Congo (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Adventure	Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	103:46
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (51:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Frank Marshall
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Dylan Walsh Laura Linney Ernie Hudson Grant Heslov Joe Don Baker Tim Curry
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Jerry Goldsmith

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Croatian French Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits.

     From the pen of Michael Crichton, the man who bought us Jurassic Park, comes Congo - a far less successful screen adaptation of one of his best selling novels. The story begins with a Amy, a gorilla who with the aid of modern technology has the ability to actually talk using sign language. Through Amy's new voice and her paintings it soon becomes clear to her caretaker and guardian Dr. Peter Elliot (Dylan Walsh) that she yearns to go back to the jungle from once which she came - and so begins an arduous journey to the Congo. Along for the ride is former CIA agent Dr. Karen Ross (played by the ever lovely Laura Linney), who has a different motive - to find her colleagues who in their last satellite transmission from the Congo were attacked by someone or something in jungle. Finally like a parasite attaching to it's host is Herkermer Homolka (played by Tim Curry with the worst accent ever) an explorer who's only motive is to fulfill his lifelong quest to find the Lost City of Zinj which as fable would have it houses a wealth of rare diamonds. To help on their quest is a local guide Captain Munro (played by the very underrated Ernie Hudson). Once they arrive at the City of Zinj and discover the fate Dr. Karen Ross's colleagues they soon realise that the myth of the killer gorilla may indeed be true. Also worth a mention is two uncredited but very entertaining cameo performances by Joe Pantoliano and Delroy Lindo.

     Congo is directed by Frank Marshall who, as the IMDB will testify, is far better known for his roles as producer and executive producer. Films to his credit under the producer cap include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Sixth Sense. Conversely the other two films he directed are Arachnophobia and Alive - both not exactly highlights in motion picture history. At some point I guess it's inevitable that someone with this much experience will attempt to extend their profession into other areas, but a lot of the time it proves to better just to stick with what you're good at - and Congo is testament to that. The problem really lies in the screenplay and in all fairness to Frank Marshall it's actually a recurring problem with all of Michael Crichton's screen adaptations in my view - some critics say the problem traces right back to his novels, but having never read any I can neither confirm nor deny this. While it is possible to mask a poor screenplay with a touch of style and a pinch of class Congo sadly has neither and never equates to anything more than a film that will be forever doomed to late night free-to-air television.

     The screenplay aside there's some good special effects to found, well as good as you can get for a 1995 movie. Unfortunately all of the gorillas in the movie aren't real and despite the best attempts by Stan Winston still look very fake to the point of distraction. That's not to say they're bad costumes, on the contrary, but as many would know it's much easier to make a convincing costume of something that doesn't actually exist in real life rather than one that does. Despite it's many failings I do remember being very entertained when I saw Congo at the cinemas as a teenager, however after watching it again I can only conclude my standards have definitely gone up in the subsequent 9 years. The IMDB's user rating of 4.4/10 for Congo is spot on.

Video

     The transfer is presented in 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. This is very close to the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

     This is not an especially sharp transfer and indeed falls within that horrible void between 1987 and the dawn of DVD in 1997 where films are deemed not old enough to warrant a restoration but are old enough to have a few niggling problems that are merely given band-aid solutions when transferred to DVD. This is usually why movies from the early 80's look much better than movies from the early 90's on DVD. The problem in the case of Congo is the film-to-video transfer is not particularly sharp and Paramount have sought to remedy this by applying a moderate level of edge enhancement which gives the edges a slight white halo. This is something I've seen many a time before from Paramount - most notably in The General's Daughter. On the up side shadow detail is good and there is no low level noise.

     Colours throughout the feature are a little faded and never become particularly vibrant at any stage. Again this is further evidence of my 10 year void theory.

     MPEG artefacts are all but absent - not surprising given the bit-rate usually sits above 8Mbs - very often peaking at 10Mbs. There is little in the way of film-to-video artefacts - some trivial instances of aliasing is about it. There is some minor film grain present, which is probably accentuated somewhat by the edge enhancement. Finally there's a moderate splattering of film artefacts throughout - they're not particularly distracting but they really could have been removed with minimal restoration.

     There are a few subtitle tracks present - I briefly sampled the English track and found it to reasonably accurate although edited down and simplified somewhat.

     This is an RSDL disc with the layer change occurring at 51:22 during mid-scene. It's moderately disruptive as there is a noticeable pause in the image and a drop-out in the audio.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbs). The is also French, Italian and Spanish dubs available as well - all Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kbs).

     Dialogue is loud and clear throughout the entire feature. There are no audio sync issues.

     The music is by the very talented Jerry Goldsmith who provides a very African influenced score that really deserves to be in a movie of a much higher class.

     Until the film enters the jungle the soundtrack is pretty much a 3.1 frontal affair with little in the way surround presence. Once in the jungle however the soundstage opens up a little with some ambience including the usual jungle sounds of birds and insects being sent to the rears, in fact at times I thought the sound mixers had picked out the wrong sound effects CD because I could swear it sounded like the Australian bush - unless by some chance there is a bird in the Congo that sounds identical to the Kookaburra. Sadly however most of the time these ambience effects are mixed significantly lower than the effects in the front channels so you don't really notice them. There was one interesting bird sound that caught my ear at 69:47 where you can hear a bird fly from the front speakers to the rears. Towards the end during the gorilla attacks and volcanic eruption there are some directional effects sent to the rears, this time mixed at an equal level.

     The subwoofer doesn't get used to any great effect until the volcanic eruption at the end where even then it only provides a moderate rumble rather than a full-on onslaught of bass. Only 4 on the Richter Scale at best.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Like many of Paramount's less successful back catalogue titles, Congo has nothing in the way of extras with the exception of a theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer which I always find difficult classifying as extras at the best of times.

Theatrical Trailer

     1:78:1 and 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 (surround encoded) audio. This trailer contains just about every artefact I can think of and then some. Telecine wobble from hell.

Teaser Trailer

     1:78:1 and 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 (surround encoded) audio.

     The only difference between the Region 1 and Region 4 versions are the alternate audio options.

     The Region 4 version misses out on:

• English and French Dolby Digital 2.0 audio

     The Region 1 version misses out on:

• French, Italian and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio

     Call it draw.

     Congo is an interesting but ultimately disappointing thriller that is perhaps worth a rental - certainly given the lack of any extras it's not worth a purchase unless you really love the movie.

     The video transfer is good but nothing special.

     The audio is similarly good but overall is nothing to get excited about.

     In the tradition of most of Paramount's other back catalogue titles there are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall