“That gorilla has seen the city of Zinj. And she will take us there”

It was understandable, in the wake of the massive success of Jurassic Park, that movie studios would be falling over themselves to see what Michael Crichton books they either had an option on, or could get the rights to. In time, Warner Bros would go on to make Sphere and Disclosure (a film we looked at here) to varying degrees of success. Fox would adapt Rising Sun. But also out of the traps was Paramount Pictures, which greenlit an adaptation of Crichton’s novel, Congo.

It would be fair to say that Congo was made at a point where CG hadn’t yet taken hold, in spite of the rampaging dinosaurs of Jurassic Park debuting on screen two years earlier. In fact, the mid- to late-90s was arguably the turning point, as CG moved higher and higher up the priority ladder. When Frank Marshall came to make Congo though, this was still at a time when you’d hire Stan Winston to do the gorillas, and where practical effects were still winning in the cinematic arm wrestling match with computers.

Time has not been kind to Congo, though. At the time of writing, its IMDB score stands at 4.9 out of 10. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 22%. Even reviews at the time sneered at the film. And, in truth, there’s an awful lot wrong with Congo. But, with my flameproof jacket on, I’ve always had a soft spot for it. And, on rewatching the film in preparation for this piece, I still have that very same spot. Because I can’t think of too many other big blockbusters in the 1990s that were as outright barmy as this one. Thus, while the whole thing looks more than a little dated, its core of sheer fun is very much in tact.