Reality bytes (7/19/01)
____________
Congo. [Frank Marshall, 1995. Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley; after a novel by Michael Crichton.]
Only the fertile brain of Michael Crichton could have penned a tale such as this, one of a quest for a lost city in Africa, home to the diamond mines of King Solomon, guarded by a hitherto unknown race of ferocious giant apes, and somehow managed to render it dull and lifeless. But every turkey has its moments, even this one: first, when the African native bearers loading the expedition’s boats break into one of their colorful field hollers, and it turns out to be “California Dreaming”; second, when a mysterious woadbedaubed tribe of headhunters materialize around the intrepid explorers as they enter a jungle clearing, ask Ernie Hudson who's in charge, and burst out laughing when he explains [truthfully] that he is — because, benighted savages though they may be, even they know the black guy is
never in charge. — Beyond that though the gorillas are, predictably, the only interesting characters, Joe Don Baker does a passable turn as an Evil Capitalist, Tim Curry portrays as only Tim Curry can an unbalanced Romanian diamond hunter Whose Greed Is His Doom, and Laura Linney, who, really, deserves better, excels as an exCIA chick. — The volcano conveniently situated on the skyline does finally erupt, but rather to my disappointment Tom Hanks doesn’t show up to hurl himself into it. But I’m sure that wasn’t Shanley’s fault.
____________Next-to-last tango in Paris (7/14/01)
