that,
you would try to it's not just about what the
suit looks like. It's also how do you light it?
Does it? How do you capture it on camera? And
he was saying he hated this set because it's just
this big, cavernous set and for that reason, you couldn't

(01:31:56):
put foliage or anything in there that could be lit
in a certain way that would dapple all the characters
in there and obscure the more mysterious, weird jnky looking characters.

Speaker 3 (01:32:06):
Interesting, isn't it interesting?

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
I was like, Oh, that's a really great point. I mean,
when you have these things that are not going to
ever look quite realistic to the human eye, well then
you have to like creatively to obscure them a little
bit and make them mysterious and make it work. But
he's saying, in this big cavernous room, nothing for the
light to go through and create interesting shadows. You just
get these brightly lit, weird looking monkey suits, and it

(01:32:30):
looks a little odd, It looks a little We both
clocked it earlier, just saying this is kind of a
flat looking scene, unfortunately interesting and it's interesting. Hearing Sam
Winston comment on his satisfaction with it and saying that
his work doesn't come across the best.

Speaker 3 (01:32:43):
That it could for that reason, I think he's probably
on point.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:32:49):
You know, we see earlier with the Campbell character's corpse there,
I'm like, why wouldn't you give us the close up,
like give us his face?

Speaker 1 (01:33:01):
Yeah, totally right.

Speaker 3 (01:33:02):
It's weird that they didn't. The other the other thought.
I had this random but like when when Karen she
comes into says, she's like, she calls out Charles and
then she's like Charlie. And I was like, I feel like,
if you're a Charles, you're not a Charlie, but you've
locked in. But then I was like, it'd be funny
if she's like Charlie, Chuck, Chazz, You're right, Chucky, you know,

(01:33:23):
sea dog. But yeah, that's weird. It's clearly like a
dummy that looks like Bruce Campbell. But I'm like, why
don't you just like just get get a b roll
shot of him, like his face, we should get that. Yeah,
you know, you know he the frozen look of horror
on his face or something. But I feel like we

(01:33:44):
should have got that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:44):
I don't know, Yeah, no, I don't disagree. It's kind
of funny, this toss off exposition mother's instinct. What do
you know about that?

Speaker 3 (01:33:53):
Let's go anyway, put them on the endangered species.

Speaker 1 (01:33:57):
Yeah, she's looking. I mean that's another thing too, like
you could sort of obscure the violence a little bit,
but they're like, look at this. Poor things like arm
get chopped off.

Speaker 3 (01:34:07):
That's that's what I'm saying, like, now, like what we
know of Laura Lenny, it just feels very incongruous, you know, yeah, yeah,
it's like Helen Mirren in a Fast and Furious movie.
Now you're like, what something's off about that? You know? Yeah?
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
And by the way, like I you know, yeah, I mean,
these things are attacking. This is a bit of a defense, yes,
for the humans, But I just feel like you could
make the execution a little more nuanced and it might
not have those thoughts even enter our minds.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
Now, is there is there some in story explanation for
why the volcano starts erupting?

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
Well, you know that, not that I'm aware of, but
it would be interesting if it'd be like they took
too much.

Speaker 3 (01:34:49):
These gorillas are jumping right into the lava, so you.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Know there is the there do there there? You know,
they weren't meant to survive.

Speaker 3 (01:35:00):
You know, this is a Darwinian effect exactly exactly, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
It should it should have been a result of something
they're doing, because.

Speaker 3 (01:35:07):
There's invaders here, yes exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:35:09):
You know what I mean, kind of like Indiana Jones
right when he messes with something in a temple.

Speaker 3 (01:35:13):
It's you know what they should have been. I'll tell
you you have Tim Curry. He goes he gets a
whole bunch of bunch of diamonds, okay, and then he's
walking away, his pockets are loaded up, and then he
kind of sees like a glint out of the corner
of his end, and he goes over and this is
big honkin diamond and he's like, he rubs his hands
together and he yanks it out. And that was the
cork that was holding in all the lava.

Speaker 1 (01:35:38):
That was a cork diamond, you fool.

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
He pulls it out and he's all happy, and then
bra it starts coming out.

Speaker 1 (01:35:45):
I mean something like that, actually in that arena feels possible,
you know what I mean, Like, maybe not like that
on the nose, but yeah, you know, like that's what
I'm saying, like the result of greed or hubrist or something. Yeah,
I mean, this stuff could be like a set or something,

(01:36:06):
but I still think it looks kind of impressive and cool.

Speaker 3 (01:36:09):
Yeah, this stuff, I don't mind. It's the inside the
cave stuff just looks a little too a little to
channel fifty syndication, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:36:19):
Agreed.

Speaker 3 (01:36:21):
See, once she got a taste of that laser.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
Yeah, but she do we ever introduce this weapon because
they want the.

Speaker 3 (01:36:32):
No, that's the funny thing.

Speaker 1 (01:36:34):
Yes, because the diamond is supposed to be for like
a telecom that's satellite.

Speaker 3 (01:36:38):
It's like her pulling out a lightsaber in the third act.

Speaker 1 (01:36:41):
Yes, yes, what, Well, because it would make sense if
the dad, who's clearly evil, yeah, knew this and maybe
even one of the diamonds, like yeah, telecom whatever, like, actually,
we have a contract with the military these weapons you
don't know about. Laura Lenny would be opposed to it. Yes,
So why does she have this weapon? Why does she
even know that?

Speaker 3 (01:37:00):
This is? No she like jury rigged, like she like
mcguibird a laser?

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
Oh did she?

Speaker 3 (01:37:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:37:06):
Okay, now this is this is.

Speaker 3 (01:37:10):
A thing that bugs me in movies in general, where
we see characters outrun lava. Sure, I'm like, you're not
outrunning lava.

Speaker 2 (01:37:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
Yeah, you know, I'm not an expert, but I know
enough to know that if if there's a lava flow
within you know your eye line, you're you're you're about
to be cooked.

Speaker 1 (01:37:30):
That's really funny. Well, I hope I never find out.

Speaker 3 (01:37:33):
Uh, well, don't go hiking on that mountain again.

Speaker 1 (01:37:35):
Well, you know, this is probably a part. Yeah, that's right,
this is probably a you know, part of the Congo book.
But that is interesting this writer Joe versus the volcano,
and then you have a whole volcano set piece at
the end of this too.

Speaker 3 (01:37:46):
There you go. Maybe that's why he signed on. He
just like this is his particular passion.

Speaker 1 (01:37:50):
Yeah, yeah, I know we mentioned Jerry Goldsmith, but I
don't know if you looked in the credits, did you
see that James Newton Howard was also credited.

Speaker 3 (01:37:59):
I didn't that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
Actually, I thought that was interesting, so I looked into it.
Goldsmith was brought on when this was being talked about
in the early eighties, okay, and when it was going
into production in the nineties, James Newton Howard was hired. Okay,
So he wrote I guess a tribal chant that was
earlier in the movie, but at some point he had
to back out of it, out of the movie, and

(01:38:22):
Goldsmith was brought back, so he ultimately did the majority
of the score. But James Newton Howard has some work
in the movie.

Speaker 3 (01:38:30):
Oh that's okay. Goldsmith would always come through in a
clutch man. They'd be like you got, you got, you
got six days, and he'd be like, step aside, let
the maestro work.

Speaker 1 (01:38:40):
Yeah, and it's a great score.

Speaker 3 (01:38:41):
I think it is.

Speaker 1 (01:38:42):
You know, it's funny. I was flipping channels the other
night and I saw this movie. I wonder if other
people have nostalgia for this, but it was very terrible.
It was called Mom and Dad Saved the World. I think, okay,
my Mom and Dad said the Galaxy or something. It
was Terry Garr Jeffrey Jones. Famously, John Lovettz was fired
from SNL for being in that movie, and so I
just kind of knew what it was, and so I

(01:39:02):
stopped on it and I was like, this movie looks bad,
Like the production value is very bad. I was like,
what is this score? The score is like not terrible
and so curiosity IMDb. Harry Goldsmith Jerry Goldsmith, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
I mean, my man was cranking stuff out in the nineties. Yeah,
like if it was an action movie, easily, you know,
better than than than the forty chance that it was
Jerry Goldsmith.

Speaker 1 (01:39:29):
You know, yeah, he's solid.

Speaker 3 (01:39:30):
Yeah. I love Horner. You know, they were doing a
lot in the nineties, you know, Oh, Man Horner RP.

Speaker 1 (01:39:38):
He's a rip legend. I love her, like shooting a
satellite from space just with this like thing like take this,
you know they like like.

Speaker 3 (01:39:53):
Well, and I love that. Jodn Baker Man, he's just
he's in. He's in that one one tier. What about
the diamond, my diamond diamond?

Speaker 1 (01:40:03):
Yeah, yeah, she even has to like spelled out this
was never about your son, screwmas On. Where's the diamond?

Speaker 3 (01:40:09):
My diamond's my real son. I never loved him anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:40:14):
I just love the idea of like being able to
like a lock onto a satellite from like the ground,
and just.

Speaker 3 (01:40:21):
I feel like people knew enough in the nineties to
know that was probably not realistic and they're like we don't.

Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
Care, or like I wouldn't want to stand next to her.
That feels like there'd be a lot of firepower.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
Possibly.

Speaker 1 (01:40:36):
Well, now we get the sad goodbye. Amy wants a boyfriend.

Speaker 3 (01:40:41):
And yet it's it's it's a better life for her.

Speaker 1 (01:40:44):
I hope, I gotta be honest. I mean, these silver
Backs seem kind of welcoming, but she is not conditioned
for the wilds. That's a good point, right, She's been
fed food out of coolers and sedated when anything scary happened.

Speaker 3 (01:41:00):
And bananas with pills in them.

Speaker 1 (01:41:02):
Yeah, well, wearing three D glasses with her buds drinking.

Speaker 3 (01:41:06):
She asks for martini. They had the downhill pretty fast, and.

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
That would actually be funny, and you know, asking for
martini and the other ones like what's a martini and
she's like no, And then we just cut back to
the humans in their hot air balloon. Like that's the
end of that chapter.

Speaker 3 (01:41:26):
Oh man, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:41:30):
I mean I can understand people being like, oh, it's weird.
They love each other. Nah, this is very sweet to me.

Speaker 3 (01:41:36):
The Peter Amy stuff, I totally track with me too.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
Yeah, me too. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:41:46):
The the you know, it's convenient that the volcano erupted
just in time to wipe out any evidence of the
lost city of Zinge. You know it was it laid
dormant for god knows how long. But again, we just
we just needed that pulling the cork scene with Tim Curry.
That would have.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
Pulling the cork that should be added, like jump the shark,
you know, like cork Like that means like, oh, they
had an opportunity to do something they didn't capitalize on
the should.

Speaker 3 (01:42:19):
Have pulled the cork. Now this Now, the thought I
had with this is why would they assume that they
won't get shot down?

Speaker 1 (01:42:30):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:42:31):
Here right back in the air, yes, right. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:42:34):
I was also thinking it's funny because they're like, let's
see where the wind takes us. And then my brain
was like, hilarious if the wind was blowing them toward
the volcano and they're.

Speaker 3 (01:42:41):
Like, ah, okay, now explain to me why she throws
why she has the diamond thrown away?

Speaker 1 (01:42:49):
There's no point, man, They went through so much, right,
I would benefit from it down there.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
I was thinking about that. I was like, that doesn't
make sense.

Speaker 1 (01:42:58):
No, they're not stealing from culture, they're not stealing from
like a museum. You may as well keep that as
some sort of like I don't know, benefit out of
this entire thing.

Speaker 3 (01:43:09):
Yeah, I I. He was so baffling to me because
I'm like, a better button would have been, yes, one
of the characters finding it and like oh look here
you go.

Speaker 1 (01:43:20):
Yeah, you know, and like maybe the you know, the
gorilla program you know that doctor Peter had was like
losing its funding, you know, something like yeah, it benefits
them in some way. That's noble right something.

Speaker 3 (01:43:35):
You know, you have them to look at the volcano
and be like, you know, it's like like it never existed,
and then you know it holds up a diamond. Monroe
maybe he's like, are you sure about that? You know,
kind of totally, and maybe he Monroe finds it and
he just tosses it to Peter something like that, like
he doesn't need it.

Speaker 1 (01:43:51):
You're making me. You give me that feel where I'm
getting like giddy and I'm like, zactly, I want to
write a movie with you. This would be so much fun,
just spitball in a room.

Speaker 3 (01:43:59):
I'd love it. Well, I love I love workshopping when
we watch this stuff, you know, mm hmmmm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:44:07):
Well, okay, so now we're watching the credits. I really
wasn't exactly sure how I felt after first viewing this
was a blast. I could see now I have like
sort of a familiarity with it and I know what
it is, and I can kind of laugh at parts
and also be like, oh, that part's not so bad,
and I can see it being one of those movies
where if I was flipping channels like oh, this part's

(01:44:29):
like kind of fun and stopping on it where I
had no relationship with this before.

Speaker 3 (01:44:34):
So I'm yeah, I'm very curious about that. So so
when you first watched it like two days ago, you're
just like, what what did I just watch?

Speaker 1 (01:44:48):
Kind of I mean, it just felt like.

Speaker 3 (01:44:51):
Real quick under featuring we have ad Wale, right, and
that's that's mister Echo. Oh and he's got a very
elaborate last name. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:45:00):
I was going to say, they don't even give you.

Speaker 3 (01:45:01):
He's like share and I'm like, yeah, I was like, hey,
I guess I guess that's all you need is just
the one name. Yeah, is Jimmy Buffett as the seventy
seven pilot.

Speaker 1 (01:45:10):
Yeah, sorry, you were saying, oh, no, no, no, no, I
just yeah, I just I was like, oh, Frank Welker
of course naturally making the gorilla noises.

Speaker 3 (01:45:18):
Of course Amy's voice. By the way, they they initially
were were thinking of Kim Basinger, what which like that
would sound kind of horny probably right, See.

Speaker 1 (01:45:31):
That's yes, that's where it would have gone wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:45:34):
Yeah, so they did the right, the right approach to that.

Speaker 1 (01:45:38):
You know, Oh, Peter, yeah, Peter, it makes me a
martini like that'd be I don't know, I don't know
about that one.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
Okay, sorry you were saying no, no, no, I just yeah,
I was.

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
I was confused, like I said, with the ciskel Kniebert
inside of me, kind of arguing over is this CAMPI
in fun? Or is this just a bad movie?

Speaker 3 (01:45:59):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:46:00):
Is this like I just didn't know because I was
quite prepared. Yeah, but now I kind of see it
for it's kind of all the above, and it does
make it charming in its own way. Yeah, as an artifact,
I would say, I don't know that I would recommend,
like I'm going to leave this room and then go
tell my brother, like, you know, you should watch the Night.

Speaker 3 (01:46:19):
No, no, no, Hey, I would agree with that. I I
I definitely I look at this and and just as
our conversation you know, alludes to, you know, I see
the ways it could have potentially been a more engrossing adaptation. Again,
not having read the book, I should say, but but yeah,
it was. It was of its time, and you know,

(01:46:40):
I always say, like, you know, there there there was
room in the marketplace for something that was a little
off kilter like this totally and and even in its imperfections,
I mean it's it's you know, it allows us to
have a conversation like this where you know, we laugh
and I think that's that's a good thing, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
I agree, And and to your point earlier, if I
was ten or something and saw this for the first time,
I could totally imagine it, yeah, imprinting on me in
a certain sort of way, and then years later watching
it for fun to be nostalgic.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
Yep. By the way, we should say orchestrations by Alexander Courage.
Alexander Courage, of course, wrote the Star Trek original television
series theme Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:47:27):
He used to work with Goldsmith a lot. He would
he would, you know, take take the music that Goldsmith
wrote and tweak it or whatever. And sometimes he would
conduct his orchestras too.

Speaker 4 (01:47:40):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:47:40):
That's cool. But hey, that's our thoughts on Congo. And
let us know what you think about not only the
film but what we have to say. You know, Like
I said, We've gotten many requests for this one over
the years, so I'd love to hear the thoughts from
from our listeners. You can you can emails those thoughts
at Movie Film Podcast at gmail dot com. You can
also hit like on our Facebook paid Facebook dot com
Slash Movie Film Podcast and message us there as always.

(01:48:03):
If you like what we're doing, please go to Apple
Podcasts and leave review, leave a star rating. Every little
bit helps and oh, we also have a Patreon page.

Speaker 1 (01:48:10):
Right, that's right. If you head over to patreon dot
com slash moviefilm podcast and hit subscribe for only five
dollars a month, you'll find every commentary we've ever done
in every episode moving forward, absolutely ad free. Our free
feed will always be available, but this is our way
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(01:48:32):
your subscription goes a long way and helping to support
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you're interested in able, please head over to Patreon dot
com slash moviefilm podcast and hit subscribe. We'd be very grateful.

Speaker 3 (01:48:45):
There we go, and with that on behalf of my
partner Brian Home. My name is Zachison. This has been
our commentary track for Congo. Thank you all for listening.
We'll catch you next time.

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