Michael Crichton wrote some of the most prescient and compelling page-turners of the past 50 years: “The Andromeda Strain,” “Timeline,” “Sphere,” “Jurassic Park,” and “Disclosure,” to name a few. He was perhaps unfairly written off by some naysayers for churning out airport novels, but there is no denying that the slick style of his well-researched techno-thrillers was a great match for Hollywood and has provided the source material for a string of blockbusters. Among his more pulpy books was “Congo,” about the killer monkeys and a lost city of diamonds. The inevitable big-screen adaptation was slammed by critics, but it still became a surprise box office hit — and also featured Ernie Hudson’s favorite role.
It’s always welcome to see Hudson in a movie, although in general he is best known for playing supporting characters such as 4th-wheel Winston in “Ghostbusters,” the intellectually-disabled handyman in “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” and the kindly cop in “The Crow.” Over his lengthy career, Hudson hasn’t had the opportunity to play the lead too often in major feature films, but he got his chance in “Congo.” He told AV Club:
“‘Congo’ was my film. It was my character, and I got a chance to do my version of whatever a leading man is, which has always been a bit of a challenge, finding those parts. I had so much fun with that character, and they allowed me, reluctantly, to do the accent and be the African guide. It was just so much fun, and it’s probably my favorite character of all.”
Hudson has every right to be proud because his turn as dashing adventurer Captain Munro Kelly is the standout performance in a movie that plays like a weirdo cousin to “Jurassic Park.”
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What happens in Congo?
Ernie Hudson as Captain Monroe Kelly in Congo – Paramount Pictures
Charles Travis (Bruce Campbell) is on an expedition to a remote region of the Congo seeking rare blue diamonds that are essential for a groundbreaking new communications satellite. When he and his party fall foul to ferocious gorillas in the vicinity of an ominously rumbling volcano, Charles’ dad and the company’s greedy CEO (Joe Don Baker) dispatches former CIA agent Karen Ross (Laura Linney) to pick up the pieces.
Karen attaches herself to a separate project led by primate expert Peter Elliott (Dylan Walsh) to return Amy, a young gorilla who communicates through computer voice-assisted sign language tech, to her native home in the very same jungles. The jaunt is funded by dodgy philanthropist Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry), who is more interested in finding the fabled lost city of Zinj and its diamond mine. Their arrival in Africa coincides with a chaotic insurrection, and they hire British mercenary Captain Munro Kelly (Ernie Hudson) to bribe the corrupt militia and get them in and out of their destination. But once they locate the mythical site, its bloodthirsty gorilla guardians are far more impervious to Monroe’s charms.
“Congo” was Crichton’s modern-day version of a Rider Haggard-style ripping yarn like “King Solomon’s Mines” with Munro as his equivalent of Allan Quatermain. When he tried to adapt the novel for the screen in the early ’80s, he envisioned Sean Connery playing British-Indian mercenary. When a movie version finally got the green light in the ’90s, the character was changed to a Black British adventurer instead. Enter Ernie Hudson, and that casting choice works perfectly for a cheesy movie like this. Connery might well have capsized it, and he fared poorly when playing Quatermain several years later in “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” one of the worst superhero movies ever.
Is Congo worth watching?
Amy the gorilla enjoying a martini in Congo – Paramount Pictures
“Congo” has a reputation as a “so bad it’s good” kind of movie, and I had an absolute blast watching it. I’d even say that it’s not even particularly bad; I think it was just a case of unfortunate timing and mis-managed audience expectations. Based on another Michael Crichton novel and coming out a few years after Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park,” movie-goers were probably craving more of the same. Instead, they got an adventure that feels like a throwback to adventures from the ’70s like “The Land That Time Forgot” and “Warlords of Atlantis.”
Viewed from that perspective, “Congo” is an expensive B-movie that knows it’s a B-movie and delivers a rollicking good time packed with poisonous snakes, hungry hippos, lost cities, fabulous treasure, mysterious tribes, and a cataclysmic last act when that Chekhov’s volcano finally explodes. The endearingly B-list cast all apparently understood the brief and seem to be having fun. Linney enjoys her chance to play a ray gun-wielding badass while Curry hams it up deliciously as the group’s main villain. Delroy Lindo, Joe Don Baker, and Joe Pantoliano all devour every bite of scenery in their small roles, and the only downside in the casting is Dylan Walsh in the male lead. Surely Steve Guttenberg would’ve been a shoo-in for the part if the movie was made 10 years earlier.
With Walsh’s almost total lack of charisma and screen presence, Ernie Hudson takes full command as the movie’s hero. Adopting a debonair British accent, he’s clearly relishing the limelight, handling both Munro’s expository dialogue and the action beats with equal aplomb. The character has become a “Congo” fan favorite over the years and Hudson has expressed his desire to play him again in a sequel.
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