Kong Island

Rating:
Summary: False advertising...
Review: A mad scientist performs brain surgery on gorillas to control their minds (with the usual aim of world domination) and a unlikeable mercenary enlists the help of a jungle girl to stop him. That's it, no Kong, no Island. Talk about false advertising :-) This is a substandard Eurotrash effort, graced by atricious acting by muscleman Brad Harris (who did quite a few sandal-films earlier) and a completely ridiculous plot. It's not bad enough to be really entertaining so unless you have to see every Italian junk film - save your money. The Retromedia disc is not really packed with extras - although an "uncut European version", with includes some brief nudity is supplied, however, this uncut version was obviously taken directly from a Greek videotape, including the subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: Gorilla Brain Salad Surgery
Review: In the annals of movies dealing with ape/human relations, 1968 was a pivotal year as we (I say 'we' in a figurative sense as I wasn't even born yet) saw the release of the seminal sci-fi film The Planet of the Apes. But wait, another film was released that same year, one that may not have gotten the attention or accolades of that certainly more popular ape movie, but still needs to be recognized, if only because I spent an hour and a half watching it last night. The movie I am speaking of is Kong Island, aka King of Kong Island, aka Eve, the Wild Woman...What?! You've never heard of it? Consider yourself lucky if that applies to you, as the cinematic hurting was deep in this one...very deep...

Kong Island (1968) was directed by Robert Morris, aka Roberto Mauri, a man whom you may have never heard of unless you are familiar with Italian cinema, specifically sword and sandal movies or spaghetti westerns. The film...cough, cough...stars the muscled Brad Harris, a staple actor of many low budget Italian films, as Burt, Esmeralda Barros as Eva, the savage girl, and Marc Lawrence, a character actor who specializes in playing gangsters, most notably appearing in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), as Albert.

The film opens with an ambush of a lone jeep driving through the jungle, and the subsequent robbery of said jeep by Burt, Albert, and another man. Apparently the jeep was carrying $300,000 in payroll monies. I would have thought such a large amount of cash being transported would have warranted a larger party involved in guarding the money, but whatever...anyway, Albert, being of the particularly untrustworthy criminal type decides $300,000 split three ways is an inequitable arrangement, and shoots his accomplices. The unnamed man dies, of course, but Bert survives. This sets up a plot where Burt now wants revenge on Albert.

Next we see Albert and a henchman named Turk performing brain surgery on a gorilla. They implant a device just behind the gorilla's ear. Apparently Albert, not only being an untrustworthy criminal type is also sort of a mad scientist, who is experiments involve a plot for world domination of sorts, as we learn later. Well, if you're going to go into the mad scientist business, world conquest is certainly a valid motif...

We now cut to Bert at a hotel/bar/disco, run by Theodore, an older man who has two adult children, Robert and Diana, and is married to Ursula, who doesn't appear to be the mother of Theodore's children. Burt is friendly with all, and Ursula is certainly friendly with Burt, which causes Theodore some consternation which he takes out on Ursula later on in a beating followed by a love making scene...ewwww....anyway, Robert and Diana go off on a hunting party to shoot some sacred monkeys (I'm not kidding here), but they end up getting attacked in camp one night by gorillas (which we find out later are controlled by Albert via the implants he and Turk installed) and Diana is taken away. Turk appears and tells Robert that if he ever wants to see his sister alive, he has to bring Burt into the jungle. At first Burt is reluctant to go, but when he finds out Turk, henchman to Albert is involved, he decides to go, if only to extract payback from the treacherous Albert.

While in the jungle, Robert, Burt, and gorillas and natives attack their party, but Burt manages to escape. He then hooks up with a scantily clad (she has no top, but her hair is long enough to strategically cover her jooblies, to the male viewer's dismay) jungle woman who he names Eve. They proceed to search out Albert and eventually find his jungle lair, learn of his experimentation with gorilla mind control, and ultimately, his plans for world domination. Will our two plucky adventurers be able to thwart Albert's evil machinations?

While the plot was pretty straightforward, there were plenty of stupid and pointless twists along with lame subplots that only served to drag this film into the sinking quagmire of moronosity. There were some fun elements within the film, but those quickly got squashed by the too numerous filler/padding shots of jungle animals (just to be sure we knew they were in the jungle) and some really awful tiki/conga music throughout. I won't go into the acting, but only to say it's as bad as you may think it is...And the ape suits...they were pretty awful, looking much like they'd seen better days, the fur being patchy and mottled. Men in half bald gorilla suits loping around in completely un-gorilla-like fashion hardly inspired even a fraction of a sense of realism. Are these the 'Kongs' related to the title of the film? And where did they get the 'Island' bit, also from the title? The story took place in a jungle...like I said before, there's plenty of deep cinematic hurting to be had here...

Retromedia Entertainment provides a passable full screen print here, but there is lots of noticeable wear and tear. Special features include a drive-in intro by schlock filmmaker Fred Olen Ray, whom I believe runs Retromedia Entertainment. Also included, along with the American release is the uncut European release. The basic difference is about a minute extra of footage, most being at the very end showing Eve running naked in slow motion(!?) There is very little, if any, nekkidness in the American version, for those of you who find that to be of importance. Oh yeah, the picture quality of the European version is much worse, and includes what appear to be Greek subtitles throughout in large font that can't be turned off (removed). I guess if I learned anything from this film, it's that movies with the word 'Island' in the title don't necessarily have to take place on an island.

Cookieman108

Rating:
Summary: Gorilla Brain Salad Surgery
Review: In the annals of movies dealing with ape/human relations, 1968 was a pivotal year as we (I say `we' in a figurative sense as I wasn't even born yet) saw the release of the seminal sci-fi film The Planet of the Apes. But wait, another film was released that same year, one that may not have gotten the attention or accolades of that certainly more popular ape movie, but still needs to be recognized, if only because I spent an hour and a half watching it last night. The movie I am speaking of is Kong Island, aka King of Kong Island, aka Eve, the Wild Woman...What?! You've never heard of it? Consider yourself lucky if that applies to you, as the cinematic hurting was deep in this one...very deep...

Kong Island (1968) was directed by Robert Morris, aka Roberto Mauri, a man whom you may have never heard of unless you are familiar with Italian cinema, specifically sword and sandal movies or spaghetti westerns. The film...cough, cough...stars the muscled Brad Harris, a staple actor of many low budget Italian films, as Burt, Esmeralda Barros as Eva, the savage girl, and Marc Lawrence, a character actor who specializes in playing gangsters, most notably appearing in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), as Albert.

The film opens with an ambush of a lone jeep driving through the jungle, and the subsequent robbery of said jeep by Burt, Albert, and another man. Apparently the jeep was carrying $300,000 in payroll monies. I would have thought such a large amount of cash being transported would have warranted a larger party involved in guarding the money, but whatever...anyway, Albert, being of the particularly untrustworthy criminal type decides $300,000 split three ways is an inequitable arrangement, and shoots his accomplices. The unnamed man dies, of course, but Bert survives. This sets up a plot where Burt now wants revenge on Albert.

Next we see Albert and a henchman named Turk performing brain surgery on a gorilla. They implant a device just behind the gorilla's ear. Apparently Albert, not only being an untrustworthy criminal type is also sort of a mad scientist, who is experiments involve a plot for world domination of sorts, as we learn later. Well, if you're going to go into the mad scientist business, world conquest is certainly a valid motif...

We now cut to Bert at a hotel/bar/disco, run by Theodore, an older man who has two adult children, Robert and Diana, and is married to Ursula, who doesn't appear to be the mother of Theodore's children. Burt is friendly with all, and Ursula is certainly friendly with Burt, which causes Theodore some consternation which he takes out on Ursula later on in a beating followed by a love making scene...ewwww....anyway, Robert and Diana go off on a hunting party to shoot some sacred monkeys (I'm not kidding here), but they end up getting attacked in camp one night by gorillas (which we find out later are controlled by Albert via the implants he and Turk installed) and Diana is taken away. Turk appears and tells Robert that if he ever wants to see his sister alive, he has to bring Burt into the jungle. At first Burt is reluctant to go, but when he finds out Turk, henchman to Albert is involved, he decides to go, if only to extract payback from the treacherous Albert.

While in the jungle, Robert, Burt, and gorillas and natives attack their party, but Burt manages to escape. He then hooks up with a scantily clad (she has no top, but her hair is long enough to strategically cover her jooblies, to the male viewer's dismay) jungle woman who he names Eve. They proceed to search out Albert and eventually find his jungle lair, learn of his experimentation with gorilla mind control, and ultimately, his plans for world domination. Will our two plucky adventurers be able to thwart Albert's evil machinations?

While the plot was pretty straightforward, there were plenty of stupid and pointless twists along with lame subplots that only served to drag this film into the sinking quagmire of moronosity. There were some fun elements within the film, but those quickly got squashed by the too numerous filler/padding shots of jungle animals (just to be sure we knew they were in the jungle) and some really awful tiki/conga music throughout. I won't go into the acting, but only to say it's as bad as you may think it is...And the ape suits...they were pretty awful, looking much like they'd seen better days, the fur being patchy and mottled. Men in half bald gorilla suits loping around in completely un-gorilla-like fashion hardly inspired even a fraction of a sense of realism. Are these the `Kongs' related to the title of the film? And where did they get the `Island' bit, also from the title? The story took place in a jungle...like I said before, there's plenty of deep cinematic hurting to be had here...

Retromedia Entertainment provides a passable full screen print here, but there is lots of noticeable wear and tear. Special features include a drive-in intro by schlock filmmaker Fred Olen Ray, whom I believe runs Retromedia Entertainment. Also included, along with the American release is the uncut European release. The basic difference is about a minute extra of footage, most being at the very end showing Eve running naked in slow motion(!?) There is very little, if any, nekkidness in the American version, for those of you who find that to be of importance. Oh yeah, the picture quality of the European version is much worse, and includes what appear to be Greek subtitles throughout in large font that can't be turned off (removed). I guess if I learned anything from this film, it's that movies with the word `Island' in the title don't necessarily have to take place on an island.

Cookieman108

Rating:
Summary: Eva, la Venere selvaggia
Review: Nice and complex for a cheap 1968 movie. We have overlapping plots. What you may notice right off is there are no island and no Kong. How ever there is an Eva, the savage girl (Esmeralda Barros) who exposes her uh talent. We have to put up with an Italian knockoff of a disco and even listen to cheap sci-fi sounds while a mad scientist Albert (Marc Lawrence) monkeys with remote brain control, not to mention the bongo background.

We start out with the East Africa Trading Company's parole being pilfered and the head pilferer bumps off the others. Oops co-pilferer Burt (Brad Harris) survives and intends to track Albert down. The plot thickens when we meat a bar owner, his wayward mistress, his blond "lights on, nobody home" daughter Diana (Ursula Davis), his puppy dog son, and a few mysterious characters.

Daughter wants to shoot the sacred monkey.
Mad scientist covets the monkey brain.
And Burt monkeys around.
Now quit looking for Kong! I told you there is no Kong!

Everyone double crosses everyone else.
So does the scientist get away?
Will we eve see the sacred monkey?
Who gets the blond?
Who gets the chimp?


Rating:
Summary: Muscles and Monkeys
Review: Originally released as The King of Kong Island. As Fred Olin Ray points out in this Retromedia release, there is nor King, no Kong, and not even an Island.

The Retromedia disk comes with the US and the European versions. The European version is better and more accurate, but you have to put up with Greek subtitles.

The film opens with two cryptic scenes. In one, a pair of doctors operate on a gorilla and implant a device in its head. In the other, a group of mercenaries are killed by one of their own.

From there we follow one of the mercenaries (he survived being killed) who is looking up old acquaintances in Nigeria. One is a young red-head who seems spoiled and just wants to shoot really rare animals.

Well, we get a lot of jungle footage, some hunting, lots of plot threads, intelligent gorillas attacking, a mad doctor, and the beautiful Sacred Monkey.

This is one strange film but it has its moments. I would give it a higher rating but it lacked enough cohesiveness to really make the film work.

Rating:
Summary: Fun and Silly but not quite up to snuff
Review: Originally released as The King of Kong Island. As Fred Olin Ray points out in this Retromedia release, there is nor King, no Kong, and not even an Island.

The Retromedia disk comes with the US and the European versions. The European version is better and more accurate, but you have to put up with Greek subtitles.

The film opens with two cryptic scenes. In one, a pair of doctors operate on a gorilla and implant a device in its head. In the other, a group of mercenaries are killed by one of their own.

From there we follow one of the mercenaries (he survived being killed) who is looking up old acquaintances in Nigeria. One is a young red-head who seems spoiled and just wants to shoot really rare animals.

Well, we get a lot of jungle footage, some hunting, lots of plot threads, intelligent gorillas attacking, a mad doctor, and the beautiful Sacred Monkey.

This is one strange film but it has its moments. I would give it a higher rating but it lacked enough cohesiveness to really make the film work.

Rating:
Summary: Muscles and Monkeys
Review: There is not much to this film.... but to see Brad Harris take off his shirt to reveal one of the most awesome set of muscles on film, its worth getting! Woof!!