SIDE EFFECTS

SIDE EFFECTS

German Title:

Side Effects - Tödliche Nebenwirkungen

USA, 2013

Director: Steven Soderbergh

9/10

I still don't believe that Steven Soderbergh is really retiring from filmmaking, simply because he's such a passionate director, I can't imagine him NOT doing films, or doing something else than shooting films. But if it turns out to be true... damn! No! Not after this amazing movie!

Ok, I'm not a hardcore Soderbergh fan. I usually avoid seeing his lighter comedy-stuff because I'm simply not interested in it - but I love all his darker films, like the bizarre "Kafka", the haunting "Solaris" remake, the intense "Contagion" and of course the uber-adorable "Traffic", one of my favorite movies of all time. "Side Effects" isn't as awesome as "Traffic", but it comes pretty close.

My expectations were low due to the kinda unimpressive trailer and the boring marketing, but hell yeah, this one blew me away as much as "Dead Man Down" did! "Side Effects" is an incredibly complex and completely mindblowing psychological film-noir/mystery-thriller, packed with so many unforeseeable plot twists, I ended up with a mashed brain.

There's a lot of tension and suspense going on, tons of highly thrilling and stunningly emotional scenes, and even a few really unsettling sequences.

Soderbergh handles the somewhat heavy plot with intriguing verve and surprising ease, wrapped in a unique style that often felt a bit semi-documentary. The look of the film is simply beautiful and reminded me a lot of "Contagion" and "Traffic", thanks to a fantastic mixture of wonderfully warm and depressingly dark colours, stylish but "cold"-looking settings and Soderbergh's excellent cinematography, all accompanied with a mysterious and pretty baffling musical score by Thomas Newman ("American Beauty").

Jude Law gives one of his best and most intense performance of his entire career, same for Rooney Mara who delivers a fascinating, perplexing and haunting character. Catherine Zeta-Jones looks hot as fuck, and Channing Tatum gives a pretty convincing ex-con. Also great: Vinessa Shaw, Michael Nathanson and Sheila Tapia.

Stand-out scenes: Mara killing her husband, the car crash, the truth-serum interview and some nice lesbo-action.

A film like an effective and well tolerated drug with no side effects whatsoever :)

Wiki ~ Imdb

May Monster Madness, Day 7: KING KONG vs. GODZILLA / KING KONG ESCAPES

Woot, the end is nigh! Enjoy my last post for the MAY MONSTER MADNESS!
This was my very first blog-hop and I had a lot of fun. I met many cool peeps, stumbled upon many cool blogs and read lots of interesting stuff about monstrous monsters, human monsters, and other creepy creatures. I also got many new followers (Blog & Twitter), lots of comments and pretty high pageviews *yay* :-)

Still, I'm also happy that it's over now, because: believe it or not, it was really exhausting. Sooo many blogs / blog posts to check, sooo many comments to answer, watching all the flicks, writing reviews, taking screenshots, comments here, comments there, FB, Twitter, only 4-5 hours of sleep - aaaaargh!! Also, I'm not interested in watching any ape-themed flicks for a very long time :-D

Thanks to Annie Walls, Emma (Little Gothic Horrors) and Ked (Something WicKED This Way Comes...) for hosting this hop!

Ok, taking a little break. Back to blogging routine in a few days. See ya!

KING KONG VS. GODZILLA

Original Title:

Kingu Kongu tai Gojira

German Titles:
Die Rückkehr des King Kong / Godzilla - Schlachtfest der Giganten / King Kong kommt zurück / King Kong vs. Godzilla - Die Rückkehr des King Kong

Japan, 1962

Director: Ishirō Honda

7/10

[This review is about the Japanese version of the movie. There is an English version, recut for the US audience with new boring footage of annoying UN reporters and museum directors, a new terribly dull score and nearly all of the quirky humor removed. I hate this version and refuse to write more about it.
Read about it here. End of rant.]

Believe it or not: Godzilla was a HUUUGE part of my childhood, thanks to Austrian and German TV channels who constantly showed most Japanese monster flicks over and over and over. I taped them and re-watched them countless times. I owned (and still own) several detailed Godzilla-books. I collected every single TV paper clipping that I could find. I owned a miniature Godzilla that stood proudly on my parents' TV. Yes, I was a freaking Godzilla-nerd.

Unfortunately, when I became a grown-up, I somehow lost interest in all things Kaiju. You may ask why? Oh, I don't know. I have absolutely no idea. I guess, I just moved to other things. So, thanks to the May Monster Madness for reviving my love for monster flicks. I definitely don't need any ape-flicks in the next time, but... hell yeah, I can't wait to watch more Godzilla-stuff soon, especially because I enjoyed the shit out of this mighty monster-clash!

"King Kong vs. Godzilla" is the third film in the everlasting Godzilla-franchise, and the first of only two Japanese King Kong flicks. It's not the best Godzilla-flick of all time (that's "Godzilla vs. Biollante" IMO), but it's definitely one of the coolest and most entertaining Kaiju-flicks of the 60s. In terms of "King Kong", it's better than most films in the rather underwhelming US ape-franchise.

The movie is fun from start to finish, thanks to many quirky characters, the fact that the whole thing doesn't take itself too seriously, loads of nice minature sets and some ace destruction / fight scenes. King Kong looks horrible but compared to all of his American post-1933 incarnations, he's a total badass who loves to wrestle, swim and throw stones. Godzilla is also awesome, especially because this is one of the few times in the oldschool kaiju-franchise where he appears as villain.

Akira Ifukube's score is epic and almost as excellent as the music in the original "Godzilla", the acting is fun, and scenes like the Giant Octopus battle or the scene where King Kong gets transported via balloons... well, they're just priceless.

Overall, a great and timeless monster romp :)

Wiki ~ Imdb

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KING KONG ESCAPES

Original Title:

Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū

German Title: 
King Kong - Frankensteins Sohn

Japan / USA, 1967

Director: Ishirō Honda

4/10

Forgive me if this review turns out to be a bit shorter than the previous ones, but... holy shit! This was the 12th monster movie that I watched in a row, and I obviously grew a bit tired. Also, I never was a fan of this one, so I wasn't exactly looking for rewatching it - but... well, here we go.

"King Kong Escapes" is the second and final Japanese "King Kong" flick. Surprisingly NOT a sequel to "King Kong vs. Godzilla", but a film of its own. Basically, it's just a rehash of the 1933 version including many ripped off scenes (Kong vs. T-Rex, sea serpent, Kong "kidnaps" a blonde girl), but all done in such an amateurish way, it's not even funny.

The "King Kong" costume looks even more retarded than the one in "The Mighty Gorga", but fortunately, the battle scenes are fun, the other creatures all look decent and there's also a goofy Mechani-Kong (not to confuse with Mecha-Godzilla). The acting is mediocre and the characters are all either lackluster, cliché-laden or downright unlikable. The pacing is way too dull, many scenes are terribly boring and the score is quite underwhelming.

Watchable, but easily and justifiably forgettable.

Wiki ~ Imdb

May Monster Madness, Day 6 - A whole load of Kong: KING KONG 1933 / SON OF KONG / KING KONG 1976 / KING KONG LIVES / KING KONG 2005

KING KONG

German Titles:
King Kong und die weisse Frau / Die Fabel von King Kong - Ein amerikanischer Trick- und Sensationsfilm

USA, 1933
Directors: Ernest B. Schoedsack & Merian C. Cooper

10/10

They can remake / copy / reboot the crap out of it - I don't care. The original "King Kong" will forever be the greatest and most impressive monster-ape flicks of all time. Screw costumes, animatronics and CGI - nothing comes close to the stop-motion-awesomeness of this movie!

Based on a rough draft called "The Beast", written by legendary crime writer Edgar Wallace, the two visionary filmmakers Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper ("The Most Dangerous Game", "Chang") created a landmark adventure-horror-film that inspired thousands of other filmmakers and will forever stand the test of time as one of the absolute best monster movies ever made.

From start to end, "King Kong" is stunningly tense and excellently entertaining, at times even quite scary. The opening may be a bit slow, but it gladly is NEVER boring, thanks to some wonderful actors playing interesting and sympathetic characters. I like them all, whether they're good or bad: the beautiful Fay Wray as Kong's "love interest", Robert Armstrong as ruthless film director, Frank Reicher as sympathetic ship's captain, and Bruce Cabot as grumpy first mate.

Kong himself is just amazing. He's not as lovey-dovey as in other films - here, he's just badass! Growling and roaring, killing people and dinosaurs, giving a shit about everything and everyone, except that "golden woman" whom he takes with him as trophy. Kong looks impressive in every single scene. His fierce look, his movements, his mighty appearance - no wonder that Willis O'Brien's special effects inspired Ray Harryhausen to become a stop-motion animator.

There's some other awesome creatures: a T-Rex, a Stegosaurus, a Pteranodon, a Brontosaurus and many more - and they all look as amazing as Kong!

The set pieces all look outstanding (jungle on Skull Island, the stone wall, Empire State Building...), Max Steiner's ("Arsenic and Old Lace") pompous score is intriguing and effective as hell, and the cinematography is just marvellous.

They tagline didn't lie: King Kong IS "The Most Amazing Show on any Screen!"

Wiki ~ Imdb

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THE SON OF KONG

Alternate Title:
Son Of Kong

German Title:
King Kong Sohn

USA, 1933
Diretor: Ernest Schoedsack

4,5/10

Almost 80 years old and clearly one of the first and best examples of an unnecessary and completely pointless Hollywood cash-in sequel: "The Son of Kong", an unbearably light-hearted lower-budget semi-comedy that was rushed into production and released 9 months (!!!) after "King Kong".

Oh Mr. Schoedsack, what have you done? Where is the atmosphere? Where are the thrills? Where is the action. Gone, all gone. What remains is a lame and unexciting dullfest, that bored the hell out of me. Kong's son looks and acts embarrasingly silly, the stop-motion effects are far from being as great as in the first part, the plot is meh, the settings look shoddy and the soundtrack is simply forgettable.

The movie starts out interesting, picking up one month after the events of the first part, showing the filmmaker (Robert Armstrong) how he gets sued by half of New York - but then he leaves to go back to Skull Island, and things get
quickly trite and boring.

There's some 'new' creatures (Styracosaurus, Nothosaurus and a weird bear), the acting is good and the characters are all fun, but that doesn't help much.

I understand everyone who likes "Son of Kong", but I can't help it: I'm too much in love with the original, which makes me unable to like this shoddy sequel.

Wiki ~ Imdb

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KING KONG

(Remake)

USA, 1976

Director: John Guillermin

4/10

"Romancing the Kong" would be a better fitting title for the Dino de Laurentiis produced 1976 "King Kong" remake which is such a poor and frustrating borefest, it hurts. I've seen it several times in my youth and never liked it - and now as a grown-up, I still don't like it.

The first hour is quite entertaining due to a nice story build-up, the thrilling discovery of the breathtakingly beautiful island in the fog and the huge wall, a wonderful score by the great John Barry ("James Bond Theme") and a really nice cast (Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, John Randolph, Rene Auberjonois etc.) - minus the terribly annoying 'Dwan'-character, played by a hot-looking but horrendously unconvincing Jessica Lange.

The second half is just awful: King Kong is a sappy lame-ass, an embarassing rubber-suit-atrocity, unimpressing, unfrightening and downright unbearable. The *ahem* Kong/Lange softcore scenes are laughable, the effects all look tacky, the NY rampage is simply boring, direction and pacing are both absolutely pedestrian - and christgoddammit where are the dinosaurs? A rubber snake? Are you fucking kidding us? A budget of about $24 million and all we get is a rubber snake???

Nah, I don't like this - though it's obviously better than the 1986 sequel...

Wiki ~ Imdb

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KING KONG LIVES

Alternate Title:
King Kong 2

German Title:
King Kong lebt

USA, 1986
Director: John Guillermin

3/10

King Kong lives... and dies again. And in between, he gets a heart transplant, toys around with alligators, and impregnates Lady Kong. And someone seemed to be clever enough to convince Dino de Laurentiis to finance this pile of rubbish, which ultimately became a huge box office bomb and killed of John Guillermin's career.

"King Kong Lives" is the failed attempt in creating a spoof of the original by taking the plot and characters somewhat serious, but NOT the apes. Kong and his lady both look hilariously goofy, and the men in the ape-costumes don't even try to act as apes - they actually move around in a very dumb-looking human way!!

Also, the plot is hokey, the effects look shitty, and the whole thing is boring to the max, thanks to the awful screenplay and Guillermin's horrendous direction.

At least, the acting is quite entertaining (Linda Hamilton, Brian Kerwin, John Ashton) and it's packed with really hilarious dialogue:
 "How did you get the apes from the jungle?" - "I left a trail of bananas." - "Are you going to breed her?" - "Ah, you mean personally?"
"Horny son of a bitch. He smells the female a mile away!"
"We should have no problem identifying the enemy. They are approximately 50 feet tall, wearing their birthday suits."
[soldier to a bunch of armed rednecks]  "What the hell is this? Deliverance? You there! Are those weapons loaded?" - "You bet, General. And so are we!" - "You'll be shooting each other, you damned fool! You wanna get killed?" - "I want that ape's head on the hood of my pick-up!"

Overall, an unnecessarily daft and badly made sequel. And the title... well,
"King Kong Loves" would be better fitting ;-)

Wiki ~ Imdb

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KING KONG

Alternate Title:
Peter Jackson's King Kong

New Zealand / USA / Germany, 2005
Director: Peter Jackson

5,5/10

After I saw the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, I was pretty sure that Peter Jackson is the world's best director. LOTR was mindblowing, and all the movies he made prior to LOTR, well they are ALL absolutely awesome, so when I first heard that he's gonna do a new version of "King Kong", I was pretty sure that this was gonna be the greatest monster movie of all time. Yet, Jackson's dream project turned out to be an utterly frustrating nightmare of a movie, at least compared to his other movies. Jackson's first big failure and still his "worst" movie. Even the highly flawed "Lovely Bones" is better than this.

"King Kong" is too much of everything. It's way, WAY too long. 3 hours??? Fuck that, you could easily trim it down to 2 hours. There are too many subplots that aren't interesting enough to keep it in, too many characters that aren't important enough to keep them in, too much lengthy dialogue, too many drawn-out scenes, too much drawn-out camera work, and too much lovey-dovey romance shit.

King Kong looks absolutely awesome - Top notch CGI deluxe! - and when he gets wild he's one helluva badass gorilla, but there are too many scenes where he's coming off as wimpy nuisance. Watching sunsets? Sliding on ice? Aw c'mon! I want my King Kong to be as killer as in the original - and wasn't this meant to be a tribute to the 1933 original? Actually, I thought it wasn't exactly a good decision to do another Kong-flick in 30s NY. It all felt contrived and false. Way too retro IMO.

The scene down in the pit is incredible. Loads of fantastic insect action. Worms, spiders and other creepy creatures. I also love Kong going apeshit in NY, the Brontosaurus stampede and the uber-insane, head-spinning T-Rex sequence - although it's disappointing that all the T-Rex's look so much worse than the ones in Jurassic Park which still look nearly perfect.
[Note: JP was done 12 years prior to KK...]
There's also lots of other very weak CGI stuff: terrible-looking fire, unrealistic-looking landscapes, CG tracking shots that look like we're in a computer game. Hell, there is even a scene where some pebbles stones fall off... goddammit, that was also done in lame CGI! *grrr*

The cast is mediocre. Naomi Watts is good in the Kong-scenes, but quite awful in the non-Kong-scenes, especially in the dreadfully boring first hour. Jack Black... well, I never liked this guy, but I'm ok with his funny performances. His attempt in serious acting here... nah, that was at times so unbearable, it wasn't even funny.

Rest of the cast: a decent Adrien Brody, a cool Thomas Kretschmann (who reminded me a lot of old-school Jürgen Prochnow),
and many neat but forgettable b-actors.

Final thoughts? Well, King Kong is dead, Peter Jackson is back in Middle Earth and Maynard's fully ok with that ^_^

Wiki ~ Imdb

May Monster Madness, Day 5: QUEEN KONG (1976)

QUEEN KONG

German Titles:
Die tollen Abenteuer der Queen Kong / Queen Gorilla / Banga Banga - Im Urwald ist kein Taxi frei

UK / West Germany / France / Italy, 1976
Director: Frank Agrama

7/10

If you never heard of "Queen Kong" before, blame it on that fucktard Dino de Laurentiis who prevented it from going theatrical in UK and USA by suing the shit out of the filmmakers, because of his very own "King Kong" (1976) - which is really, really sad, because, apart from German-speaking countries, Japan and several other countries where it found its way into theaters, "Queen Kong" is extremely unknown and hardly anyone knows about the hilariosity of this flick.

My goodness, I loved the apeshit out of it! Director Frank Agrama ("Dawn of the Mummy") created an absolutely uber-hilarious lowest-budget spoof on the original "King Kong" (1933), an uber-hilarious funfest which could be considered as the world's first and only feminist monster-movie - yup, you read right!
A bunch of female feminist filmmakers and a zany hippie travel on their boat "Liberated Lady" from London to a place in Uganda called "Lazanga Where They Do The Konga" where they stumble upon a campy female version of King Kong, the mighty "Queen Kong". They take that nutty creature back to London and show it to Queen Elizabeth who is not exactly amused about it. The hippie starts spreading feminist paroles, Queen Kong climbs Big Ben and everybody has a real good time :-D

It's undoubtedly one of the silliest flicks I've seen in a long time, but omg, I had such a blast staring at all the over-the-top redonkulousness throughout this cinematic piece of insanity!

A female shark with lipstick is popping up, several African dancers getting possessed, spewing out pea soup, and somewhere in London a "Ronald Reagan Film Festival" is held. There's a guy who's advertising a toilet cleaner "that makes your toilet as clean as your mouth", and a band called "The Orangutangs" sings funky tunes with lyrics like "She's a queenie for my weenie!" or "When I'm feeling mighty spunky, I wanna do it with my hunky monkey!"

The people in Lazanga have their very own "Kong Gong", the jungle is filled with rubber dinosaurs, prehistoric bag-pipes and "man-eating rose bushes", a grumpy crocodile swims by, saying "Rubbish.", and there's aso a nutty nun on a plane, singing "I like flying big planes / Little planes, medium-size planes / All kinds of planes / I like flying eeny-weeny planes / Itsy-bitsy planes and grand planes / All kinds of planes..."

Dialogue highlights:

"The sea is like a woman unfolding her vast mysteries before us... relentlessly... relentlessly... relentlessly..." - "What a great line. I wish I'd said that."

"Lazanga where they do the Konga?" - "Our destination where no Englishman has ever set foot." - "Why has no Englishman ever set foot there?" - "Full of Australians."

"I'm so frightened. I've always been helpless. I ued to stay at home with daddy while mom and the girls went out and played soccer." - "Don't worry. I'm a woman. I protect you."

"Yaka buga huga! (...) Yaka buga. Que sera sera." - "What's that?" - "She said she wants you because you look like Doris Day." - "Who's he?"

"You can't eat me! I'm Jewish! I'm Irish! I'm black! I'm a leper. I'm a Jewish Irish black leper!"

"Oh my god! A prehistoric bagpipe! Like those that wandered the Earth thousands of years ago!"

A wonderful flick. "Queen Kong" is a total must-see for people who enjoy the hell out of schlock like "Guru The Mad Monk" or "The Undertaker and his Pals",
like me! =)

Wiki ~ Imdb

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May Monster Madness, Day 4: THE MIGHTY GORGA (1969)

THE MIGHTY GORGA

German Title:
Mighty Gorga - Das grösste Monster auf Erden

USA, 1969
Director: David L. Hewitt

2/10

(HUGE Thanks to Brian from "COOL ASS CINEMA"
who provided me with a copy of the movie!)

Not as bad as I expected, but still pretty bad: "The Mighty Gorga", undoubtedly the lousiest, laziest and cheapest giant ape movie I've seen so far. Director Hewitt, mastermind behind rubbish like "Monsters Crash the Pajama Party" or "The Wizard of Mars", created a dull and completely foreseeable lowest-lowest-budget drive-in stinker that offers almost nothing worth seeing.

The acting is really bad and nearly all of the characters are boring and unsympathetic - except for the hilarious witch doctor who looks and acts like he's on some extremely weird drugs. Direction and pacing are absolutely horrid, the settings all look lame, the editing is shoddy as hell and several scenes get re-used over and over in such an obvious way, it's almost shocking.

Even worse: the jaw-droppingly bad special / make-up / creature effects.
Gorga looks as if he's completely retarded, he moves like he's physically AND mentally disabled, and the fact that we never get to see him from the waist down, makes him look even more stupid. The scene where a small building "bursts into flames" is probably the worst fire-scene in history, and the stop-motion dragon tht was edited in from "Goliath and the Dragon"... well, it totally doesn't fit in because it looks so much more professionally done :-)

Best/Worst of all: the T-Rex (which lays pink eggs!) - a completely and utterly laughable plastic toy dinosaur which constantly opens and closes his mouth. Seeing it "wrestling" with Gorga made me laugh like an idiot :D

1 point for the dinosaur, 1 point for a handful unintentionally funny scenes.
Nuff said.

Wiki ~ Imdb

May Monster Madness, Day 3: A*P*E (1976)

A*P*E

Alternate Titles:
Ape / Attack Of The Giant Horny Gorilla / Süper King Kong / Hideous Mutant / Super Kong

South Korea / USA, 1976
Director: Paul Leder

LOL/10

Over the last two decades, South Korea has become a reliable producer of great, often highly impressive genre films - but back in the 70s which is known as the "Revitalizing Government" era, things were a bit different (read here!), so when the South Korean film studios Kukje and Lee Ming Film Co. decided to team up with the American Worldwide Entertainment studios to produce a low-budget 3D version of "King Kong" to capitalize on the then-upcoming Dino-de-Laurentiis-produced "King Kong"-reboot... well, you could say it wasn't exactly a good idea. In fact, it was a downright awful idea.

The movie was supposed to be called "The New King Kong" (see below), but RKO sued the shit out of the filmakers, and so they changed the title to
"A*P*E" (= Attacking Primate MonstEr). The original tagline "The greatest Kong of all!" was changed into "Not to be confused with King Kong".

Several countries still released it under Kong-related titles:
France: King Kong revient! = King Kong returns! 
/ La revolte de Kong = The Revolt of Kong
Netherlands: King Kong komt in Opstand = King Kong revolts
Turkey: Süper King Kong

In the end, that all doesn't matter because actually, "A*P*E" turned out to be one of the most laughable movies in history. It's so bad, so dumb, so effin' absurd, it's a must-see! :-) For about 85 minutes, we get to see one helluva ridiculous-looking monster ape stumbling around cardboard buildings and miniature cows, fighting against dead sharks, throwing around snakes, dancing like a dimwit to the ludicrous film music and fighting off attacking paratroopers with gym exercises.

Every single special effect looks shoddy, the over-the-top soundtrack is highly annoying, and the editing was probably done by a three-year-old. The acting is generally horrible and most of the dialogue is simply terrible - apart from that guy who says "You gotta be bullshitting me!" at 3:14, which is an exact description of the entire movie.

Recommended as a double feature with "Troll 2" and/or "The Creeping Terror", and with lots... LOTS of alcohol! =D

Wiki ~ Imdb

May Monster Madness, Day 2: THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN (1977)

THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN

Original Title:
Xing xing wang

Alternate Title:
Goliathon

German Title:
Der Koloss von Konga

Hong Kong, 1977
Director: Meng Hua Ho

7/10

During my 'research' about monster-ape flicks, I stumbled upon "The Mighty Peking Man", an Asian monster-ape flick I thought I've never heard of - until I checked its German title ("Der Koloss von Konga" = The Colossus of Konga) which made me realize: omfg yes! I've seen this!
I guess I was 12-13 years old when it aired on Austrian Television one Saturday afternoon. I watched it together with my mother (who happens to love all kinds of monster movies) and we both highly enjoyed it, especially (I remember that clearly!) one scene where some guy fights with a real tiger.

Ok, the tiger-scene isn't as spectacular as I remembered, but aside from that... wow! This is still an excellently entertaining flick, far better than its general reputation. Of course, it's cheaply made and far from being original. The notorious Shaw Brothers Studios just wanted to cash in on the 70s ape-craze, so they ripped off the basic "King Kong" concept, moved the story from America to Asia, and named the ape "Peking Man" (which is actually an example of Homo Erectus). Yet, what could have been a disaster, is actually a very fine example of old-school ape-sploitation.

Director Meng Hua Ho turned the eventful script into a fun and exciting blast of a movie, beautifully filmed, and accompanied with a superb and effective soundtrack. The Peking Man's face looks silly, but as a whole, he's quite an impressive ape, moving and acting way more realistic than in many of the other King Kong knock-offs of the 60s and 70s. The miniature buildings look cheesy and tacky, but all the destruction scenes were shot in a cool Godzilla-like way. Lots of action, lots of fire and explosions, and the dramatic finale is sooo amazing, it makes you completely forget about the bland ending in '76 "King Kong".

There's also a nice amount of bright-red blood and the body count is surpringly high (quicksand, elephant stampede, stomped by gorilla foot...). The acting is so-so, but the characters are all wonderfully likable (Danny Lee as heart-broken adventurer, Ku Feng as his brother), and Swiss bombshell Evelyne Kraft is one helluva hottie!

There are some major flaws (girl who lives in the deep of the jungle for about 20 years wears make-up, Peking Man's size varies a lot, some guy gets thrown off of a huge building and lands unscathed on the ground), and several scenes are unintentionally hilarious, especially the one where the girl gets bitten by a snake on the inner thigh and the guy sucks the poison out of the wound - the whole scene was filmed in a way, it actually looks as if he's licking her pussy :-D



Aside from that, I love this movie and highly recommend it to everyone who loves some good ol' Asian monster excitement!

Wiki ~ Imdb

May Monster Madness, Day 1: KONGA (1961)

KONGA

German Title:
Konga - Erbe von King Kong

UK / USA, 1961
Director: John Lemont

3,5/10

"Konga" is one of many b-horror movies that were written and produced by monster-movie-maker Herman Cohen (a second-rate Roger Corman), starring the mighty Michael Gough.
Cohen was always endemic to America, but after the success of his first British production "Horrors of the Black Museum", he spent the entire 60s in Europe, writing and producing several British and Italian genre flicks.

His first 60s production was the shoddy-looking and incredibly campy "Konga", a super-schlocky King Kong knock-off with a plot that really takes the cake: a botanist creates a growth-serum out of the leaves of carnivorous plants that turns his pet chimpanzee into a huge Gorilla-like ape-creature that breaks free and rampages through good ol' London...

Michael Gough is awesome as always and it's fun to see him dropping utterly stupid lines with a perfect straight face ["Please leave, I want to be alone with Konga." / "Extracts from these plants will prove to be the link between vegetables and animal life."]. I also highly enjoyed the perormance of the strangely gorgeous Margo Johns, the score is cool and the few Konga-kills are all fun.

Everything else is just bad. Konga's costume and the plastic plants looks absolutely laughable, and the scenes where the ape is getting bigger... well, they are all sooo effin' ridiculous, I couldn't stop laughing. Also, Konga's size changes in almost every scene he's in, script and direction are both horribly weak, and I "love" how the movie can't decide what it wants to be. The first third looks like an insane mix of "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "Day of the Triffids" and "Revenge of Dr. X", the middle is more of an implausible love triangle between Gough, his housekeeper and some dumb blonde, and the finale is just pure ape-sploitation: Konga strolling through the streets of London, destroying buildings, staring at Big ben, getting shot.

The poster artwork is actually the best thing about the whole movie LOL :-D

Wiki ~ Imdb