ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

____________

What if they made a movie that involved a new communications satellite, a powerful new laser rifle that uses a big diamond, an African adventure, the site of the legendary King Solomon's Mines, and a few dozen bred-for-savagery, trained killer gorillas.

Sounds fun, eh?

And it is.

From Mr. Jurassic Park himself -- Michael Crichton -- and the man who directed the film version of that little yarn -- Frank Marshall -- comes a spirited tale of adventure, romance, and ugly monkeys that would scare King Kong.

We also get a adolescent gorilla who wears a device on her arm that enunciates words the ape signals with hand gestures. As an animal sidekick on a grand adventure, she certainly has advantages over Gertrude the duck from "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

The film did okay at the box office, but the critics didn't like it, except for Siskel and Ebert. Wikipedia says that audiences didn't care for the men-in-gorilla-suits (even though they look awesome) because they were spoiled by the CGI in "Jurassic Park".

Ain't life funny. Now folks bitch about those "fake looking" CGI special effects.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I also thought that the gorilla suits were superbly done, Bud.

Interesting to read people's comments regarding special & visual FX. You have the camp that all CGI is horrendous, all model work terrific, stop-motion is magical, or s-m is surreal.

I love FX, read many an article about them, have a number of books on the subject.

Like anything else, there are top notch FX & poor FX & they occur in all areas of FX from models, to CGI, s-m, makeup, animatronics. No area is immune.

People should see that ,but some do not.

And so it goes.

[Rocky Jones]

I liked this one well enough, though I thought it could have been a bit better. I had read Crichton's novel long before and had always had about the same opinion of it. In the novel Crichton was pretty obsessed with technology and acronyms and they kind of played down tech in the film. I suppose if they did this one today they'd animate the apes as they're doing in the new Planet of the... movies. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to see a nice tight '90s adventure film without a lot of bells and whistles.

[Bud Brewster]

I second that recommendation, Captain Jones!

And Ernie Hudson is always a joy to watch. How 'bout that scene where he and Laura Linney stand in the doorway of the DC-3 and fire flares to attract the heat seeking missiles fired from shoulder-mounted launchers?

Very cool.









_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[ralfy]

That's a fun movie with some very interesting characters. Munro's my favorite.

[Pow]

Reading about how a film's concept can evolve, go through transitions, devolve, go off the rails, hit the proverbial brick wall, and then somehow, someway get back on the rails can sometimes be as intriguing as the final product itself.

After his film "The Great Train Robbery" (February 2, 1979) did so well, author Michael Crichton wrote a screenplay specifically for Sean Connery.

Connery was to play Charles Munro, an archetypal "great white hunter'' along the lines of author H. Rider Haggard's hero Alan Quaterman. Ironically enough, Connery would portray Quaterman later on in the film "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman."

Crichton's outline was intended to be an homage to the classic pulp adventure tales.

He successfully sold the idea to 20th Century Fox without having fully fleshed out the screenplay.

When Michael Crichton discovers that he will be unable to use a real gorilla for "Amy," he leaves the project.

The project is offered to Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter. Both decline.

The project is briefly revived in the late 80s and then abandoned.

So the development of film projects can be a long and winding road with more than a few detours and stops along the way.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
________________________________

~ Ernie Hudson stated that playing the character "Captain Munroe Kelly" is his personal favorite from his career.

Note from me: I'm surprised. I love Ernie's performance in this movie, but I thought he'd pick Ghostbusters.

~ Executive producer and director Frank Marshall originally intended to use the computer work pioneered on Jurassic Park (1993) for the gorillas, but opted for models, as the computers weren't capable of reproducing hair.

Note from me: My, how times have changed. These days CGI can do anything at all.

~ The "diamonds" used for the scenes during the climax of the movie were actually Herkimer Diamonds borrowed from the Herkimer Diamond Mines of Middleville, New York. They are doubly-terminated (two-ended) quartz crystals that are found in only two places in the world.

They were the only gems that would look enough like diamonds and be that large. As a kind of tribute, Tim Curry's character's first name is "Herkermer" (his character does not appear in the Michael Crichton novel upon which the movie was based).

Note from me: Frankly, I don't think the audience would know diamonds from glass. I'm not even sure a jeweler would know the difference just from looking at the image on a movie screen.

~ The diamond that was thrown out of the balloon at the end of the movie was lost, and so could not be returned to Herkimer Diamond Mines.

Note from me: Curious. Does anybody really believe the balloon AND the camera were high up in the air when the scene was filmed. If so, why?

Close ups of planes, helicopters, and balloons are usually filmed from a few feet away, on the ground, with the camera angled upward and a fan blowing smoke past the aircraft.

So, how did they manage to loose a diamond? And besides, why didn't they just drop a hunk of glass!

____________ Congo (1995) Official Trailer # 1


__________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)