(1995) Was Michael Crichton embarrassed to have his name associated with this poorly scripted (John Patrick Shanley) and badly acted (with a few exceptions, including Ernie Hudson) adaptation (directed by Frank Marshall) of his novel to the screen? Kids will probably enjoy the adrenalized adventure with Stan Winston's gorillas (inhabited by human actors) and score by Jerry Goldsmith as much as I did The Time Machine and similar schlocky fare.

When an expedition led by Charles Travis to Mt Mukenko, a volcano in the Virunga region of Congo, suddenly encounters grey killer apes, Charles's father R.B. Travis (Joe Don Baker), CEO of TraviCom at the home base in Houston, sends Dr Karen Ross (Laura Linney), a professor of communications technology, to retrieve the flawless blue diamond Charles had discovered for advanced laser development ("I need a new cash machine") and find out what happened to the men. "Are you human?" she asks of her fiancé's father. "I'll be human later," he replies.

In order to get to Africa, Karen joins "philanthropist" Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry), an avaricious Romanian treasurer-hunter secretly hoping to find the lost city of Zinj, which according to legend protected King Solomon's diamond mine, who is accompanied by Dr Peter Elliot (Dylan Walsh), an animal researcher returning Amy, a female gorilla he's trained to "talk" with a device that vocalizes hand signals, to her original habitat. Amy, who enjoys an occasional martini and cigar, jealously refers to Karen as "ugly woman."

Upon landing in Central Africa, they are met by Eddie Ventro (Joe Pantoliano), who informs them of necessary changes in plans (due to a revolt) and guide. A black mercenary, Capt Monroe Kelly (Ernie Hudson), assures them: "Relax. You're in better hands than you should be."

After being detained by an African strongman, demanding bribes ("Hit the road and have a nice day"), they get aboard an airplane from which they must parachute into the jungle to avoid being killed by rebels firing RPGs; they encounter the Mizumu ghost tribe of forest people, who have found a "dead" white man; they whitewater raft to a lake where hippos attack at night before finally coming upon the remains of Charles's campsite.

Repeatedly Monroe has told Herkermer, "No Zinj," but the seeker of fortune explains that a peculiar decoration of an open eye, similar to the images within Amy's paintings, he'd found in Russian drawings by earlier explorers has him convinced of its existence: the gorilla can lead them to Zinj, making everyone wealthy. In her last communication with Houston, Karen is urged to hurry because of geothermal instability around the volcano.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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