If you have even a passing thought of buying Congo do yourself a favor and GET IT KNOW! I just watched this DVD Sunday night and the Video transfer is incredible! Of all the DVD's I've seen that have scenes in a jungle, this one is by far the best looking! Colors are right on and the blacklevel is just as good. Sound is is awesume as well! Great LFE signal and very good use of the surrounds.

I just wish studios would do near the job they did on this film with others that follow.

Uhhh.... yyyyyyyeah.

I have a bible passage for you. Read on, my good friend, this passage from the Gospel of DVD.

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In the beginning there was darkness. And the people gnasheth their teeth and waileth for a method for to watch movies in their dwelling-places.

And God looked down and heard his peoples' wailing and gnashing of teeth. And God knew His peoples' suffering and toiling to movie theaters. And God created VHS. And He looked down and saw that it was good. And the people gave praise to their God for VHS, for to watch movies in their dwelling-places.

And lo, the people ate from the tree of high fidelity, and they saith unto the Lord: O Lord, we wisheth for a better picture, we crieth for Dolby Digital 5.1. We plead to our Lord to giveth unto His humble servants a better medium what for viewing movies in our dwelling-places.

And the Lord looked down and heard his peoples' wailing and gnashing of teeth and saw his peoples' suffering. And God created DVD, for to watch movies with better picture and Dolby Digital. And He looked down and saw that it was good.

And the Devil, having seen the market potential, begat Richard Sharp, who begat Divx. But the Lord's loyal followers preached the Good Word of DVD to the studios. And God saw fit to smite Divx, and it was smitten and withered away. And the people rejoiceth.

And lo, the people praised God for the wondrous bounties of DVD the Lord hath granted them. And they marveled at God's great wonders of anamorphic transfer and animated menus.

But God saith, I hath granted the DVD to My people to serve as a better medium of movies for to watch in My peoples' dwelling-places. But My people hath become fixated on the wonders of anamorphic transfer. My people needeth wisdom for to get over the fixation with DVD and for to watch movies.

And the Lord issued unto His people the following commandment: Thou shalt not buy lousy movies on DVD for to watch nifty features.

And lo, most followers took heed of the Lord's Word and obeyed, and rejecteth such works of the Devil, like Godzilla and Sphere and Congo. And they walketh the path of the righteous and avoideth the tyranny of evil men, and they striketh down with great vengenace and furious anger...

...err, wait a second, I lost the page... oh yeah, here we are.

And the people heedeth the Lord's word and wisely avoideth lousy movies with nifty features. But lo, the sinners continued to buy lousy movies with nifty features. And God looked down and was displeased. And He smote those foolish followers who purchaseth Godzilla and Sphere and Congo. And He saw that it was good.

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That's your biblical lesson for the day. Next week's reading comes from the Gospel of Commentary Tracks.

- David Stein

Actually, Congo doesn't have any real special features to speak of so if the devil's trying to entice people from the light of the True and One Projecter, then he better try harder.

And I like this movie. It's fun! Just don't expect it to be anything like the book (which I didn't read). I love the whole "great white (well black in this case) hunter" theme to the whole jungle scene and I really liked the way the gorillas moved.

And on top of that it had Doom playing on a computer near the beginning of the movie. How cool is that? http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

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-David

I agree with Blade. This is a fun movie! I like and own it as well. http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

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gotdvd?

Sorry, it's just that A) I hated the movie, and B) every single person I spoke with - everyone - felt the same way. I seem to recall that it bombed theatrically, too.

I figured the reason our good friend FrankS was recommending it was the "ooh, look, Police Academy LXIV is on DVD and DVD is cool, so let's all buy it" syndrome. To those who noted that Congo doesn't have a lot of features - just has a couple of dinky trailers - I point to FrankS's post, which reads something like, "The transfer is great and the LFE effects are outstanding." Yeah, well, same with Godzilla, but that didn't save the movie, either.

The fact that it was about 4:30AM may have clouded my judgment a bit, too. http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/wink.gif

But I hope you enjoyed the passage from The Gospel of DVD. Walk in the light, my children... walk in the light.

- David Stein


[This message has been edited by sfsdfd (edited 10-25-1999).]

sfsdfd,

Actually, I thought it was pretty funny and I'm glad you posted it into the DVDTalk forum so everyone would see it.

But when Congo first came out on DVD there was also a small discussion about the "merits" of this movie with lots of people bashing it. I think most of the people who likeed the movie, just didn't read the book or were able to see that the movie wasn't really taking itself too seriously.

Kind of like Cannonball Run. http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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-David

Blade:

I was one of the unfortunate viewers who read the book before the movie. (I've read every one of Crichton's books except Great Train Robbery. They're typically excellent.)

I'm familiar with the good-books-make-bad-movies phenomenon (a la Sphere - one of the best books I've read; a la any Stephen King movie.) And even though I disliked the Congo novel, the movie was much worse. It was even subpar by regular movie standards. The apes were less realistic than '50s claymation, and the acting was worse than (shudder) Ani Skywalker.

Just my $.02. http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif Thanks for reading, though... it's amazing how creative you can be at four in the morning http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/wink.gif

- David Stein

Have to say I agree w/ sfsdfd on this one. The book was horrible, and the movie was worse. It's been awhile since I've looked at either but the one thing that sticks in my mind is the story kind of cornered itself w/ the only way to wrap up the story is to have to volcano explode.

In fact this is one of the movies my friends always hold over my head whenever I make a suggestion for what to see. The other one is "The Keep" http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/wink.gif

Boy, you start getting these newbies into our forum and immediately they start posting long, ignorant retorts to someones post just because they don't like anothers opinion.

YES sfsdfd I did like Congo, I liked it because of the story as well as the quality of the Video and Audio. Don't come into this forum and start spouting insults at people because there opinions differ from yours. It quite appearant you have strong negative opinions of those who are religious or don't agree with your film preferences but please, if you disaggree with another's post a simple, respectable " I do not agree..and why you don't" is really all that is needed.

sfsdfd - Gah, you liked the book Sphere? Granted, the movie was bad, but the book wasn't much better, IMHO.

Of course, I'm a psych major, so it was kind of personal...

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"Never trust a stranger and never trust a magician. DEFINITELY never trust a strange magician."

FrankS:

If you liked Congo, fine; I respect your tastes. I own titles other people think are garbage, like Flash Gordon, Antz, Outbreak, and Doc Hollywood. De gustibus non est disputandem (there is no accounting for taste.)

However, your review didn't mention the quality of the movie. It talked about the quality of the video transfer, low-frequency effects, color levels, etc. It's time the DVD community moved past buying DVDs for their technical merit, regardless of the quality of the attached movie ("Godzilla Syndrome.") That's why I posted my response.

Also, you're wrong on two other counts.

1) I may be a recently registered DVD Talk poster, but I've been a lurker for a long time, and an active member of the DVD community since January, 1998. Please don't lecture me on forum behavior - what I posted was within the bounds of good taste (considering it wasn't an attack on your beliefs, just humor.)

2) As for "strong negative opinions of those who are religious," I'm Roman Catholic, and I have thirteen years of Catholic grade school and high school education. What I posted wasn't blasphemous - obviously, since I didn't offend myself posting it. http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

- David Stein


[This message has been edited by sfsdfd (edited 10-27-1999).]