There's a part where one of the gray gorillas
loses its arm from this laser. That's probably
the campiest part of the whole movie. And also
Laura Lenny's line where she says, put them on
the endangered species list right before she
like mows down the gorillas with the laser. Sublime.
I love that part so much. Hello and welcome to
Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast. We're your
hosts, Matt Levine. And Vincent Hannum. And we're
talking about all of our favorite monster movies,
the good, the bad, and the downright campy, and
asking if they stand the test of time. Traditional
kaiju, creature features, space invaders, the
supernatural, and everything in between. All
strange beasts are welcome here. Camp Kaiju is
sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered
by Coldwell Banker Realty. Your source for real
estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor
clients and residential buyers. Reach out to
the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact
the Zach Pack for investment opportunities. Link
in the show notes. for the world's most advanced
communications technology. A shocking discovery
has been made. What was that? Lock your remote.
Give me a thermal reading result to 6 -6. It
will take two young scientists into the heart
of the African jungle. Where a secret hidden
for 2 ,000 years holds the key to the future.
This is Karen Ross. 1 -4 -5 -2, Houston, do you
read? You used to work for the CIA, and now you're
tropical. Some will come to it for science. This
is a big deal, Charles. This is a big fight.
Some for fortune. A diamond mine of incredible
bounty. And some to return home. She doesn't
really belong anywhere, does she? No, she belongs
here. Together, they will search. My boss, he
thought I wasn't going to make it. He sent another
expedition. Drawn deep into a mystery. Camp destroyed,
people dead, a gray gorilla or something. No
such thing as a gray gorilla. Well, I saw one.
And the more they discover. The same hieroglyphics
over and over. The greater the danger. What do
they say? We are watching you. See, they're smart.
They're too damn smart. Watch out! Go! We're
getting out of here. What about them? Put them
on the endangered species list. From the best
-selling novel by the author of Jurassic Park.
The myth of the killer ape is true. Congo. Where
you are the endangered species. Vincent, how
you doing? Oh, so good. Here we are. Season five,
part two, Hot Shots. And we are beginning this
crazy second half of 2025 with Congo celebrating
its 30th anniversary. Yeah, almost exactly. I
think this came out in like late July of 95.
Oh my gosh. Why aren't they getting back to us?
The cast. Laura Linney, where are you? Yeah.
Bruce Campbell, like he hasn't returned any of
our hundreds of phone calls that we left for
him. Come on. We just want to get you on the
pod, you know? Bruce. Talk to me, baby. Come
on. That seems like the kind of thing Bruce Campbell
would say, actually. Yeah. Yeah. I just have
to say right off the bat, I did not know Bruce
Campbell was in this movie. I actually did a
double take and I had to like lean forward at
first and think, is that really Bruce Campbell?
My man, it was so good. Yeah, it's a fun kind
of cameo. Hopefully that's not too much of a
spoiler, but he's a small role in this movie,
but it's very fun to see him almost right off
the bat. Yeah, yeah. We'll talk more about the
cast in the movie, but lots of heavy hitters
in this one. For sure. How are you doing? I'm
doing well. We are recording this on the last
day of July, although this probably will be released
in early to mid -August. Summer's flying by,
but it's mostly pretty good. Totally, totally.
So August is August Bites here at Cam Kaiju.
You know, it's the dog days of summer. It's getting
a little hot out there. Maybe you're getting
a little anxious about going back to school for
all you students and teachers out there. And
you're just thinking August can be great, but
sometimes August bites. And we're here to provide
you some animals that may. bite your head off
what's the featured animal in congo well there
are there's a good gorilla amy good gorilla there
are some other good gorillas as well but then
there are some vicious predatory bloodthirsty
ancient unknown apes in this movie as well that
may bite your head off and it's great if they're
not mowed down with a laser gun before that Yeah.
Put them on the endangered species list. Yep.
I'm getting a little ahead of ourselves. Sorry.
But there's so much fun stuff about this movie.
It is basically a killer ape movie, but I don't
know. The story is kind of weird. It's like a
secret primitive race of apes, which does not
sound good when I say it out loud. And I'm sure
we'll dig into some of those issues in the movie
as well. Yeah. Yeah. What movie are you bringing
to Camp Kaiju for our next episode? Oh, next
coming up in two weeks will be Jaws 2, the sequel
starring Roy Scheider and directed by, I know
he was the second unit director on Jaws. Nope,
I am wrong about what I just said. Nick's what
I just said. Jaws 2 is directed by Jeannot Swark.
Check my pronunciation on that. Just alphabet
soup of. that this man's name is, but he's a
French director. Oh, he just died this past year.
Okay, well, we're going to talk about him and
his career next time on Jaws 2 here at Camp Kaiju.
I can't wait. I saw that movie a long time ago,
and this director, whose name I also don't know
how to pronounce, Jeannot Schwark? I don't know
if that's right, but I've heard that name a lot
before, and I would like to learn a little bit
more about him. I'll have to brush up before
our next recording. You ought to. And everyone
out there, brush up on your jaws. Get it? Yeah.
Brush your jaws. Brush your jaws. Yeah, remember
to floss, too. So many bad jokes already. This
is a perfect way to kick off Season 5, Part 2
with all of the bad jokes we can possibly provide.
Woo! Yep, that's how we do it. I'm curious, have
you seen the new Jurassic World movie yet? I
have not, because I am terrible at getting out
to the theaters. But, you know, I hear mixed
to positive reviews, actually. So, you know,
I'm not an eager beaver. I was burned by Jurassic
World Dominion pretty bad. With that said, as
soon as it's streaming, I will watch it. And
I will save my judgment until then. Yeah, I've
heard good things too, and I'm actually pretty
excited about it, despite how much I disliked
the last few Jurassic World movies. This one
looks pretty good, and I might try to hit the
theater sometime soon, so we'll have to get on
that. Nice, get on that. What is Shockwaves?
Yeah, Shockwaves is an older movie from 77, I
believe. It just played at the Trilon. The plot
can be summed up in two words, zombie Nazis.
And I feel like a lot of monster movie fans out
there probably know about it. It's really weird.
It's like a slow burn, dreamlike, surreal, low
budget, schlocky horror movie about, again, zombie
Nazis. So check it out. It's not playing at the
trial on anymore, but it's a weird, maybe not
good, but very interesting movie. Okay. Okay.
Yeah. You had me at zombie Nazis. Yeah. We were
talking before the recording started. You've
seen some monster movies recently as well, especially
of the Italian horror variety. Oh, yeah. I saw
Demons. I saw, which was not a Dario Argento
picture, but was he involved? He was a producer,
maybe? I think he was, yeah. And if I remember
right, that was directed by Lamberto Bava, who
is Mario Bava's son, but I could be wrong about
that. Yes, and I need to do my homework on Mario
Bava, too. Homework like it's a chore. No, I
need to do my deep dive into Baba's work. But
yeah, I like to go down rabbit holes when I watch
movies. So Demons led me to Suspiria. Well, Demons,
I got to Demons via Zombie or Dawn of the Dead
2 as it was released originally in Italy, which
is wild to me. that the Italians were like, yeah,
this is a sequel to Dawn of the Dead. Like, no,
it has nothing to do with Dawn of the Dead. Let's
just slap that name on there and exploit that
a little bit. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
I've actually heard from a certain listener,
Jonathan Rasmussen. I know you're listening,
but Jonathan has asked us if and when we ever
get to zombie movies, he would love to be a part
of that episode. And I said, absolutely. It's
a genre we haven't covered as extensively as
I'd like to because there's so much out there.
Yeah, indeed. But hopefully soon to come on Camp
Kaiju. We'll see. But again, tonight we are talking
about Congo. Last time on Camp Kaiju, we talked
about Ebira Horror of the Deep for Kaijulai,
which was a fun episode. And then we announced
our Season 5 Part 2 titles. So check out that
little teaser if you haven't done so already.
Oh, yeah. And we've got some great feedback from
that episode I will share later on in Mania's
mailbox. Awesome. Before we get any further in
this episode, I do just want to cover a couple
nuts and bolts here. We want to thank you all
again so much for hanging out with us. Please
rate and review Camp Kaiju wherever you listen.
You can also send us listener comments at campkaiju
at gmail .com. or on our Instagram page at camp
underscore kaiju underscore podcast. If you would
like to be a featured voice on the show, leave
us a voicemail at 612 -470 -2612, telling us
about all your favorite monster movies and memories.
Please also check out our website, campkaijupodcast
.com, for more reviews and special content. Also,
you can check out some merchandise, including
some awesome new shirts. at campkaiju .threadless
.com. Relatively new. Maybe not super new at
this point. And last but not least, please do
become a patron at patreon .com slash campkaiju
for discounts, priority comments, and access
to any live events we have coming up. Hopefully
more news about some of those events in the near
future. And on that subject, I just wanted to
give another very hearty thank you to our current
patrons, Jason, Beast Drool, Chris B., Sean,
Peggy, and our anonymous patron. Thank you all
so much. 100%. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We'd love to hear from you and get any comments
or questions or thoughts you all have on Menia's
mailbox. Indeed. Yeah. Can't wait to read your
thoughts and feedback. One thing I wanted to
mention real quick, I think we might have mentioned
this on the Eberra recording as well, but Shin
Godzilla, one of my favorite recent Godzilla
movies, will be re -released into theaters August
14th, so coming up pretty soon. If you have not
seen that, check it out. It is awesome. It's
a very unique, creative, complicated Godzilla
movie. I really love it. Love that complicated
Godzilla movie. That's true. Maybe not a complicated
movie, but there's a movie coming out August
21st that I keep seeing ads for. It's called
Primitive War. It is, let me read the brief synopsis
via Google here. During the Vietnam War, a recon
unit ventures to an isolated jungle valley to
uncover the fate of a missing platoon. They soon
find themselves in a fight for their lives against
an unexpected enemy, prehistoric dinosaurs. But
really, aren't all dinosaurs prehistoric? Yeah,
you would think so. Yep. Not the modern kind
of dinosaur, the prehistoric. Yeah, right. Not
historical dinosaurs, prehistoric dinosaurs.
That's pretty old. Dinosaurs are old. That's
our takeaway of the night. That sounds great.
I've seen like a teaser trailer for that movie
before, but I did not know the whole synopsis.
That sounds pretty cool. It looks like it's totally
riding the Jurassic Park coattails, but you know
what? Who cares? Let's get more dinosaur movies
that aren't Jurassic Park. That's all I want.
I just want more. As much as I love Jurassic
Park, I want other dinosaur movies. Yeah, totally.
Yep. Before we get into Congo itself, one of
my favorite features we do here on Camp Kaiju
is today or this month in monster movie history,
I have a list of movies, monster movies that
came out in early to mid -August on our Google
Doc here. Did any of those titles jump out at
you? Yes. Let me look at these. There's so many
good ones. Jason and the Argonauts, Frankenstein
Conquers the World, The Brain That Wouldn't Die,
Dinosaurus. Black Sunday. Is that a Mario Bava
film? It sure is. Yeah, it's a great one. We
are connecting dots here tonight. Yeah, I started
this movie last year and I never finished it,
but I was definitely riveted. It's just for its
time. It's 1960. It's black and white, but it's
gory. It's really visually visceral. I need to
go back and finish that. So this is me saying
to everybody, I will finish Black Sunday before
our next recording. Black Sunday is great. That's
the one that I was going to choose as well. Huge
Mario Bava fan. Really beautiful. Like you said,
very gory and intense, especially for 1960, which
in my opinion is the year that modern horror
began. That's the year of Psycho, Eyes Without
a Face, Peeping Tom, the British movie. Jigoku,
a really great Japanese horror movie. So 1960,
maybe my favorite year in movie history. Wow.
All right. But since you chose my title, let's
see which one am I going to come up with next?
I'm going to go with City of the Living Dead
from 1980, which is another Lucio Fulci movie.
I think it's the one that he made right before
The Beyond, which is very disgusting. And yeah,
City of the Living Dead, another like. Kind of
trashy, kind of sleazy, very gory zombie horror
movie, but like really stylish and entertaining
at the same time. So you're right. Everything
is connecting. Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci. It all
comes together. Zombies. I've heard of that movie,
too. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Good stuff. Yeah.
Again, tonight we are talking about the movie
Congo, directed by Frank Marshall from 1995.
Vincent, what is your history with this movie?
not long not extensive when we started this podcast
you mentioned it from time to time and in my
mind it was always in that wheelhouse of the
relic of the island of dr moreau from the 90s
species we've talked about this with on both
those episodes species and dr moreau how it seemed
like after jurassic park in the 90s there was
a there was a wave of monster movies related
to genetics and science gone awry, often featuring
like tropical, foreign, exotic, if you will,
lands. So I think Congo, which also is another
Michael Crichton novel, is right within that
wave of 90s movies that are so... That wouldn't
have never been made if not for the success of
Jurassic Park. Yeah, you're totally right about
that. Yeah. And I think there's something very
like comforting and very fun, almost kind of
innocent about some of those movies, even if
they have like very questionable themes sometimes.
But, you know, part of that, I think, is just
like the 90s were a different era of Hollywood
filmmaking than what we are in today. You know,
it's not all superhero movies. It's not all CGI.
I think there was maybe a little bit more imagination
back then. Things weren't all rosy and great.
There were some bad movies too, but it's fun
to look back on that time. And a lot of it is
just nostalgia too. Like I was 11 years old when
Congo came out. My friends and I watched it all
the time in middle school. Shout out to my friend
Chris who made a board game based on the movie
Congo, which is so much fun. Yeah. So we, we
loved this movie and like still reference it
all the time. And almost nobody ever knows what
we're talking about. Cause like, you know, nobody
really remembers this movie all that much anymore.
I love that, man. I, that's great because I have
movies like that too. And that, that if I showed
you, you'd be like, I don't get it. Not saying
that I don't get Congo, but maybe I don't have,
well, not maybe I am missing that nostalgia piece.
which might be important in understanding my
final rating for this movie. Fair enough. But
I get it. I get the appeal. Some of these lines
and the way they're delivered, they're just ripe
for the teenage mind to grab onto. Yeah. Absolutely.
And I mean, talk about camp. This movie really
puts the camp and camp kaiju. There's so much
campy humor in this movie. Most of it intentional,
I would say. All right. Some of it, maybe not
so much. Well, camp camp is both intentional
and unintentional. Yeah, indeed. Yeah, right.
It just depends. Just real quick with your you're
talking about 90s, you know, like you with the
lack of superhero movies, I think. Just to add
on to that, I think what the what the criticism
is today is that these studio movies, everything
that comes out is just it's just so franchise
heavy. Like everything is part of a universe,
part of a greater connection. And in the 90s
and I guess just before the 2010s, you didn't
have that. You just made a one off. Maybe if
you made a superhero movie, it was just like
a one and done thing. And now let's move on to
our, our Oscar drama and let's move on to our
stoner comedy, which I, you know, not saying
those don't exist now, but they were more common.
I feel like at the theaters. Yeah, I think so
too. And maybe looking back on things with rose
colored glasses or whatever, but like, yeah,
I think there was more imagination and like,
even if. you know, Hollywood studios still try
to, like, capitalize on, like, well -known names
or, like, entities or whatever. You know, like,
I think it's fair to say that Congo is a ripoff
of Jurassic Park, so there's a little bit of
that to it as well. But, like, still, I find
so much, like, imagination and humor and, like,
you know, visual beauty in a lot of these movies,
even the not great movies, that I just don't
see as much in movies that come out today. But
that makes me sound like just a grumpy old man.
So there's a lot of good stuff today, too, you
know. But I agree with you. And I think a lot
of people do as well. So let us know what you
think, everybody. Let us know. Yeah, indeed.
And I do love revisiting these 90s monster movies.
So excited to talk about Congo with you. The
Jennings family has just moved to the small town
of Canaan. Oh, Ross, smell that air. Oh, God.
In search of a simpler life. Want to blow up
a bullfrog? Okay. It's the perfect place. Goodbye
crime, goodbye grime. Except for one pesty little
problem. Come with me and look at the web. The
web? I have terrible fear of spiders. Come on,
we live in a country now. It's time to work through
this irrational, paralyzed terror. It's not irrational.
Hollywood Pictures and Amblin Entertainment present
Jeff Daniels. We're in the living room. We need
you to kill a spider. And John Goodman. I caused
just a spider. Would anybody object if I tore
this floor out? I would. False alarm, then leave
on. There's no spider here. Every so often in
a little town somewhere, there is a health scare.
There's a rumor going around that some kind of
spider might have killed Sam Metcalf. Spiders
make convenient pulp. There's no spider here.
I think one of your Venezuelan spiders hitched
a ride here. There may be some spiders around
here that are very dangerous. Yeah, chill out.
Just run. They spread out from a central nest
in a web -like pattern and dominate the entire
area. When that happens, this town is dead. Better
record my private stock. Hollywood Pictures and
Amblin Entertainment present Arachnophobia. Eight
legs, two fangs, and an attitude. Perk up, Lloyd.
If we find the spider that did this, you can
arrest him. Arachnophobia. A thrill -omedy. They
were orphaned from childhood. Promise me you'll
protect her. I promise. Best friends for life.
He's playing with you. Hide and seek. You found
me. Good thing Joe didn't want to play doctor.
You think he's okay back there? He's doing fine.
Now, after 20 years. Look at him. He won't eat.
If he stays in here, he'll die. Their greatest
adventure is about to begin. Oh, my God. All
right, Jose. Joe needs me. Once you meet him,
you'll never forget Joe! Disney's Mighty Joe
Young. Can you get him to put me down? Joe, drop
him. to Jurassic Park. We've made living biological
attractions so astounding that they'll capture
the imagination of the entire planet. The most
phenomenal discovery of our time How'd you do
that? becomes the greatest adventure of all time.
Can I touch it? Sure. Universal Pictures presents
You feel that? Hold on to your butts. A Steven
Spielberg film. Senses of failing all over the
park. Yeah, that's nice. Gotta go. An adventure.
Look out! No! I can't get Jurassic Park back
online. 65 million years in the making. Jurassic
Park. So let's dive into the crew a little bit.
The director, Frank Marshall. is probably a little
bit better known as a producer. He founded Amblin
Entertainment with his wife, Kathleen Kennedy,
and with Steven Spielberg in 1980. Frank Marshall
has produced a lot of movies by a lot of notable
directors. Spielberg, Bogdanovich, David Fincher,
M. Night Shyamalan, Robert Zemeckis, many others.
Some of his movies that he produced were the
Indiana Jones movies, Back to the Future, and
Jurassic Park. So he's kind of ripping his own...
product off here a little bit. But yeah, he's
a super producer for sure. But he's also directed
a couple of his own movies, including a film
that we've talked about in the podcast before.
Do you want to talk about that movie at all,
Vincent? Well, it's your favorite movie. So I
mean, it's arachnophobia, your favorite creature
of the animal kingdom. Yeah. And I think arachnophobia
and Congo are just so perfectly suited for comparing
and contrasting. Because we had criticisms about
the tone sometimes with arachnophobia, comedy
versus horror. And I think that question is going
to come back again even stronger with Congo for
me. Again, is this a comedy or a horror film?
Is it both? When is it the respective genre?
Yeah. Frank Marshall. What are you doing sometimes?
Yeah. A fair question, I think. Yeah. I would
say the emphasis is definitely on comedy over
horror in Congo, in my opinion, but we'll talk
about that more. Yeah, absolutely. The screenplay
is by John Patrick Shanley, a successful screenwriter
who wrote scripts for Moonstruck. That was his
second screenplay, and he won the Oscar for it,
as well as Joe vs. the Volcano and a couple other
movies. He's also a playwright. He's written
over 23 plays, including Doubt, which was made
into a movie. He also wrote the screenplay for
the film adaptation of Doubt as well. So a fairly
well -known name. I have to just say, this is
my background as an actor. John Patrick Shanley
is one of my favorite playwrights of all time.
I have a number of his plays on my shelf. He
has just a beautiful way of, not Doubt so much,
but his other works just have like a... A beautiful
sentimentality that's also grounded. It's just
like very sincere and kind of off kilter, but
always grounded. And I did not know he wrote
this movie until after I watched it. And I went,
John Patrick Shanley, I don't think this is your
genre, man. You don't find the grounded empathy
so much in this movie? Not so much, but I will
say it all made sense because there was an exchange
between the lead character, and I forget his
name, and Laura Linney, who I might have a crush
on. And the male protagonist says something about
the lonely impulse of delight as his reason for
pursuing this sign language experiment with the
gorilla. And like the script goes off into like
30 second tangent on this poetry by Yates. And
that's Shanley. And I'll catch the chase here.
John Patrick Shanley has a collection of plays
called A Lonely Impulse of Delight. He has a
play called A Lonely Impulse of Delight. Wow.
And now I went, if I ever meet John Patrick Shanley,
I'm going to tell him, sir, I watch Congo and
I see what you did there. That's, I had no idea.
That's amazing. I, you know, my background is
not really in theater or playwrights all that
much. So I love getting that insight. That's
fascinating. Just such a, such a obscure Easter
egg for acting nerds like me. Wow. That is so
cool. Yeah. You're right. That moment's really
out of place in this movie and in a good way,
I think. You know, maybe like little bits here
and there where like Laura Linney has like a
combative relationship with the father of her
ex -fiance, who also happens to be the CEO of
the company that she works for. And they have
this like little conflict where he's like, go
to the jungles of Africa to like find this diamond
that can create this communications invention
that will make us rich. the story's a little
preposterous. And she's like, oh, and also find
your son's body, right? Like, aren't you interested
in that too? And he's like, oh yeah, that also,
but the diamond. And like, you know, it's not
grounded by any means, but there's like a little
bit of that character dynamic that's momentarily,
it provides some conflict, you know? Maybe not
at the level of John Patrick Shanley's other
plays though, or plays in general. It did provide,
no, it gave conflict. I don't know if it provided
conflict. It's the barest semblance of a plot
device, perhaps. That's a better way to put it.
All right. Fair enough. I'm being too kind to
this movie, perhaps. Well, it is. We'll go on.
Yeah. More on that later. It is based on a book
by Michael Crichton. Of course, Crichton also
wrote the book Jurassic Park and many other extremely
well -known novels that eventually were turned
into movies. The Andromeda Strain. Sphere, Rising
Sun, many others. You know, I would say he's
like kind of in the Stephen King stratosphere
of like celebrity authors. And there aren't probably
too many of those. Unfortunately, there should
be more of them. But he didn't really have much
to do with the making of Congo, but he did write
the book that it's based on. He did. Did he not
have a hand in the screenplay? Well, initially
he did. We'll maybe talk about this more in the
production backstory. He had like the initial
idea that gave rise to the project. But in the
finished version, he basically had nothing to
do with the screenplay or almost anything else
in the movie. Hey, great. See, John Patrick,
this is on you, brother. It's all Shanley. And,
you know, it is based on the Crichton book. So
there's he's he had a role in that way. But yeah.
Just real quick, there are some big names in
the rest of the crew of the movie, so I wanted
to talk about them a little bit as well. The
cinematographer is Alan Daviau, who worked with
Spielberg a lot in the 80s, actually, before
Spielberg started working with Janusz Kaminski
pretty much all the time. He worked with Alan
Daviau on E .T., The Color Purple, and Empire
of the Sun. You know, pretty big names, obviously.
Daviau also shot Harry and the Hendersons, Defending
Your Life, and Bugsy, among some other movies.
So a pretty big cinematographer in the 80s and
90s. The editor is Annie Coates. Sorry, Anne
Coates. She won an Oscar for editing Lawrence
of Arabia, just a little movie some of you may
have heard of. She also edited such classics
as The Horse's Mouth. Beckett, The Elephant Man,
Out of Sight, Aaron Brockovich, and many others.
Yeah, big name there. Yeah. Other big names.
Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, music is by Jerry Goldsmith.
We talked about him last season. He scored Gremlins.
But here he is directing Congo. He has scored
over 200 films and TV programs. Just look at
his Wikipedia page. As Matt, you say, a ridiculous
list of well -known projects. Yeah. I started
listing all of them on the Google Doc, and I
was like, well, just look it up. I mean, it's
an absurd list of movies and TV shows that everybody
knows about. Jerry Goldsmith probably did the
music for it. It's incredible. Another big name,
last big name that we'll talk about on the crew
is Stan Winston, of course, an extremely well
-known special effects designer and makeup designer.
We've talked about him numerous times on the
podcast. He had just won an Oscar for his work
on Jurassic Park two years before Congo. Yeah,
tries to duplicate that success here. We'll talk
a little bit more about his special effects later
in the episode. Yeah. For whatever that's worth.
Some big names in the cast, too. You mentioned
you might have a little bit of a crush on Laura
Linney. Do you want to talk about her at all?
I mean, look up her Wikipedia page. No, no. I
mean, I don't know her extensive work, but...
My two favorite things she's in, she plays Abigail
Adams in the HBO miniseries John Adams opposite
Paul Giamatti. She's incredible in that. It's
when I first got to know her. Got to know her.
We're friends. And then she's just so much fun
in The Truman Show. Yeah. Jim Carrey's wife.
Truman Show is great. She's wonderful in that
movie. Yeah. She just has like a really wonderful
screen presence. Like she can drop it in and
be really tough as nails. While also being like
having a really sweet persona, blonde, blue eyes,
kind of a, you know, a gentle face. But if you
cross her again, she can be very tough as nails.
So she kind of brings that same energy here.
She plays Karen Ross, a communications expert.
Yeah. So here she is doing her thing. Yeah. I
really love her performance in You Can Count
on Me, which is from the early 2000s. Mark Ruffalo
is in that movie as well. Kind of a quiet, slow
-paced drama, like a family drama. But she's
really incredible, as is Mark Ruffalo. Very,
very good movie. She's really good in Kinsey.
She's great in a lot of stuff. Excuse me. Sorry.
Well, that's all right. The cast also features
Dylan Walsh as primatologist Peter Elliott. He's
kind of well -known from Nip Tuck, the TV show.
I feel like maybe he didn't have as huge of a
film career as some of the other names in this
cast, but here he is in Congo. I feel like my
favorite performance in this movie, I don't know
how you feel about this, but Ernie Hudson plays
Captain Monroe Kelly, who's kind of like the
adventurer who leads this motley crew of scientists
congolese jungle and he's great he's very charismatic
in this movie two things another another nerd
alert here for theater folks but also we have
a minnesota alert ernie hudson did live in minneapolis
for a spell in the 70s i believe and here is
some twin cities theater lore you ready so those
of you don't know In Minneapolis, there is a
very well -known community theater called Theater
in the Round Players. I think they're in their
80 -something season. So they've been around
for almost a century. Now, they are community
theater. They're in the heart of the city, surrounded
by a number of for -profit theaters. But they
are community theater, which means they do not
pay their actors. For right or wrong, that's
just the way community theater works, right?
Ernie Hudson was in a play. at Theater on the
Round in the 1970s called The Great White Hope,
which is a play from the 70s. It's a boxing drama.
And yes, he does refer to himself as the Great
White Hope in Congo as well. So, John Patrick
Stanley, I see you again. In the Twin Cities
theater lore, Ernie Hudson is the only actor
to have ever been paid at Theater on the Round.
Because he was cast and then he said, no, I'm
going to quit unless you pay me. And he was just
a nobody actor. He was just trying to support
his family in Minneapolis. And apparently Theater
in the Round acquiesced and gave him money. So
when I moved to the Twin Cities as an actor,
I heard this story. Ernie Hudson's the only actor
to get paid at Theater in the Round. That's amazing.
Money well spent. I mean, I'm sure he was he
was deserving of it, you know? Absolutely. He's
so much fun. Ghostbusters aside. I mean, again,
he just brings a very sincere warmth, I think,
to his performances. Yeah, I think he's clearly
having fun in the role. He actually said it in
an interview that this was his favorite role
that he ever played in a movie anyway, which
is surprising. I think. Yeah, because, you know,
I mean, he's been in other better movies and
TV shows, but I mean, he's clearly having fun
here and it's a lot of fun to watch him in this
movie. Yeah, yeah. And I will talk about this
more, but and you alluded to this, Vincent, but
like the character type that he's playing is
like the great white hunter who like ventures
into the jungles of, you know, Africa and like
conquers nature and like is more powerful than
everybody else. And like. I feel like Ernie Hudson
knows the power and the kind of intentionality
of like having him play this role. I think the
role, the line that you alluded to, he says like,
I'm the great white hunter who also happens to
be black. And it's just, it's one of the more,
it's not like brilliant or anything, but it's
one of the more clever lines in the movie, I
would say. Yeah. And along those lines, they
come across a group of natives in the jungle
and they. The natives are taken aback that the
leader of the expedition is Ernie Hudson, a black
man. And Hudson says to the white members of
his crew, he says, they're laughing because the
leaders are usually white. And they didn't believe
that I would be leading you all. Again, I don't
think it's like the most profound line, but I
do think it is more clever than a lot of other
lines in this movie. Yeah, that's a backhanded
compliment. But yeah, I would agree with that.
No, you're right. I think the movie is at least
aware of some of those tropes and tries very
lazily to like subvert them a little bit, you
know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's good. And yeah,
Ernie Hudson is a delight to see in this movie.
Yeah, for sure. Lots of other big names in the
cast as well. Maybe we'll just kind of blaze
through the rest of these real quick. Tim Curry,
the legendary Tim Curry, stars as Herkimer Homolka,
which is maybe my favorite character name of
all time. Really love that name, Herkimer Homolka.
Tim Curry's great in this movie. You have Joe
Don Baker as the CEO of Travacom. I know him
most of all from several different James Bond
movies. He's always a fun presence. Do you want
to talk about a couple of the actors here as
well? Sure. I just want to say Tim Curry, I don't
know, maybe to a generation best known for Home
Alone 2, Lost in New York. But no, more importantly,
his role as Dr. Frankenfurter in the Rocky Horror
Picture Show is iconic. And if you haven't seen
that movie, it is also celebrating its 50th anniversary
this year and is just an iconic piece of filmmaking.
So plug there for that. Yeah, that's a good point.
My favorite Tim Curry performance is as the devil
in the movie Legend by Ridley Scott. I actually
really love that movie. My favorite Ridley Scott
movie, maybe except for Alien. But Legend is
awesome. And Tim Curry is so cool in that movie.
Yeah, big Curry fan there. What are we talking
about? We're talking about Delroy Lindo as Captain
Wanta. Uncredited for some reason, but the same
year he also starred in the excellent Spike Lee
movie Clockers. We have Joe Pantoliono. He was
in The Fugitive, Bad Boys, The Matrix. Oh, that's
right. Baby's Day Out. Don't forget. I was going
to put that on here and then I was like, why
would I put that on here? Who cares about that
movie? Apparently I was wrong. Sorry, Vincent.
Who cares about Baby's Day? Who cares about The
Matrix? No. Come on. I just want. Sorry, I hit
a nerve there. No, I like The Matrix. I just
revisited it. And yeah, he's really. He's really
a villain, like dastardly in that movie, like
in a bad way. He's like, he's a bad, he's a bad
man. He plays a good weasel. Yeah, he does. That's
the word. Great weasel. Also small roles for
John Hawks. I don't know how to pronounce this
name. Yeah. Who's well known from a lot of TV
shows like Lost and Oz and some other shows.
He has a small role here. Yeah. Long time stage
actor as well. I was a big Lost fan in the day,
so I recognized him and was a fan. But Bruce
Campbell, we have yet to talk about it. This
is our first Bruce Campbell movie on Camp Kaiju.
Wow. I guess you're right. Weird. I guess it
might have been better for a different Bruce
Campbell movie to be our first one that we talk
about on Camp Kaiju. But it's, yeah, we might
have briefly mentioned his name before. He has
a small cameo at the beginning. And I feel like
that's kind of just like throwing a bone to the
monster movie fans, the horror fans in the audience,
you know, to see him right away. Yeah, yeah.
Horror icon. The Evil Dead series. He's in an
offbeat movie called Bubba Hotep. He's just he's
he's a legend in his own time. And he's I actually
follow him on Instagram or some like official
Bruce Campbell account. But he's always talking
at conventions about these movies and about Hollywood.
And, you know, I think I think he also has some
insight because like he never made it as an A
-lister. He's very well suited for these types
of supporting roles that you see in Congo. Where
he's a little goofy, he's a little charming,
but he's also a hunk, you know? So he's not,
yeah, like he looks like a leading man, but he
has the energy of a supporting player. That's
a great way to put it, yeah. I feel like the
Evil Dead movies were really perfect for him
because like they just suit, like the sense of
humor in those movies suits his. persona so well.
Those are the only movies where he could play
the lead and get away with it. In Congo, he auditioned
for the Dylan Walsh character, the primatologist,
who's the main male lead in the movie. He was
not cast in that role, but he did have this two
-minute cameo at the beginning. For a movie like
this, that's probably the ideal usage for him.
At the same time, and this is me jumping ahead
a little bit, I feel like the actor who plays
Peter, Dylan Walsh. I feel like he, unfortunately,
is forgettable amidst this ensemble of either
kooky characters like Tim Curry, like Ernie Hudson.
Laura Linney's not kooky, but she has tremendous
screen presence. And I feel like Dylan Walsh
just kind of gets lost. I mean, he's certainly
upstaged by his gorilla. yeah which is hilarious
so so i don't know i don't know maybe maybe for
me bruce campbell in that role while he would
have been over the top maybe that's the energy
i i wanted more of from this character the dylan
wall yeah i think that's fair his character the
dylan walsh character is very bland and forgettable
in this movie i think he's kind of meant to be
like the emotional anchor a little bit like he
has this very sincere relationship with amy the
gorilla that he communicates with and has this
kind of father -daughter relationship with almost
but yeah i mean it's just kind of boring and
like with everything else going on it's like
who cares about this guy let's get back to like
the killer apes you know yeah so i agree with
you yeah but if bruce campbell had played that
role it almost might have been like too much
like everything in this movie would have been
like over the top you know i also agree with
that statement so i don't know man I would like
to see that version of this movie. It probably
would have been pretty awesome. We'll never know.
I did just want to mention real quick that there
is also a team of actors in the creature suits
playing Amy the gorilla and the other gorillas
as well. So it's not purely animatronic. Some
of them are actors in suits. And I think it comes
off pretty well. I do too. Great special effects.
And something that today would be CGI. Yeah.
And I think you lose something. the tangibility
going the computer route. Exactly. Yep. I, I've,
you know, made my opinions about that clear many
times on Camp Kaiju, but I, this, this movie
reminds me of that again. And like, you know,
I see the CGI and like Godzilla X Kong, whatever
the full title of that movie is. And it's like,
yeah, give me an actor in a suit over CGI any
day. Yeah. In my day. Yeah. I'll, I'll leave
it at that. So diving into the production backstory
of the film a little bit, as I mentioned earlier,
Michael Crichton did come up with the idea for
Congo. It actually started with a movie from
1978 called The First Great Train Robbery that
Crichton wrote and directed, and it was based
on his own novel. So he played a major role in
that movie. Sean Connery was in that one. That
movie did pretty well, so Crichton wanted to
work with Sean Connery again. He came up with
an idea to kind of update. King Solomon's Mines,
the 1885 novel for a modern setting. And he wanted
Connery to play this kind of great white hunter
inspired by the Alan Quartermain character from
that book. Creighton also said he was interested
in new sign language communication techniques
used with primates around that time. So that
was where the genesis of the idea first came
from in the late 1970s. He actually did pitch
that idea to 20th Century Fox, and they wanted
to make it. They were ready to give him the money,
especially with Sean Connery attached. But they
would not let Crichton use an actual gorilla
in the role of Amy. And that apparently was a
deal breaker for Crichton. So he was like, nope,
not going to do it. If I can't have a real gorilla,
I'm out of this project. So he did step away.
He did write the book Congo, which was published
in 1980. seems like kind of a weird hell to die
on to me. I know it was the late seventies slash
early eighties, but you know, you had movies
like King Kong, you had like special effects
was like advancing pretty rapidly at the time.
So it just seems weird to me that he would step
away for that reason. It does. Does he, I mean,
we'll get into this. I will get into this with
some of my criticisms later on, but I, you know,
a real gorilla might not be the. Easiest animal
to handle on set, Michael Crichton. Yeah. There
might be a reason they're not used in movies.
I don't know. I'm not trying to make fun of Michael
Crichton, but it's like... I feel like he was
just like, oh, it'll be fine. I can do it. I've
never worked with gorillas before, but I'm a
movie director. I can do anything like I. Yeah,
like I feel like the studio might have made the
right decision in that case. Almost definitely.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, Michael Crichton turns
out all right in the end. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He's
doing OK for himself. 20th Century Fox did still
want to move ahead with the production of the
film, though. Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter
were both attached to direct very briefly in
the early 80s, but those plans kind of fell apart
and it just never really got off the ground in
the 80s. Yeah. Do you want to talk a little bit
about the production after Frank Marshall got
on board? Sure. Frank Marshall revitalized the
projects in the 1990s, perhaps inspired by the
success of Jurassic Park. And although Crichton
was publicized as the film's co -writer, he had
little to no involvement with it. Filming took
place mostly in California, with limited footage
shot in Costa Rica, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.
Stan Winston's team designed the suits and animatronics
for Amy, the gray gorillas, a .k .a. those mutant...
No, they're not mutant gorillas so much, but
they're the bloodthirsty, vicious gorillas at
the end. And the hippopotamus! Yeah, their boats
get attacked by hippos, which is a wild scene,
and the hippos are all puppets or animatronics,
which is fun. I've never seen hippos attack in
a movie before. Yeah, it's a cool scene. It takes
place at night, and they're trying to cross a
river, so it's hard to tell what's going on,
and I feel like maybe that's too... cover up
the special effects a little bit, but like it
still works pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. It's a fun
moment of action. Now, however, Stan Winston
did regret giving Amy the quote cuter features
of a lowland gorilla rather than the mountain
gorilla that she was supposed to be. And Matt,
you've added a source that provides interesting
info about Amy's design. So you all listeners
can check that out in the show notes. Yeah, and
that source will be, or it is like, it's from
Stan Winston's website, like his company's website.
And it goes into a lot of detail about the special
effects in the movie. So pretty fascinating.
We don't really have time to cover all that in
the episode, but check out that resource if you
want to take a look. Sweet. But the thing about
Stan Winston regretting giving Amy... like the
cuter features of a lowland gorilla instead of
a mountain gorilla. He was like, I was probably
a mistake because it like, you know, took away
from the realism of the movie, which I just think
is a really hilarious quote. Like that's not
what's taking away from the realism of this movie,
Stan Winston. Like nobody really cares if it
looks like a lowland gorilla or a mountain gorilla.
And I'm being a little, a little sarcastic right
now, but like this movie is not going for realism,
you know? Well, that's very true. I gotta be
honest. I couldn't, I could not tell a lowland
gorilla from a mountain gorilla. You, I watched
this movie and I see gorillas. Right. And I don't
think anybody would watch this movie and be like,
you know, I was convinced I was on board the
entire time, except that gorilla Amy did not
look like a mountain gorilla. I don't think anybody
would have had that thought, but Stan Winston
apparently did. Yeah. Which is why, I mean, that's,
that's great. He's like all about realism and
perfection. And that's what a film artist should
be, you know? But then again, I'm sure Jane Goodall
saw this movie and immediately knew the difference.
You might be right about that. I hope she did
see this movie. I would be fascinated to hear
her thoughts about it. Maybe she loves it. She's
like a secret fan of trashy ape movies. Yeah.
I would be delighted if that were the case. I
hope that is true. Oh, man. We're having a little
fun with this movie, and that's maybe not too
surprising because this movie was kind of critically
reviled when it came out. It got pretty bad reviews.
A lot of critics, you know, attacked the thin
characters, the cheesy special effects, the unoriginality
in some of the camp humor, which I personally
am okay with. But yeah, this movie got a lot
of bad reviews. It was nominated for seven Razzies
or Golden Raspberry Awards, which celebrate or
dishonor the worst movies of the year. So critically,
it did not do too well. So even though Congo
was not a critical success, it was surprisingly
a commercial success. It grossed $24 .6 million
in its first weekend. It was the number one film
at the box office that weekend. Far exceeding
expectations. Ultimately grossed about $152 million
against a $50 million budget. So commercial success
way beyond what the studio expected. A lot of
that had to do with all the kind of promotional
tie -ins that Congo had. They had marketing deals
with Taco Bell and Pepsi. There was a 1996 Sega
game that came out based on the movie, a computer
game, even a pinball machine game that came out
as a tie -in to Congo. So yeah, not a critical
success, but commercially, in terms of marketing
promotions, huge success. Which I... love, no
matter how I feel about this movie, this is the
type of movie I love talking about on Camp Kaiju,
where it was a hit in its day, and 30 years later,
is it worth still watching, talking about? Does
it stand the test of time? We will find out.
You and I will give our expert opinions on Congo.
Oh yeah, we will indeed. I'm already starting
to sense they might diverge a little bit, but
that's quite alright. Roger Ebert, Gave this
high marks. Did you read that? I did. Yeah. Three
out of four. So like relatively high, higher
than most other critics. And so much higher than
he usually gives these types of movies. Yeah.
I feel like he did sometimes like kind of cheesy
popcorn entertainment, but yeah, usually if they're
this, this ridiculous, he doesn't, doesn't usually
like them all that much. Yeah. Yeah. But, you
know, I feel compelled to say that this movie
does have a little bit of a cult following now.
Some recent reviews have been a little bit more
positive. There's a writer for the A .V. Club,
which doesn't exist anymore, sadly, but his name
is Ignaty Vishnevetsky, and he had a really positive
review of the movie Congo. The A .V. Club used
to have this series where they would, like, revisit
notorious bombs back in the day, and he gave
this one a good review, and he said, I'll just
call out one line of his review. He said, is
Congo a good film? It's certainly a good time.
And that's like an obvious thing to say, but
I love it. That kind of speaks to the, to why
I like this movie so much as well. Cool. Cool.
Yeah. Bit of a cold movie. Maybe. Awesome. I
remember talking in our ever a conversation about,
you know, tastes and what we enjoy is so individualistic
because some people love ever a horror of the
deep. We do not. And you know, that's, that's
what art is. And especially pop art, you know,
can be that divisive. And I think that's, that's
a wonderful thing. Absolutely. It's subjective.
And that's why people should feel strongly about
the movies they love or hate, but you know, preferably
the movies they love. Yeah. I just want to add
that, you know, I was watching Congo and I was
thinking, I feel like the nineties were a big
time for ape monkey movies. Hmm. How do you feel
about that statement? Yep. There was mighty Joe
young. Let me go through a list for you. Yeah.
First of all, there's George of the jungle, which
features ape or actors in ape costumes, right?
You had Dunstan checks in. You had. Movies called
Monkey Trouble, Monkey Business. There's a movie
called Ed with Matt LeBlanc. It looks like a
baseball movie with a chimpanzee. I'm not saying
these were like wide released films, but I've
heard of some of these. Summer of the Monkeys
from 1998. I think it was a thing. Yeah, that's
a good point. Now that you mention it, George
of the Jungle, Ed, I definitely remember those.
Mighty Joe Young, like I said. Why do you think
that is? Was there something? I don't know. Something
socially? Politically or in the air? I don't
know. I feel like in the 80s, you had an explosion
of body horror films. I feel like because the
technology now allowed you to make those effects.
So maybe by the 90s, ape acting. In suits and
puppetry and animatronics, we're just at a point
where, you know, we could do this. We could bring
apes and gorillas to the screen, believably.
Yeah. I think you're probably right that it's
mostly about the special effects and just like
seeing what they could accomplish with like the
new technologies and stuff. But it is fascinating.
I mean, there was kind of a first wave of ape
movies and like. The late 1920s and 1930s, King
Kong obviously being the most obvious example.
And there, you know, that reflects some like
pretty bad social and racial like worldviews
at the time, just about like civilization and
like the allure of the jungle and exoticism and
stuff like that. But you wouldn't think that
that would come back so prevalently in the 1990s.
I don't know if that would be why. Yeah, I don't
know. I'm going to have to think about that more.
You have a book. How's that book? Yeah, I've
just leafed through it. And it's very much about
those older movies from the 20s and 30s, maybe
some from the 40s too. And it goes into those
pretty toxic and harmful tropes about race and
gender and humans versus animals, some of those
themes that were... unfortunately pretty popular
at the time for like, you know, not great reasons.
So it's a fascinating book. And now I'm just,
my mind is running circles trying to think about
why and how that might recur in the 1990s. But
maybe it's just a special. I don't know. I think
we can put a pin in it because we are also talking
about a baseball movie with Matt LeBlanc and
a chimney. They're like, you know. which speaks
volumes about society and politics. Class. I'm
just going to get into America. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, if anybody out there wants to send us
your thoughts on that, please let us know because
I would love to read that. Oh, man. Yeah, that's
great. And so, so, so niche. Yeah. That's what
we're about here. Yeah. Yeah. On that note. Camp
Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach
Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty. Your
source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and
flipping for investor clients and residential
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real estate services. Follow the Zach Pack on
social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment
opportunities. Link in the show notes. Vincent,
how is Mimi's mailbox looking today? Cool. And
you know what? I'm going to read more than just
one comment today because in response to our
episode on Eberra, in response to our season
five part two announcements on Instagram, I just
had some great comments that I wanted to share.
Just share the love. First off, we have Mart
Kingsley and Mart Kingsley comments. Great episode.
Looking forward to the upcoming titles. Some
interesting choices. So I love that. Yeah. Yeah.
We have Don, super fan Don, comments, great episode,
helping me get through working today. We appreciate
that. Yeah, for sure. We have Beth, our guest
host and friend of the pod, founder of Godzilla
Days in Bloomington, Indiana. She says, it was
so much fun to talk post -GFest with you guys.
Maybe we can talk Pulgasari next. And Pulgasari
is a North Korean kaiju film, which in and of
itself, that's worthy of a conversation right
there. Yes, that's a great idea. Yeah. And then
Podcast Buddies from Monster Candy Podcast says,
Matt totally chose one of my next movie picks,
Humanoids from the Deep. Oh. It's my fave of
the Corman produced films. Yin's gonna dig it.
All right. To be determined. I'm still kind of
waffling on that choice a little bit. Honestly,
I might be a little scared to watch it, but all
right. I think that comment might mean that we
have to bring it back. We'll see. Yeah. Well,
like you said, Matt, I fully support your TBD
on that one, but got to watch it for yourself
and then you can make a call. Totally. It's never
a good idea to judge a movie before you watch
it. So more to come on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I got to tell you about Peter Lorre here.
He is reviewing a movie, a Golden Age ape movie
starring Bela Lugosa called The Ape Man from
1943. Mr. Lugosi plays a scientist who, through
some sort of science gone awry, injects himself
with an ape serum and turns into an ape man.
Whoa. That sounds great. That sounds, it's perfect
for Congo. Lined up perfectly. Thank Mr. Laurie
for that work. I know he is in a bit of a jam
dealing with this lilac. My mental connection,
my telepathic connection is beeping danger signals
right now. Can you do anything to help him? Can
you get into that room? Is it still locked? It
is still locked, yeah. I mean, I can do something
to help him. Do I want to? That's another question.
I don't know. But I feel I can already see like
the petals and like the tendrils of the lilac
like creeping out of the door. So I'm a little
freaked out. I don't know if I want to go in
there right now. But, you know, I don't need
a telepathic connection to know that he's in
danger. So I might check on him after this episode
just to make sure. Okay. Okay. We'll check back.
Next time, to see how he's doing, how you're
doing, the world might be in danger. You're next,
everybody. You're next. Look out for that lilac,
yeah. While I'm in there, I'll ask Mr. Laurie
if he has any thoughts about why there are so
many monkey movies in the 1990s. He probably
has some thoughts on that. Might have. Yeah,
he might have. We'll see. But he might be also
too busy trying to escape from the constricting
limbs of the lilac. So we'll see. We'll see how
he's doing. Yeah, just bring your machete in
there with you. Yeah, exactly. Well, awesome.
I can't wait to hear Mr. Laurie's thoughts on
that. Hopefully he's still alive. We'll find
out. Welcome to the Poverty Row Studios on the
other side of Hollywood. Where the stars were
dimmer and the red carpets dripped with blood.
Together we will watch the best of the worst.
Movies known for their limited budgets, outlandish
concepts, and questionable performances. But
with enough haunted houses, zombies, ape men,
and devil bats to keep you up at night. This
is the Poverty Row Picture Show, and I dare you
to sleep through these nightmares. Hello there.
I am Peter Lorre, and I have but minutes to live.
As you can hear, I am in a little bit of a pickle.
You see, my fiendish friend, my botanical buddy,
my platonic plant, my lilac, has turned on me.
Oh, and it is currently squeezing me to death.
But damn it all to hell if I do not continue
reviewing these poverty row movies. If I am to
go out, I can think of no better way than discussing
The Ape Man whilst being munched on by a monster
flower. Here we go. The Ape Man stars... Bela
Lugosi and was shot within a week at Monogram
Studios. The story is rather derivative. A scientist
injects himself with spinal fluid from a gorilla
and what you know he turns into an ape himself.
And of course the cure lies in the spinal fluid
of regular old human beings. Thus begins the
murder spree as Lugosi preys on the innocent
with the help of his sidekick, an actual gorilla.
Now, this gorilla was a costuming portrayed by
veteran ape actor Emil Van Horn. Sunshine Sammy
Morris, for what it's worth of the East End kids,
also makes an appearance. Now, if the above sounds
like Monogram's previous film called The Ape
with Boris Karloff, you would be on the money.
Look, if you've got the gorilla costume, you
might as well use it. And as Matthew and Vincent
discussed, such pictures were popular at this
time. I do not know anything about the 1990s,
however, to venture a guess about that decade's
interest in cinematic simians. Now, despite the
predictable story, The Ape Man is not a terrible
movie, all things considered. Mr. Lugosi, ever
the professional, gives it his all. God bless
that man. It is interesting to note that Legosi's
previous gig was playing the Frankenstein monster
in Universal's Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.
However, Universal did not call him back for
their next project, Son of Dracula. Ironic, eh?
Well, the Universal brass shared little of the
respect Monogram had for Legosi. However hammy
he may be in these movies, They are made that
much more enjoyable with this presence. So seek
out the ape man. And if I survive my present
ordeal, I'd love to hear from you. Oh, that's
the spot. That one didn't feel too bad. Nope.
No. No, that one hurt. Here it is, listeners.
I face the deep, dark depths. Of the Lilacs Maw.
And before I get eaten. We'll see you next week.
For Sunshine Sammy Morris. And those other East
End kids. In a 1943 movie called Ghosts. On the
loose. At practice. I was an ace. I couldn't
miss. but in the game tell me you ain't gonna
throw the curve tip ain't gonna throw the curve
tip things are going from bad to worse a little
word to the wise you choke you croak until someone
came along i'm supposed to pick up a ball player
to lend me a hand meet ed sullivan you can catch
He's a ball player. Ball players get traded.
I'm going to bring him home. From Universal Pictures.
He is not one that monkey in this game. Comes
the story of two ball players who share one dream.
There's one. And one very small apartment. Not
my bathroom. Don't you do it. Friends, Matt LeBlanc.
Bad monkey. Back to Congo. Are there any themes
in this movie? I don't know if there are. It's
not the deepest movie in the world. Well, you
have some great ones there. I do see. I'm going
to just look at my notes real quick. Themes of
belonging. A search for home. Amy the gorilla.
You know, the whole, this whole, the whole inciting
incident of this movie is Peter. Is he a doctor?
Is he a scientist? I was actually unclear about
his role. He's a scientist. He's a primatologist.
That's right. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent.
He is a, he is a doctor too. I remember that
he introduced himself, but he has Amy who can
communicate through sign language and then through
a machine verbally. But Amy is longing for the
Congo to get back to her home because she was,
she's been in captivity for so long. So that
in and of itself is a theme, the captivity of
animals for scientific research. But but the
inciting incident then is Peter gets a team together
to take Amy back to the Congo. Yeah. Yeah. And
there is, you know, not provide too many spoilers,
but there's pretty touching or it's supposed
to be touching ending where, you know, Amy ends
up in her rightful place at the end of the movie.
And I think that kind of conveys that theme.
I do, too. Yeah, that was that was nicely done.
Yeah. Yeah. I think kind of along those lines,
maybe there's like a little bit of a theme about
humans and animals like interacting, not just
communicating, but also like power dynamics between
human beings and animals. You know, like the
gray killer apes came to be because many, many
years ago, like an ancient tribe found this mine,
like a diamond mine filled with all these riches.
And then they bred. These gorillas to be extremely
violent and aggressive and just attack anybody
that came near them. And then, of course, the
apes turned on their masters. And that's how
this kind of secretive race of primates came
to be. And I don't think there's really all that
much depth to that. I think it's just like we
need a plot contrivance to like explain what
these things are. But there's a little bit of
like, you know, humans thought they could control
nature. And then, of course. nature rises up
to, to bite them in the ass essentially, which
is kind of a theme of Jurassic park too. Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. So not original, but there at
least a movie like this, you know, the genre
just feeds on itself. So I'm not going to dock
it points for that quote unquote on originality.
Yeah. But is it, is it executed to the level
of something else? That's. That's something I'll
get into in my breakdown later. Yeah. Fair question.
And the answer is probably no, but we'll find
out more soon. And I do think one of the major
questions of the movie, not necessarily like
an intentional theme, but, you know, what are
we supposed to feel about the racial dynamics
in this movie? Like, is it racist, essentially?
And that's, you know, that question's a little
bit too easy and glib. I don't, you know, it's
a hard question to answer, but like we already
talked about how the Ernie Hudson character is
meant to like flip some of those outdated tropes
on their head, like the great white hunter, like
in this case is a black man who's leading all
of these white people into the jungle who are
pretty much inept, pretty much powerless if it
weren't for him. So there's that little bit of
like subversion there. And yet at the same time,
You have depictions of, like, all these white
Americans landing in Uganda. And, like, immediately,
as soon as they step off the plane, like, entering
into a civil war with, like, explosions and shootouts.
And then they have to pay off this warlord to,
like, get into the jungle. And you have, like,
one of the warlords, like, henchmen, like, fondling
Laura Linney's blonde hair. And it's like, how
can the movie be, like, aware of these tropes
and yet, like, play into them at the same time,
you know? Yeah. And I think the idea of the great
white hunter, that exoticism, I mean, this is
a topic of interest that I'm actually really
interested in. And you go back to the Tarzan
novels from the early 20th century, but the 1800s,
Europe's fascination with dark Africa, the heart
of darkness, and this depiction that still lives
in our, I think, general mental construct as...
In the Western world, white Westerners, we view
the middle of Africa as this foreboding, dark
place full of unknowns. And the people who live
there are not as civilized and cultured, quote
unquote. So I think, and so along those lines,
I did read that Michael Crichton wanted to write
such a pulpy story. Well, the trade -off for
that is, those pulp stories like Tarzan and others
were written in another time. Right. All those
stereotypes and tropes were based on a world
construct that was very structured, stratified
whites versus everyone else. So you have a really
hell of a time trying to update that. Those conceits
and tropes for a modern audience in the 90s is
modern enough to know better. Right. So I think
it's just a tricky line. I'm not saying it can't
be done. I think there are modern examples like
Kong Skull Island. They depict the natives as
actual real people instead of monsters. But it's
a tricky... subject that i think you just have
to be uber aware of and i don't think michael
crichton or frank marshall is they're not interested
in it they're just like temple of doom route
let's just go for the pulp people of color you're
you're not people you're not fleshed out characters
you're just here to serve the pulpy adventure
yeah you're like well does that pass muster these
days who knows Yeah, probably not anymore, or
at least it probably shouldn't, you know, and
I think there are some other movies from the
90s that, you know, like The Mummy, which we
talked about in the late 90s, I think kind of
does a similar thing. Island of Dr. Moreau, which
we talked about kind of does a similar thing
where it's like, you know, if those movies and
Congo had been a little bit more like ambitious
or sensitive, respectful, like maybe. it would
have gone into more depth about any of the characters
of color or like what's actually going on in
the civil war in Uganda. Like what, what actually
is the context of that? But like, yeah, these
movies are not interested in that kind of like,
you know, depth and complexity at all. Right.
Right. So it's a product of it's it's genre,
which has all the trappings I just mentioned.
So yeah. Yeah. So definitely, definitely justified
to bring all that up. Yeah. Yeah. I think in
a movie like this, you kind of have to ask that
question. And I think like, you know, if the
creative team, if the director or the writer,
you know, if any of them were artists of color,
that might have helped a little bit to like lend
a certain perspective and a certain depth to
this portrayal. But and, you know, I think. Nowadays,
if this movie was made, that almost certainly
would happen. And I think that would be a great
thing. But like, yeah, this movie does not achieve
that for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anything to
talk about with the form and the aesthetic or
any other themes that you wanted to bring up?
So Matt has a great point here. Other lines of
dialogue refer to the killer ape cliche, referring
specifically to King Kong, which is mentioned
in the screenplay, and the idea that gorillas
are dangerous. And Matt, as you say, though,
that idea has larger racial connotations, which
taps into exactly what we were talking about.
Those golden age gorilla pictures from the 20s,
30s and 40s. And you know what? That's such a
niche genre that I don't blame Marshall or John
Patrick Shanley or Crichton for not maybe not
even realizing what they were, the tradition
they were inadvertently. tapping into yeah like
like king kong's a perfect example because king
kong fits within that narrative of killer apes
lusting after white women we don't ever think
about king kong like that and yet you dig not
too far and it it is exactly within that that
racial context the the the the weaponized racial
context that white america put black black people
in. Yeah. Oh yeah. I don't, I don't think Congo
even realizes what it's perpetuating. Yeah. I
think you're right. Yeah. I mean, You know, I
love a lot of Spielberg movies, but I feel like
with the Indiana Jones movies, for example, you
raise the point of Temple of Doom. Like, you
know, I think Spielberg and the producer George
Lucas, like, wanted to, like, make their version
of a 40s adventure serial. They did not go any
deeper than that. Like, they weren't trying to,
like, expose the deeper, like, social contexts
of it, you know, or subtexts or whatever. And
it might have been nice if they had done so a
little bit more, but, like, not but. And, like...
You know, I mean, they were just trying to make
their version of the movies that they loved as
a kid. And like, you know, I that's not to let
them off the hook. They shouldn't get a free
pass like they should investigate some of those
themes a little bit more. But I think you're
totally right that Congo is doing the same thing.
Yeah. And I agree with you. I don't fault them
for doing that because I also admittedly not
the like overtly racist garbage that was produced
by some of these Hollywood studios. But I do
love King Kong. And I do love Tarzan. And I do
love these action movies. I love Temple of Doom.
So sue me, people. No, same. I mean, that's the
horror movie of the Indiana Jones trilogy. And
I kind of love it for that reason, you know?
Yeah, yeah. Even though there's a lot. I love
this stuff while also recognizing some question
marks. Exactly. And that's, you know, I mean.
You have to recognize both like the good things
about it and the bad things about it. And that's
why movies are complicated. Like they're social
texts, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Fun to talk about.
Ooh, here we go. Okay. So our breakdowns, the
good, the bad, and the campy. Well, let's start
with the good. Yeah. All right. You can, you
can start, you can lead off here. I, yeah, there's.
Legitimately, a lot I like about this movie.
I feel like it has a great sense of visual imagination.
I think when we do finally encounter the lost
city of Zinj, it looks really fun, in kind of
like an amusement park way, but that's not necessarily
a criticism. I think that's what the movie is
going for. There's also a really good scene where
the whole... crew is camping out and they have
all these kind of like lasers set up and like
automatic sentry guns. And that's like the first
time they're really attacked by the gray killer
ape gorillas. And that scene looks fantastic.
It's beautifully lit, beautifully shot, really
exciting. I love the camp humor in this movie.
I think Tim Curry and Ernie Hudson, especially
like do a great job of delivering that. And I
feel like most of that dialogue is intentionally
supposed to be funny. And some dialogue is just
bad. There's no doubt about that. But like a
lot of it, I think, is intentionally comedic.
I mean, it's really entertaining. It's yeah,
I don't know. And like, I will admit nostalgia
does play a big role for me and how much I like
this movie. But I don't know. It has a lot of
imagination, a lot of humor. It's it's not boring
for a second. Hmm. Yeah, I I first of all, I
think nostalgia is a valid reason to. to, to
enjoy anything. So I wish I had it with this
movie, but I did like a lot about this movie.
I loved the cast aside from Dylan Walsh. I actually
liked the cast a lot. Like these, these are,
these aren't mega star actors, right? But they,
they bring what they, that intangible something
to, to the screen. Tim Curry, Ernie Hudson, Laura
Linney, all the supporting cast. I love Amy and
shout out again to the actors who portrayed the
apes, but Amy is portrayed as a toddler in this
movie. And as someone who has a one and a half
year old right now, it was so real. Like it was
on the nose, the, how petty Amy is. And she gets
jealous. She throws things at Laura Linney and
calls her names and just like, I'm like, yeah,
that's what a toddler does. Throws little temper
tantrums when they don't get their martinis.
No, when they don't get what they want. So yeah,
I enjoyed that portrayal of Amy. Yeah, I love,
this is the campy thing that I love because it's
so ridiculous. I don't know if it works, but
who cares? The fact that we have a laser gun
and we're slicing these gorillas in half. All
while a volcano is erupting and there's a river
of lava. I'm like, yeah, this jumped the shark
in so many ways. And I love that. I love, I wish
movies would be more as, as bold as that sometimes.
Cause that's what you remember. Yeah. All right.
Awesome. So there's, you know, you like, you
like some stuff in it. That's good. I like to
hear. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. I feel like you're going
to have more stuff in the bad category than I
am. So, you know, I do wish if this had been
like a truly remarkable movie, it would have
like questioned some of those racial tropes a
little bit more. It would have like set this
movie in like a recognizable real world where
like the supporting characters are like real
people and not just like exotic background, you
know, pray for the gorillas to attack. So I would
have loved to have seen that. I'm just going
to leave it at that for the bad for me. Yeah.
Okay. Great. Do I have the floor? Sorry. I'm
going to try to, I'm going to try to be, you
know, as professional as possible. Right. Cause
I think is this movie easy to pick apart? Yes.
Can I try to be as, as precise as possible? I
will try. First of all, I think the problems
start with the script, but not even that. I feel
like. You can have wonky and wooden dialogue,
but the actors, I don't think they are, they
are really, they're phoning in it. I think Laura
Linney has, she, her, like her character is given
moments of, of, of demanding real emotion. Like
her fiance has been killed and I can see Laura
Linney. I can see her eye, like behind her eyes.
She's thinking, I know I need to cry here. And
she can't, she's just not even like, she doesn't
cry when she's supposed to. And she just acts.
So it's just like very phoned in and wooden much
of the time, especially with her. Cause she's
supposed to be such an emotional anchor. She,
for example, she finds the carcass of her fiance
on a pile of bones and we get nothing. And Frank
Marshall's not interested. He just cuts away.
Cause it's just a plot point at that point. And
I'm like, yo, this should be, a really serious
moment. You're right that the movie doesn't have
any interest in that. And like that, that is
probably a flaw, but it's also like, let's get
onto like the slicing apart monkeys with a laser,
you know? Right, right. So my direction then,
if I were the director, cause I think, I think
a huge role of the director of a movie is the
tone, right? So what is the tone of this movie?
If you're not going to invest in the emotional
moments, That's fine. You need to tell Laura
Linney to stop trying so hard then. You need
the actors on board then with that. Now, Tim
Curry, he's fully on board with the tone of this
movie. So much so that he's in his own movie.
He's like a Romanian circus carnival guy who
comes in. I'm like, I love it. I'm here for it.
But it's inconsistent with the rest. With what
other people are doing, I should say. What other
actors are doing. Yeah. The accent's not great.
But I can forgive it because Tim Curry knows
the assignment. Yo. Ernie Hudson's accent is
not great. He's doing a British thing. And sometimes
he slips into just Ernie Hudson from Ghostbusters.
I'm like, yeah, man, I don't know. Cut the accent
or just make it wildly over the top. See, I got
really specific notes here. Dylan Walsh as Peter.
You mentioned he's supposed to be like an anchor
of this film. Yeah. There's a stretch of this
movie where every one of his lines is something
like, what's going on? Who's that? Where are
we? Yeah. Look, you can be the stand in for the
audience, but this is so lazy. Yeah. And I think
in a couple of those instances, like other characters'
responses are, I don't know, over and over again.
And it's like, you could have cut all that out
of the movie. We didn't need any of that. If
you don't know, then what purpose does that serve,
you know? And I love in a movie, and this is
funny, this is funny, this can't be, when unintentionally
in a movie where your hero is in the middle of
nowhere and he says, I'm out of here. I can't
do this. I can't go any further. And that's what
he does. And Ernie Hudson's like, where are you
going to go? Like you're in the middle of the
jungle. And I'm like, yeah, you're this doctor.
The supposed man of intellect is unbelievably
clueless in my, in my estimation. Yeah. But then
you're totally right. And, but then I do kind
of like how Ernie said, like you just said, Ernie
Hudson is like. you dumbass, where are you going
to go? Like he's, he's the only one who's competent
out of all of them. And like maybe him and Laura
Linney, you know? Yeah. And I, I'm not saying
that's like a deep theme of the movie, but it's
like, Oh, that's, that's kind of fun. I enjoyed
that, you know? Yeah. This is all just my, my,
my subjective opinion. Of course. And I'm, I'm
sorry to, I'm just offering my own rebuttal.
No, no, sorry. Yeah. I, I, it's not often. I,
I, I'm this critical with a movie. But it's so
much fun to make fun of. I love it. Yeah, totally.
Peter and Karen, the Dylan Walsh, Laura Linney
characters. There's like two or three moments
where maybe they're flirting with each other.
Maybe there's some interest. That's wrong because
her fiance is the whole incentive why she's going
there. Her mission should be to save Bruce Campbell.
And she forgets that a lot. So that's tone again.
That's tone. Like, what is this? Will they, won't
they? Frank, Marshall, will you, won't you? Like,
you're waffling here and I need you to commit,
buddy. Okay. Fair. Very fair. Yeah. Two more
things. This whole thing about the killer gorilla
myth. Now, I could be wrong. I am not an expert
on apes and gorillas. Supposedly, Dylan Walsh
is. He plays Doctor Who. He is so adamant about
defending gorillas as peaceful creatures. Like,
it's a major argument in the film. Yeah. And
I'm thinking about, like, what was the gorilla
that was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo shot? Because
a child fell into the gorilla enclosure. Yeah.
Because from what I know, there is nothing peaceful
about a gorilla. They are dangerous wild animals
that could rip your head off. Like literally.
So I don't, and again, maybe that's not true.
Maybe they are peaceful creatures, but that was
like really bothering me that this primatologist
was so adamant that gorillas are not capable
of killing humans. Especially when all the evidence...
Oh, sorry. I was going to interject. There's
visual evidence that gorillas did kill these
people. It's caught on camera. And Peter Elliott,
the primatologist, is like, oh, it couldn't be.
They're peaceful creatures. It's like, dude,
look at the video. Clearly it is. So proving
your point. Yes, it is ridiculous for sure. So
that was a little hard for me to buy, even in
this movie. And that gorilla at the Cincinnati
Zoo was Harambe. Justice for Harambe. Sounds
familiar. Yeah. Was that in like the 90s? Late
90s? No, that was 2001, I think. Okay. Early
2000s. Early 2020s. Okay. My last note. This
is a big overarching thing. Because at the end
of this movie, I was thinking about like, why
am I left kind of not feeling... I want to feel
like this is a movie that rocks and I want to
watch it again. And I was thinking about The
Mummy from 1999 because that's also a similar
adventure type of story with a cast of characters
and quirky characters and you have emotional
leads. Here's my analysis. In The Mummy, you
have leads who are larger than life, but they
still... But what brings them together is a shared
interest in each other and supporting each other.
And there's a real sense of teamwork with those
characters. In Congo, I realized none of the
characters are interested in helping each other.
I feel like they're all siloed in their own mission.
Any one of them could leave and go go off on
their own and nobody would miss each other. Except
for Laura Linney and Dylan Walsh, maybe. But
maybe not. Maybe not. Yeah. So that's an interesting
point. Yeah. I feel like with some characters
that kind of works like the Monroe Kelly character
and the Herkimer Homolka character. But yeah,
it's an interesting point. Yeah. Yeah. So. And
I'm a playwright, too. So I just I just. I look
at relationships between characters. That's just
how I'm trained. And I just think that could
have been strengthened a lot to increase my investment
in their investment in each other. Yeah. All
definitely fair criticisms. I was going to bring
up The Mummy as well because I feel like you
feel about The Mummy how I feel about Congo a
little bit, you know? I feel like our opinions
have reversed a little bit where I'm like, yeah,
this movie is not very good. And it's so fun.
And I like it more than I should, maybe because
of like the I remember seeing it when it first
came out, you know, and like, yeah, feeling of
adventure and imagination that I had. And, you
know, like I'm I'm a little bit older than you.
So maybe like there's a gap of four years in
between Congo and the mummies. So maybe you had
that same experience with the mummy when you
saw it, you know? Yeah. Like, I wonder if maybe
that plays a role in that, you know? Maybe that's
a movie I quote with my buddies and I've seen
it so many times. And yeah. that's nostalgia
um as a and informing our opinions and that's
okay i think it's totally okay i like we should
all you know like as i think we're doing like
objectively sort of like analyze the movie and
figure out its strengths and weaknesses but also
everything is subjective like your response to
movies is autobiographical and i think if you
have that like nostalgic sort of maybe misguided
response it's like yeah embrace that you know
that's that's part of your life i love that not
to get too like you know fanciful about it but
you've already brought up some campy stuff any
other camp humor that you wanted to to mention
oh yeah what haven't i mentioned aside from tim
curry and the lava and the laser gun i love it
I think the biggest camp line for me is at the
end when Laura Linney is radioing back to her
boss, also the father of the guy who was killed,
and who is only interested in the diamonds, not
interested in his son's death. Yeah. He yells,
did you get the diamond? It's a good villainous
thing to say. It's just that the level is like
at a one and immediately goes to an 11 with that
line. It was right at the end of the movie. It's
just, yeah, like that's great. Love it. Yeah,
that's ridiculous for sure. The moment after
that is also extremely ridiculous when like they
have this huge diamond on the hot air balloon.
This is giving away the ending, so I apologize.
We can maybe cut this out. But like, you know,
it's the end of the movie and like they have
this huge diamond and they could just like sell
it. give it to me give it to a museum like it
would benefit them but instead laura lenny just
makes this decision to be like as a principled
stand i'm gonna throw this diamond in the middle
of nowhere in the african jungle it's like you've
already escaped the gorillas just keep the diamond
why would you do that you know i just thought
that was so stupid maybe that's you know greedy
of me but ridiculous utterly ridiculous knowledge
was the real treasure all along You would hope
the friendships they made along the way, but
they didn't make any friendships. So I guess
that's not the case. Yeah. Yeah. There's a part
where one of the gray gorillas loses its arm
from this laser. And I was like, yes, this is
the tone. Maybe the whole movie should have had.
This is awesome. yeah the gray gorillas probably
should have appeared a little bit earlier they're
really just only in like the last 20 minutes
of the movie you know yeah that was also another
thought i had i would have liked to have seen
more of the ostensible villains of this movie
the monsters if you will otherwise amy's really
the only strange beast in this movie and she's
fine she gives a yeah she's great she's drinking
a martini that's that's camp There it is. I love
it. Yeah, you're right. That's probably the campiest
part of the whole movie. And also Laura Lenny's
line where she says, put them on the endangered
species list right before she like mows down
the gorillas with the laser. Sublime. I love
that part so much. So good. I can watch the last
20 minutes of this movie over and over and over
again. Yeah. And the pretty bad special effects.
You already mentioned the lava and stuff like
that. Yeah. I love it when Amy eats the banana
with the like dope in it. There's even like a
line about that where one of the scientists is
like, uh, you know, some, yeah, it's exactly
what I just said basically. And I just thought
that was ridiculous. Yeah. There's, there's like
a funny line too, where it's like trying to be
funny. I still don't know if it works or not,
but like one guy is like, this is so Kafka when
they're in like the warlords, like manner or
whatever. And one of the henchmen is like, Who
the hell is Kafka? Tell me, who is Kafka? And
I was like, oh, that's kind of funny. All right,
that's pretty ridiculous. That was funny, yeah.
I like that moment. So there's some funny intentional
humor, I think, here as well. But that's about
all the campy stuff that I have. I mean, there's
a lot. There's a lot of camp in this movie. And
I think, well, okay, I'll save it for my final
summation. But yeah, let's go ahead and move
on. Yeah, it's about that time. Yeah, so our
ratings on Camp Kaiju. As always, our number
one rating, it's a timeless classic. It definitely
stands the test of time. Number two, there may
be some antiquated moments, but overall it's
great. It stands the test of time. Number three,
it may be historically significant or just fun,
but it does not stand the test of time. And our
lowest rating, it is not worth revisiting. It
definitely does not stand the test of time. What
do you think? Okay, okay, okay. I'm going to
be honest. I'm going to be honest. I was torn
between it not standing the test of time at all,
like don't even watch this movie, or there are
some fun moments. I'm not going to say it's historically
significant, but I will say there are some fun
moments. As a film by its own merits, I don't
think it stands the test of time, but I think
there are enough entertaining moments, intentionally
or not. that make this worth watching, especially
with a group of friends. I think for me, I think
I thought I was going to watch something more
serious in tone, something more horrific in tone,
maybe like The Relic. And instead, I got something
way more lighthearted, way sillier than I thought
I was going to get. And I think that messed with...
my ultimate viewing of this film. Yeah, I think
that's fair. It's definitely lighthearted. I
wouldn't say it's scary at all, even remotely.
I'm tempted to give it our highest rating just
to like stick up for this movie, but I'm not
going to do that. I will not do that. That's
just ridiculous. But I am going to give this
our second highest rating. I do think it stands
the test of time, in my opinion. I will fully
recognize that a lot of that might just be like,
you know, my personal... experience and history
with the movie, the nostalgic love that I have
for it. But I do think it has a lot of imagination,
a lot of camp humor that I find really entertaining.
I do like several of the performances a lot.
I like Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry. I like Laura
Linney, even if her character is like non -existent,
like doesn't make any sense. I definitely get
all that, but I don't know. I do feel the need
to, like, I want to stick up for it a little
bit. And I, I really do love like, you know,
popcorn entertainment of the 90s because it feels
so different from like most of the like big budget
blockbusters that we see nowadays. So I don't
know. It's this is not a very good movie objectively.
And yet I still love it. I think it's great in
its own way. For me, it almost gets better as
time goes on. So for me, it does stand the test
of time. That's great. I if this movie is ever
playing on a screen, I'm there. I'm going to
be first in line. Yeah. But yeah, like in a theater,
I bet it would be so much fun to watch. And like,
you know, at home with some friends, like you
said, I think that'd be great. Yeah. I've had
that viewing many times. Cool. I actually kind
of like when we disagree a little bit, we can't
agree on everything, you know? We'll see. Yeah.
I mean, I think, I think our upcoming lineup
is going to offer more of this diverging opinion
type of conversation. I can't wait. I'm excited.
Me too, yeah. Starting with Jaws 2, our next
episode. Electric Boogaloo. Yeah. I never understood
the full title of Jaws 2, Electric Boogaloo.
Where does the boogaloo come in? I guess we'll
find out. We'll find out. Might be a French thing.
Who knows? Yeah, probably. That'll be great.
I'm excited for Jaws 2. Thank you all so much
for hanging out, friends. Please rate and review
wherever you listen. You can also share this
podcast with a friend, subscribe to the website,
and send us listener comments at campkaiju at
gmail .com or on Instagram. Links are in the
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-2612 telling us about your favorite monster
movies and memories. Please check out our website,
campkaijupodcast .com, for more information.
Camp Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St. Paul,
with Mina's mailbox music by Ben Cook -Felts.
Thanks, friends, and until next time, stay campy.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the
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opportunities. Links in the show notes. That's
not my fault. Where's my gorilla? The gorilla
will be kept on the truck while we... Isn't this
a hospital? So this one's decided to speak. This
is pure Kafka. Who's Kafka? Tell me!