Visitors Review

bkoganbing (2012-05-23 23:12)

Just plain monkey business

Marc Lawrence who had blacklisting problems and was exiled for yearsfrom the USA had to take parts in a lot of really bad films. But Idon't think he sunk lower in his career than when he took the part ofthe mad scientist in Kong Island. At least Lawrence got to chew a set full of scenery and after that awhole jungle on this mythical tropical island where there are a wholelot of gorillas running wild. Lawrence thinks they'd make greatsoldier/slaves and he's invented a control device to implant in theirskulls so he can bend them to his will. Dr. Moreau on his island neverthought of anything this fiendish.Brad Harris who was one of many peplum heroes got to occasionally weara shirt in this, but we saw enough of his well developed torso andshoulders. It was a change of pace for Harris who is the hero, but thefilm belongs to Marc Lawrence though I'm sure he winced at the mentionof this one.

classicsoncall (2012-05-23 07:51)

"I've been hunting the sacred monkey for a year and I don't intend to lose her now."

If the handful of postings from prior reviewers haven't been enough,let me chime in with my two cents for "Kong Island". In the traditionof hundreds of 'B' Westerns of the Thirties and Forties, the story hasabsolutely nothing to do with the title, which on the surface, looks tobe cashing in on the gorilla frenzy of those prior eras. To be sure,there are men in monkey suits, but there is nothing of King Kongstature in size or excitement to hold this turkey together.Brad Harris portrays adventurer Burt Dawson, on the trail of the manwho crossed him in an East African payroll robbery. So just for therecord, the lead character is really no better than the goon he setsout after. Allowing for the redemption factor, a mission to rescue thekidnapped daughter (Ursula Davis) of a wealthy financier, Dawson setsout to confront the guy who double crossed him. Harris, a veteran ofseveral Hercules movies, gets to do the obligatory shirtless sceneabout halfway through in a jungle pool. He's observed by Eva of theItalian title for this gorilla trek, who's long flowing hair isstrategically aligned to cover her, well shall we say coconuts.Mark Lawrence, who appeared in well over two hundred films primarily asa heavy, is the lead villain in this piece. He's the mastermind behinda scheme to control gorillas with implants that receive theirinstruction from a transmitter housed in a giant brain. You can seewhere this is going can't you? It will be up to anti-hero Dawson tofoil Albert Munier's (Lawrence) plans, through plot twists that pile upalong the way involving his benefactor Theodore (Aldo Cecconi) and wifeUrsula (Adriana Alben). Since I'm on the subject, why are there so manyTheodore's and Ursula's involved with this project? "Kong Island" is beset by poor lighting, uneven and shaky camera work,and distracting color rendition. Depending on your point of view, thisactually might add to the unique character of the film, not to mentionthe soundtrack that's keenly out of sync with events on screen. But whoam I to tell you to stay away from this atrocity? Probably the bestrecommendation for the monkey shines here is an actual quote from BurtDawson early in the movie - "It's hard to believe a story like that".

vitaleralphlouis (2012-05-23 14:45)

Halfway decent B-movie rates a 6.

This 40 year old B-movie has absolutely nothing to do with either KingKong (1933) the greatest adventure movie ever made, or with the SkullMountain featured therein. It DOES have two or three guys in gorillacostumes causing mucho trouble under the influence of a mad scientist.Besides that, it offers a halfway decent plot, lots of African wildlifeshots, and three very pretty young women for us guys to gawk at. Forthe girls, both the hero and the bad guy are handsome and will show offenough bare chest to keep the females happy. What it DOES NOT have isanything to irritate the audience......... which brings me to compare it to Peter Jackson's $150 million 2006gorilla movie, wherein Jackson spent tons of money to make the moststupid adventure movie ever in history, and thus irritated thismoviegoer to the boiling point.In 1968, filmmakers knew that it did not take $ millions to make a goodmovie. In the post-2000 era, filmmakers have forgotten that fact, andwe the audience suffer their mistakes. Kong Island is offered as abonus second feature with the 1932 classic The Most Dangerous Game onDVD. The DVD is available with or without Kong Island. Take it with.

Nick Duretta (2012-05-23 01:41)

A semi-nude Brad is worth the wait

Okay -- terrible movie, horrible concept, inept concept, blah blah blah-- but this piece of garbage does have at least one raison d'etre forthose of us who are into the masculine form. Leading man Brad Harrisindulges in a blatantly homoerotic river bath about halfway through theflick, with the camera lovingly gliding over his sculptured body. Hispost-gladiator movies (mostly pathetic German 007 rip-offs) alwaysfeatured an excuse for him to strip down, and this turkey is noexception. For lovers of softcore beefcake porn, this is almost (butnot quite) worth the price of admission! But you can stop watchingafter that point.

Woodyanders (2012-05-22 09:09)

An extremely dreary and forgettable clunker

Veteran character actor Marc Lawrence stars as your basic evilscientist who creates a dangerous, murderous, not-to-be-trifled race ofrobotic killer gorilla slaves. Lawrence's plans to overthrow the worldare thwarted by a musclebound lunk (stolidly played by former HerculesBrad Harris, who shows off his brawny chest as often as possible) who'sventured into the doc's remote corner of the jungle in order to rescuesome beautiful gal Lawrence has abducted. Seedy, grim, slow andhumorless, with only the lovely presence of bodacious jungle babeEsmeralda Barros walking around mostly nude and the sporadic cheeseballgorilla gore effects offering any slight relief from Roger Morris'static direction, a drab, talk-heavy script, uniformly stiff actingfrom an understandably uninspired cast, tatty production values, inertpacing, pathetically crummy and unconvincing ape suits, and a generalair of ponderous, unrelenting tedium, this flick overall sizes up as asleep-inducing dead slug of a stinker.

Andrew Leavold (2012-05-21 21:49)

Life is cheap but ape suits are expensive

We now go to East Africa, where life is cheap but clearly ape suits areexpensive. And by Africa we mean a studio back-lot somewhere in Italythat doubles for the "island" in King Of Kong Island.I must have denghi fever and it's my insane imaginings that jungleB-films were the property of the 1930s and 40s: what could be describedas "Apesploitation", or the "Monkeys Going Bananas" genre. And yet inthe 1960s, with Planet Of The Apes one of the most popular films of theyear ("You dirty rotten stinking apes!") we have Night Of The BloodyApes (1968) from Mexico, soon followed by the Italian sexploitationfilm Queen Kong (1976), and Hong Kong's Goliathon/Mighty Peking Man(1977). It may be man's endless fascination with our lesser-evolvedsimian twins, or we just can't help but get a cheap laugh out of a guyin a monkey suit.King Of Kong Island opens with a dastardly scientist Dr Muller usingstolen goods to fund his surgical experiments on gorillas. Now,seriously, "gorilla"? Even I own a better monkey suit than this. Cut toa hunting expedition led by Burt (Brad Harris, the American actor whoplayed everyone from Samson to Goliath and Hercules) who is ambushed bynot one but TWO "gorillas", complete with surgical scars, who kidnapDiana, the most attractive of the group. Despite his previous mission'scomplete and abject failure, Burt is charged with bringing Diana back,past miles of stock footage - although to be truthful the producers didfind a parrot and a cockatoo and a few pink flamingos for a shirtlessBurt, who at times resembles a shaved ape himself, to chase around astudio lagoon.In an amalgam of every thirty-year old jungle cliché, Burt comes acrosssome spooked natives in awe of the Sacred Monkey God, a helpful chimpand a jungle girl called Eva, who can't utter a word of English butspeaks fluent monk-ese, which leads Burt to look her square in the eyeand ask, "Are you the Sacred Monkey?" Unbelievable. The hunt ends at DrMuller's underground dungeon-cum-laboratory in the middle of the junglewhere the insane megalomaniac - and the King of the title - has turnedthe apes into radio-controlled zombies, manipulated by an enormousElectronic Brain.The film was picked up by American producer Dick Randall, anold-fashioned expert in hullabaloo who was as colorful as thecharacters in his own Z-grade pickups. Born in the US but based mainlyin Rome, Randall was the guy who filmed Jayne Mansfield's grievingfamily a week after her death and immediately edited the footage intohis 1968 mondo film The Wild World Of Jayne Mansfield. He also sold theFilipino midget James Bond spoof For Your Height Only (1981) to theworld and turned the two foot nine star Weng Weng into an unlikelyinternational superstar. He could sell a chainsaw massacre to Texaswith the 1982 Spanish slasher film Pieces, and could sell aturkey-baster to Foghorn Leghorn in the same breath as he sold thisturkey. Did I say "turkey"? I meant "gorilla", and as honorary Great WhiteHunters we should approach this film with the right spirit, whoseconcepts are as absurd as the very idea of white colonialism itself.

bensonmum2 (2012-05-20 09:43)

A million miles away from Fay Wray

- I can sum up this movie in one word - trash. Everything about KongIsland is near the bottom of the barrel. First, let's look at the name- Kong Island - what a rip-off. When I see the name "Kong", I naturallythink of a very large gorilla. There is no towering ape in this movie.Instead, there are a few average size gorillas. The next word, Island,would seem to indicate that the movie takes place on a small piece ofland completely surrounded by the ocean. Unless you consider Africa anisland, there's not one to be found.- The acting is horrible. The female lead, Ursula Davis, is about aslow rent a heroine as I've seen. She doesn't act or look the part of abeautiful damsel in distress. I could go on, but what's the point. Noone comes out of this movie looking good.- The special effects, and I use that the term "special" liberally, areterrible. The opening scene of a gorilla surgery is obviously a mask.Then there are the gorillas themselves. I've seen better gorilla suitsin a local costume shop. Low budget doesn't begin to describe KongIsland.- I haven't even gotten to the plot, such as it is. It's a confusingstory of a mad scientist who puts electronic devices into the heads ofgorillas so he can control their actions. It's never made clear why hedoes this. The previously mentioned damsel's father is also involvedfinancially in this scheme. Why? I don't know. Most of it seems like itwas made up on the fly.- I could go on and on about the goofiness of Kong Island, but whybother. I'll end with one word of advice - AVOID!

Michael_Elliott (2012-05-19 20:07)

Awful

King of Kong Island (1968) BOMB (out of 4) A mad scientist puts the brains of humans into the body of apes. Onanother part of the island a girl might be the long lost gorilla woman.This is an incredibly bad Italian production, which has to be one ofthe worst that country ever sent over to America. The title sticks outon a video store shelf but that's about the only thing going for thismovie. The performances are all terrible and the dubbing is even worse.The film doesn't contain any of those "so bad it's good" laughs, whichmeans you just have a lifeless film where suicide might be better thanactually watching.

wes-connors (2012-05-19 02:35)

Guns! Girls! Gorillas!

"A diabolical team of scientists land on 'Kong Island' determined toimplant devices into the brains of the gorilla population that willtransform them into an unstoppable army. Their plan for worlddomination runs off the tracks when a descendant of 'King Kong' arrivesand the mayhem begins," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. Thepromised "descendant" of King Kong never arrived, at least not in mycopy of this film.Alternately dubbed "Kong Island" or "King of Kong Island" for Englishlanguage listeners, this cheap Italian production includes gunfire, twogorillas, plus three sexy women: topless "savage girl" Esmerelda Barros(as Eva), bikini clad Adriana Alben (as Ursula), and leggy Ursula Davis(as Diana). Star Brad Harris (as Burt) shows off his chest, too. Tunein to see how all this, with kidnapping and simian surgery, is madedull.** Eva, la Venere selvaggia (9/29/68) Roberto Mauri ~ Brad Harris, MarcLawrence, Esmerelda Barros, Ursula Davis

pellenase (2012-05-18 14:31)

lol.

This is bad.Horror? No.Funny? No.Drama? No.Garbage? Well, I'll take it out, dear.So bad its good? No. Its worse.Ever had guests that never leave? You invited to a party, 26 hours ago,and some snort-heads are still on their way up, you wanna sleep, butyou know that you'll wake up with a bottle of Absolute or somethingstuck up your ass if you fall asleep.... and you just cant takeanymore.WELL! This stinker is your solution: -Hey guys, I've got a really fatmovie here, just let me turn down that music, and... find my VCR.They don't just leave, they'll run. And they'll never come back. Its impossible to watch this... thing. Its so bad its fascinating, Ithink the best liner is: We'll make camp here. But don't make any fire.And thats not a killer line...Don't watch it, but if you can, buy it. It can be useful, as a part ofan anti-thief system, even the police will give up and run...1 is the bottom line, OK. If I could give it a -10.... No. Just leaveit there. Its a ... cant find the words. I guess Satan took them withhim when he fell down there. And some nut-heads still thinks plan 9 isthe worst movie ever? This is worse than Jacksons King Kong! AndWoooah, thats ugly...

Mondo_Giallo (2012-05-16 23:28)

A strangely enjoyable and completely insane jungle adventure

I just don't get the full-on negativity that this film seems toattract. Sure it's shoddy and completely ridiculous. But it has acertain dumb charm and is a hell of a lot more entertaining than youwould think given its terrible rating. I mean honestly a jungleadventure featuring robot gorillas and a white savage-girl can't be allbad. The story is basically about a muscle-bound knuckle-head who issent into the wilderness to save his friends daughter from a madscientist and his robot apes. He comes into contact with a savage girlwho leads him to the baddies.This is certainly a cheap and trashy film. But there is enough action,laughs and general bewilderment to keep a bad movie aficionado happy.The title is meaningless – there is no Kong and they are not on anisland. But I am guessing that 'Robot Ape Jungle' didn't cut themustard. The African setting was convincing enough until the sceneearly in the film when the characters visit a bar and everyone startsdancing to some ultra cheesy 60's Euro-Pop. Incidentally, you will bedoing extraordinarily well if you do not laugh at this point at ourknuckle-headed hero's dance moves. You may also get some amusement whenour heroes travel to the jungle down what can only be described asStock Footage Road. Or what about later when our hero and an incidentalcharacter - who serves absolutely no purpose by the way - are capturedby natives and then immediately set free to run away because, and Iquote Mr Knucklehead, 'they're savages, they expect us to run for ourlives!' Saves them the bother of actually trying to escape I guess. Ihave to also note that the score to this film is a very enjoyablecombination of distorted guitars, Euro-cheese, African drums and easylistening organs.Basically I am happy to say that this film is not nearly as bad as itprobably seems. I found it good fun and really can't see why it isranked so atrociously lowly. It's quite an enjoyable slice of nonsenseif you want to know the truth.

Steve Nyland (2012-05-16 06:35)

Awwwww Come On, It's Not THAT Bad!

Seriously, I have a soft spot for KONG ISLAND, and the only people whomight be so violently opposed to it would have to be stupid enough totake it seriously. This was a cheap, trippy, low budget Italianexploitation film made before Italian exploitation films were all therage. Sure, it dared to evoke the mighty name of Kong, and it is allmighty silly once you get down to brass tacks, but so what? This is aJungal Trash movie about white Anglos going to darkest Africa to haveall sorts of fascinating adventures while the natives carry theluggage. Anyone expecting anything else is seriously wasting theirtime.Muscleman turned 60s matinée idol Brad Harris manages to keep astraight face as he plays a former mercenary double crossed by creepyMark Lawrence (yes, Mark Lawrence) who intends to take all the lootfrom a diamond mine payroll heist to -- and I am not making this up --create a master race of superhuman gorillas radio controlled by brainimplants to do his evil bidding. Which involves kidnapping variousscantily clad supporting actresses for purposes that the Englishlanguage version never bothers to explain.And right here we have to stop and do a little Italian genre film 101for the newcomers: If you've seen the cut, bleached out, nappy lookingfullscreen English version circulating on various bargain bin DVD sets,you haven't even seen half of this film. That's a TV print that's beenshorn of any content that 1970s era television wouldn't tolerate, suchas nudity. Italians usually made two versions of their films, asomewhat tamer version for export that would be translated to English,and then an Italian language print with no holds barred.The highlight of the film in it's uncensored form are extendedsequences of Euro horror boob babe Esmeralda Barros (THE DEVIL'SWEDDING NIGHT) prancing around the jungle wearing nigh but a leatherkerchief around her waist, which manages to get lost in time for thebig finale where she goes stark naked. A nudity-friendly export printwith Greek subtitles is available on the Retromedia DVD which runs afull seven minutes longer than the standard English travesty, and thenthere's an insanely rare Italian language print that even clocks theGreek version by a couple minutes with some extra safari scenes thrownin to establish plot.It's a quirky, goofy, lunkheaded film for sure. But to the initiatedit's a pleasure to see, with a dreamy psychedelic music score byRoberto Pregadio, a veteran Italian genre film supporting cast led bycurvy Adriana Alben, pretty Ursula Davis, sneering Paolo Magalotti, andMark Farran. The film was written by Euro horror favorites WalterBrandi (BLOODY PIT OF HORROR), his frequent collaborator Ralph Zucker(BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT) and directed byspaghetti western regular Roberto Mauri. His frequent star Brad Harrisexecutive produced, and all of it is "presented by" schlock cinemamaestro Dick Randall.If you take it seriously you're missing the point, and if you get allbent out of shape watching movies about radio controlled gorillaskidnapping Italian B movie actresses in their underwear you have nobodybut yourself to blame for wasting your time on it. But please, makesure you at least track down one of the prints with the nudity. For nowthat means the Retromedia DVD which isn't hard to find. 7/10, for being so lovably goofy.

Chris. (2012-05-12 11:03)

Rima the bird girl, Rambo and Ernst Stavro Blofeld meets the Planet of the Apes

While there's something for everyone (almost) in this action sci-fi,it's unlikely to be your most memorable movie experience. Amiablehe-man Brad Harris stars as a mercenary soldier who's double crossed byhis medic companion (Lawrence) in a bungled heist, but survives to seekrevenge upon the mad doctor now experimenting on gorillas with mindcontrol programming.Aside from the shirtless Harris, flexing his body-built physique as hecavorts in a jungle pool, Tarzan style, there's also the scantily cladtrio Esmerelda Barros (as a fabled native girl accompanied by theubiquitous cheeky chimp), Adriana Alben (as Harris' sultry, formerflame) and Ursula Davis as the short-shorts wearing pawn in Lawrence'sdiabolical plan to lure Harris to his lair for the purposes ofprogramming him for mind control. There's a great dancing scene to showcase Harris' moves, a couple ofviolent ape attacks, some safari wildlife-spotting, and the promise ofmuch more that never really eventuates. Like an early James Bond filmmeets "King Kong" or "Planet of the Apes", it has camp moments, but ismostly just clichéd and boring with an anti climax that's disappointingand uninspired.

jfgibson73 (2012-05-11 22:50)

Silly fun

I'm not sure what I thought I would enjoy about this obviously cheap,amateurish Italian-b movie. I think maybe I have a bit of fondness forjungle adventure. Give me a few scenes of trekking through the brush,and I can place myself in the action. What made this movie slightlymore fun than so many other low budget disasters is the mixture of somany disparate and nearly random elements.The movie starts off by establishing the main character, Burt, as aformer mercenary who was betrayed during a payroll robbery. He is stilllooking for the man who left him for dead when the action picks upelsewhere in Africa. He agrees to go along with a wealthy family on ahunting trip that eventually turns into a kidnapping. A young, prettygirl is needed for mind control experiments, which happens to be run byAlbert, the man who shot Burt in the opening scene. Albert already hasbeen able to control gorillas with his device, and uses as security toguard his jungle laboratory. Burt gains an advantage, however, when hebefriends Eva, a native jungle woman. Together they must rescue thelovely Diana and put an end to Albert's jungle terror.It's all looks pretty silly nowadays, but I thought it was a bit of funthat didn't drag too much. I had to fast forward through some of theobvious sequences, but there was also some action that kept myattention. I think there must be a void nowadays in the adventuregenre, because I was a little to eager to like King of Kong Island.Perhaps the time is right for filmmakers to give us new stories withimaginative plots and exotic locations with daring heroes and heroines.

Hitchcoc (2012-05-10 16:40)

No King! No Kong! No Science!

One of the things I've discovered as I make my way through a bunch of B(or C), movies, is that they seem to plod along forever. We enter thisfilm with a group of crooks turning on each other over some stolenmoney. As things unwind, we are introduced to a mercenary who waswounded by a man he trusted during the opening scene. He obsesses overrevenge. We have a couple of women. One a kind of Rita Hayworth typewithout the good looks (no offense), and a sixties kind of go godancing looking type, who can handle a rifle. Her father, who is theErnest Hemingway type, and her brother live with these people. Anyway,there is a subplot of a mad scientist (why are they always mad?) whohas done things to affect the brains of gorillas. They can then becontrolled by the scientist (the odd thing is that it also transformsthem into upright creatures that look like skinny men in cheap monkeysuits). Through a series of convoluted plot developments and somedeaths, some tribal unrest, a few organized gorilla attacks, the younggo go dancer girl ends up in the clutches of the mad scientist. Somehowshe ends up with less clothes on than she used to. The scientist oglesher and has future plans which we can only imagine. There's also anative woman who is a kind of queen of the gorillas. They love andrespect her, and she always was able to talk to them and get them to dowhat she wants. Unfortunately, the brain thing messes this up. Need Igo on, There is some ridiculous finale with people exchanging the upperhand. The only thing missing is the word "Aha!" My poorly writtenexplanation actually makes the movie sound better than it is. Sorry!

gavcrimson (2012-05-10 04:07)

Gorillas at Cinecitta

An Italian Spanish Co-production with America's own Dick Randall involvedinthe ‘presenting'-King of Kong Island mixes horror movie, nudie-cutie and jungle adventurewith toppings of NationalGeographic stock footage- all set to a jungle beat of exotica. Amercenarie's life is a tough one- atleast for Burt Dawson (Brad Harris) shot in the back by his ex-friendAlbertMuller (MarcLawrence) and left for dead. Albert retreats deep into the jungle where heperforms brain operationson man sized gorillas and makes them his robot like slaves. Burt survivesthe shooting and vowsvengeance, tracking down his ‘mad Doctor friend' in Nairobi. Reacquaintinghimself with his buddyTheodore, Burt is drawn back into Albert's orbit when Theodore's thrillseeking daughter Diana iskidnapped by the gorillas while on safari. Although forewarned that ‘youmay find that it's actuallydangerous to violate ancient taboos' macho Burt cannot be stopped andbeforeyou can say ‘let'sgrow a hairy chest, write books and shoot some elephants' Burt is venturinginto the dark continentto put an end to Albert's monkey business. Amidst an almost comical amountof double crosses,secrets and revelations Burt has to fight off attacks from Albert's simianheavies, get his collar felt bya tribe of savages and also finds time to befriend Eva The Wild Woman (TheDevil's WeddingNight's Esmeralda Barros). As Burt's guide explains ‘she is the daughterofthe forest, sheunderstands the language of the trees and the wild beasts, she appears inthe morning with the sunwho is her father, she has always existed like the forest itself with itsancient mysteries she iseverywhere and nowhere'. And its the jungle woman with her power over theanimals who proves tobe the spanner in the works for Albert's plan to take over the world withhis gorillas (as well as hiskinky sideline in experimenting on women and locking them in cages). IntheSixties Italian cinemawas going through a Golden Era and became a retreat for Americans and Britswho were eitherbeing kicked out or couldn't get a foot in the door of their native filmindustries. Dick Randall (1926-1996) was no exception and by the time of King of Kong Island he was livingLa Dolce Vita in Rome.Randall a chubby, small guy with glasses, a pencil thin moustache and apenchant for huge cigars- isvividly remembered by friends and associates for his keen business sensematched by an equal senseof humour. Randall was never it seems above sending himself up either-witness his tour de forceperformance as a ‘pig with binoculars' in Bava's Four Times that Night orhis cameo in 1986'sSlaughter High where he lampoons his B-movie King image. As in TheBogeymanand the FrenchMurders here Randall surrounds himself with a journeyman director hidingunder a phony name, amemorable cast, and a crew well versed in the ways of them exploitationfilms including Bloody Pit ofHorror's Ralph Zucker and Walter Brandt. If Italian horror films were thenew rock n roll, Zuckerand Brandt would have been the equivalent of first rate session musicians.The actual music itself byRoberto Pregadio is suitably ‘Congo Psychedelia', wildly inappropriate forany movie apart from onewhose curious geography believes go-go discotheques can be found in themidst of a jungle (eventoday Pregadio's score still haunts the tracks of lounge musiccompilations). In retrospect King ofKong Island could be considered a throwback to jungle adventure movies ofyore but perhaps only asRandall's doorman character in Four Times That Night might have rememberedwith every situationsubverted to its sex-charged, exaggerated extreme. The introduction of Evathe Wild Woman is set toher running naked in the wilderness (in slow motion no less) to stress her‘naturalness' a sequencereprised for the finale but not even this can match the priceless ‘va-vavroom' moment when thegorillas seemingly ogle Diana- watching her strip down to pea greenunderwear before letting theirpresence be known. Curiously many of these elements were downplayed on itsItalian release whichsold it on the value of matinee idol Harris with not a gorilla in sight,butas connoisseurs know allmanner of insanity could and usually does happen in Italian movies of theperiod and King of KongIsland is hardly a sober exception to the rule. With its hodgepodge ofoversexed women, Interpolagents, remote controlled primates, catfights and mad scientists conductingstrange experiments inthe jungle this was exactly the sort of ‘fantastique' escapism audienceswould flock to in less cynicaltimes. Today King of Kong Island is one of several Dick Randallproductionsjust ripe forrediscovery. Fun, endearing and with as much God given trashyness asanything else Randall everput his name to, King of Kong Island will have you mourning the era in theItalian film industrywhen vivid imaginations and spectacular traders ran amok.

BertCat (2012-05-07 22:21)

Kong Island?

Just plain bad. I'm no movie producer, nor will I claim to beproficient with anything beyond a digital camera. But given a minorbudget even I could have done better. The wildlife scenes while whilewe travel with Diana out on the safari look more like discards fromsome tourist footage -- out of focus and wobbly distant shots. The plotis all too predictable. Add in the very poor dialog between thecharacters, and we have a bad show.On the plus side, the women are not un-attractive. One watches inanticipation when Diana undresses in the tent. Or wakes up when Ursulais in the bath tub. Or does a frame by frame to catch you know whatwhen Eva is on the screen.The final show down was just a let down, full of impractical plotdevices. We all knew Burt would somehow overpower Turk, who wasfighting in the close confines of a cave with a rifle. Then we haveUrsula and her husband arriving to the cave to squabble with Albert(clearly they knew some shortcut shaving days off the trip!). Oh andthen Burt is somehow able to disrupt the "controler" by simply bustinga light! BTW, Marc Lawrence, who played Albert, appeared in "The Man with theGolden Gun" as the mafia hit man in the pre-credit sequence. Wasn'tuntil near the end I made the connection. Still I was happy to see the closing credits, being able now to brag Isuffered through one of the worst movies ever made.

Crap_Connoisseur (2012-05-07 06:16)

Gorilla Suit Madness

King Of Kong Island is a confusing piece of B-grade garbage that issaved from being completely unwatchable by the hilarious gorillaeffects and a couple of unintentionally hilarious plot twists. Thestrangest thing about this movie is its absolute incoherence; subplotsarise from nowhere and characters behave with all the logic ofintoxicated Lemmings. King Of Kong Island is definitely an acquiredtaste.Roberto Mauri's film could possess one of the most ridiculous plots inmovie history. This crap makes "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" seementirely plausible by comparison. Basically, our hero Burt is shot andreturns to Africa to find the man responsible. In addition to findingthe time for some dubious psychedelic dancing, Burt also manages tofall in love with Diana. Unfortunately, Diana is kidnapped by a groupderanged mountain gorillas and Burt is called on to rescue her. If theconcept of brainwashed gorillas is not far fetched enough, Mauri throwsin a completely random subplot about a wild woman called Eva, who livesin the jungle and converses with animals. Eva is a brazen attempt tothrow in some eye candy and inject some much needed sleaze into thefairly tame proceedings. Eva leads Burt to Diana, who is being heldcaptive in a secret lair by a mad scientist.King Of Kong Island is really not a film that is overly concerned withthe smaller details. The gorilla effects literally consist of peoplewearing poorly made gorilla suits. Diana's kidnapping is hilarious dueto the painfully obvious gorilla masks and gloves. Mauri's inattentionto detail is further noticeable in the fact that for a "wild" woman,Eva has rather lovely hair and make-up. I pretty much expect (and hopefor) poor special effects and ridiculous plot developments in a RobertoMauri crap epic. However, King Of Kong Island is sloppy to an extentthat makes it basically impossible to follow. The film has also datedin the worst possible way. The treatment of the local population as"slaves" is distasteful and Burt's pseudo-comedic groping of Eva isjarring. Thankfully, there are enough stupid gorillas and crazy piecesof 1960s "technology" in the scientist's lair to overlook the generalincompetence.The film does have some impressive qualities. The jungle disco score isexcellent, the film provides B-grade icon Brad Harris with a rarestarring vehicle and Esmeralda Barros makes an alluring wild woman.King Of Kong Island is a complete mess, but it is a mess worth wadingthrough for fans of this genre. If nothing else, see it for thespectacularly unconvincing gorillas.

smittie-1 (2012-05-06 19:37)

Complete garbage but compulsively watchable

A trashy Italian jungle adventure, with a mad scientist implantingradios into gorillas' brains, so they will do his bidding. The film issleazy and slow, a kind of scummy imprint of White Africa in the age ofdecolonization. The bureaucrats have fled the continent, and all whoare left are the mercs, the drunks, and the cranks. Too many scenes ina dive bar, too much footage from big game hunts, no point in the end.A perfect nihilistic Z movie.Any nudity has been edited out of the American cut, making this trashyfilm even more pointless. The film is still plenty sleazy, though.Everyone sweats and snarls their way across the frame, and each newlocation looks grimier than the last. I think I caught beri beri justwatching this movie.And yet, the whole time, I was happy. I was entertained. There isnothing so sweet as a movie that plays completely beyond the bounds ofgood taste. A movie that DARES you to watch.It deserves its rotten, budget DVD presentation.

mstomaso (2012-05-06 12:12)

Standard mad scientist story with some additional subplots: For camp fans - A+, everybody else - D

Kong Island, or Eva the Wild Woman is a little difficult to rate. Fromthe point of view of campy b-movie fun, it's goofy and good, butbasically, the film isn't really good. It does make more of an effortthan a lot of similar films, and is, at times, actually interesting.Burt (Brad Harris) is double-crossed by Albert (Marc Lawrence, whogives a career-low performance) after a payroll heist in Africa (not anisland). After an undisclosed time, Burt returns to Africa to reaprevenge. But, as it turns out, Albert is waiting for him, with a smallarmy of remote controlled gorillas. Add a few subplots and season witha generally attractive cast then half-bake for a few hours.Let's start with the worst aspects: With the exception of Esmeralda Barros and Mark Farran, the acting isabominable. Of course, the script didn't give any of the actors much towork with, and Ms. Barros (Eva AKA the Sacred Monkey) has anon-speaking role). Brad Harris is ripped, that's about all. I am surehe could have carried the production equipment, but he didn't carry thefilm. Marc Lawrence has done some interesting work, but his performancehere is remarkably bad.The gorilla costumes are hilarious, and the actors in them are notparticularly good at aping apes. The stock footage of African animalsis not very well integrated into the action (especially the animalsthat are obviously living in captivity).And now, the OK: The story line is a bit better thought out than most b-grade madscientist movies, and some of the characters actually seem to havepersonalities (though not necessarily consistent ones).The directing is OK. There are some pacing problems - with a fewlengthy and unnecessary scenes of people walking through the jungle andsafari trucks driving about. The camera work and editing are bothpretty good, but there are a couple of rather glaring errors.And the good: I liked Esmeralda Barros' character, and felt that she should have beenintroduced into the film earlier than she was.Generally, the film keeps moving, and, with the exception of theridiculous Brad Harris swimming scene (which happens just after one ofhis companions is murdered - always take a dip immediately afterwatching somebody get eviscerated, that's what I say), stays focused onthe main story.Ursula Davis has very nice eyes.Campy B movie buffs WILL LIKE THIS. Can't recommend it for anybodyelse.