Movie Reviews: Konga
Doctor Charles Decker (Michael Gough) turns up alive and well after being believed dead after his plane crashes in Uganda. It is revealed that during his time in Africa Decker has discovered a way of growing plants to an enormous size. Decker brings home a chimpanzee named Konga who he plans to use as a test subject. However, Decker has enemies and he comes upon the idea of sending out Konga to take care of them. What could possibly go wrong?
My original intention was to review Gorgo, the British Godzilla. Unfortunately, the DVD I had was damaged. I tried looking for a new DVD online, but they were all out of my price range. This movie was on my to do list any way. Instead of the British Godzilla, we get the British King Kong. This time with good old Michael Gough being an outrageous ham!
Michael Gough is undoubtedly the best thing about this film. He can usually be relied upon to liven up even the dullest film with a wonderfully hammy performance and this film is no different. I suppose that anybody would seem hammy compared to the rest of the wooden performances in the film. I have seen more life in the tree in my front garden.
Konga is quite cute when he is a baby chimpanzee, but then everything goes downhill when Decker injects him with the growth serum and he turns into a man in a rubbish gorilla suit. Decker has obviously lost his marbles since his time in Africa, so he sends Konga off to eliminate whoever her perceives as his rivals, from the dean of the university to the boyfriend of the lovely co-ed who has caught Decker's eye.
The film's climax is a bit of an anti-climax. Decker's housekeeper becomes jealous of the attention decker is giving the young girl and injects Konga with more of the serum intending for Konga to kill her. It all goes wrong when Konga grows to giant size and goes on a rampage.
Actually, I'm not sure whether I can call the film's climax a rampage as all Konga does is take a wander around London and wait for the army to shoot him to death. I guess the film's low budget couldn't handle Konga actually smashing up any buildings.
Michael Gough's hammy performance saves the film from becoming a total waste of time, but I can't really recommend the film unless you are an aficionado of rubbish monster movies.
Two and a half pointy hats.
This film was disappointing, but it hasn't dampened my desire for more monster movies. As I said in my Beast from 20,000 Fathoms reviews, Tarantula and Them! are on my to do list. Of course, I have already seen and reviewed the original 1933 King Kong as well as the 1976 remake and it's sequel, King Kong Lives. I have seen the 2005 version directed by Peter Jackson, but am yet to review it. Any suggestions of good giant ape movies are always welcome. I'll keep an eye out to see if I can find Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young at a reasonable price. Unless there are better giant apes movies out there.
Next time: Cast Away
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