Steven Spielberg knows you don't show the monster right away. Whether it's the shark in "Jaws" or the "Jurassic Park" dinosaurs, you make the audience wait awhile before you allow them to see that nightmare creature that has been only partially glimpsed or hidden in the dark.
Spielberg protege Frank Marshall tries the same technique with "Congo," giving us sidelong glances at his monsters until the film's blowout climax, when he finally reveals the "killer apes," gray gorillas who use humans as teething rings.
But it's much ado about nothing. A guy in a monkey suit is still just a guy in a monkey suit, and the film simply doesn't deliver.
Long before that, however, audience-members may find themselves giving up as they are forced to endure stiff acting, hokey dialogue and bad accents.
The film begins as a scientific team (led by Bruce Campbell) is deep in the jungles of Africa searching for "a flawless diamond." When they are suddenly wiped out by something mysterious, another scientist (Laura Linney) is sent to find out what happened — and to get that diamond for her ruthless boss (Joe Don Baker).
In Africa, she links up with a scientist (Dylan Walsh) heading for the same area, his purpose being to release a highly intelligent gorilla named "Amy" back to the wild. (Amy has been taught to sign, and a computerized glove even allows her to "speak.") With them are a Romanian "philanthropist" (Tim Curry), who has a hidden agenda, and their guide (Ernie Hudson).
Eventually, the group stumbles on the remains of the first scientific team, along with King Solomon's lost city. But they get more than they bargained for as the gray gorillas attack, earthquakes begin and a volcano erupts.
The biggest problem here is that all of this is played straight. If ever a film cried out for a sense of humor, it's "Congo." (A curious situation, given that Marshall's first movie, "Arachnophobia," had humor in spades.)
This is slick, big-budget Hollywood hokum at its most ridiculous.
John Patrick Shanley, who won an Oscar for his "Moonstruck" script, ravages Michael Crichton's novel in a manner that suggests he's seen to many "Jungle Jim" serials, and his dialogue is riddled with cliches. And when the overblown climax finally arrives, it's an "Indiana Jones" knockoff — more like "Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold" than "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
While Laura Linney, who had small parts in "Dave," "Lorenzo's Oil" and "Searching for Bobby Fischer," tries hard in what is essentially the film's lead role (and chief hero), everyone else seems awkward, from Baker's bombastic capitalist to Hudson's affected accent to Curry's pop-eyed greed (and an even worse accent).
And we won't even comment on whoever is in that "Amy" suit.
"Congo" is rated PG-13 — though it certainly pushes it — for extreme violence and gore, a fair amount of profanity and some vulgar comments.