MIGHTY JOE YOUNG A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1999 David N. Butterworth
*1/2 (out of ****)
In the finale of Disney's "Mighty Joe Young," a 15-foot tall, 2000-pound gorilla holds a frightened young boy in its clutches as it topples from a crippled Ferris wheel and plummets to the ground. Upon impact, rugged everyman and perennial do-gooder Bill Paxton rushes in, containing the emotional crowd with an earnest "move along now folks, there's nothing to see here."
OK, so those aren't exactly the words he uses, but it's probably one of the few clichés not uttered in this unnecessary remake of an unnecessary remake of that mother of all monster movies, "King Kong."
1949's "Mighty Joe Young" was an update of that classic creature feature, also based on Merian C. Cooper's original story (16 years after "'Kong" it appeared the world was ready for a new take on the beauty and the beast fable). Now some 49 years later, at least according to Disney's way of thinking, the world is ready for one more.
Not so. The only--and I mean only--reason to see the 1998 version is for the special effects. And these, unfortunately, run hot and cold.
Today's Joe Young is designed and produced by special-effects whiz Rick Baker, who has been wowing audiences with his state-of-the-art make-up effects since 1971's "Schlock" (which, incidentally, featured a Baker-enhanced "gorilla"). Joe is a combination of animatronic effects, computer graphics, and that old standard, a man in a monkey suit. While there are occasional flashes of brilliance--Baker's had a lot of practice with simian effects, after all, including "Gorillas in the Mist," "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes," and the 1976 remake of "King Kong"--there's also some surprising cheesiness.
One of the film's most embarrassing moments is when Paxton's band of African trackers first encounter and pursue the larger-than-life primate (in a scene unashamedly ripped off from "The Lost World: Jurassic Park"). Paxton jubilantly extols the beast's majestic gait at the same exact moment as Joe, and the computer effects driving him, stutter to a halt.
Also, if the film's producers had wanted us to focus our attentions on the titular ape they shouldn't have paraded female lead Charlize Theron ("Trial & Error") around in a seemingly-endless wardrobe of spaghetti-strapped tops. Even Joe seems distracted at times.
The film piles on the clichés like there's no tomorrow, including the predictable plot (anthro-zoologists ship gigantic gorilla to L.A. where urban havoc is inevitably wrought), predictable villain (a Lithuanian I think I overheard someplace), predictable love story (Bill and Charlize--surprise!), and predictable denouement ("'twas box-office receipts that killed the beast"). Kids raised on "Men in Black" (non-monkey effects also by Baker) are going to find Ron ("Tremors") Underwood's outing a little lame by comparison.
While certainly better than 1978's "King Kong Lives" (itself a lousy sequel to a not particularly good remake), "Mighty Joe Young" proves how the mighty keep falling.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb61@hotmail.com
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