I once had a good friend, a pen pal you can call it, from South Korea. He's a slightly famous poet, at least so famous he can survive on his writing. One of the first things I asked him was if he'd seen Yongary (he had, and he hated it), if he had seen Wangmagwi (no) and if he ever heard of a American-South Korean co-production called A*P*E. He never heard of it and was extremely surprised to even learn something like that existed. Paul Leder, the father of Hollywood blockbuster director Mimi Leder, was a prolific exploitation director during the 70's and 80's and A*P*E (which stands for "Attacking Primate Monster") was meant both as a spoof and a cash-in on Dino De Laurentiis King Kong. There's even a movie director called Dino in Leder's film. To add to the exploitation vibe it was also shot in 3D.
Now, this is a very ambitious project which obviously never was meant to leave the script stage, but thanks to South Korean investors and the enthusiasm of Leder it went ahead... and it's a completely, wonderful disaster! Like Goliathon it spends a little bit too much time on pointless melodrama and love affairs, but this time it's faster into absurdity and very cheap miniatures in a story that goes like this (kinda): Dino is shooting a drama in South Korea. He brings his star there, Marilyn Baker (Joanna Kerns) and everything goes well...until the giant ape that escapes from a boat (and battles an enormous shark!) in the beginning of the movie stomps closer to Seoul to create mayhem and scare children. The military, including the Americans, doesn't believe in the ape from the beginning but soon they need to battle this terrible, awful, horrible ape suit with everything the got!
This is stupid. It's very stupid. It's close to mentally challenged. It's also very entertaining and just watching the effects - none of them are good - embarress themselves in front of the camera is a beautiful thing to behold. The ape suit - or maybe more the person inside the suit - is extremely uconvincing and does a remarkably bad job imitating a primate. Also watch out for one of the seamen in the beginning - he's probably THE worst actor ever. Not kidding.
What makes A*P*E fun is how it rarely stops to think. The drama is washed away by retared dialogue and lame attempts at comedy, the directing his highly questionable. Or maybe it's more the editing? It's hard to say, because everything is so sloppily executed. Now it seems like I'm hating it, yeah? The Evil A*P*E Hater? No, that's not just true. I love this flick. It's "special", but it's obviously made with some kind of misdirected passion and hardly any budget at all. To be fair, there's a couple of miniature scenes that look okay-ish, probably because they was shot in sunlight and not in studio, which adds to the realism.
Come to think of it, Mimi Leder's Deep Impact is just like Paul Leder's A*P*E but with a tidal wave instead of a big ape. That's a fact according to me and you have nothing to say about it.
"I once had a good friend, a pen pal you can call it, from South Korea."
Hmm.....I think you were tricked by someone.
"This is stupid. It's very stupid. It's close to mentally challenged. It's also very entertaining and just watching the effects - none of them are good - embarress themselves in front of the camera is a beautiful thing to behold. The ape suit - or maybe more the person inside the suit - is extremely uconvincing and does a remarkably bad job imitating a primate."
hahahhahha...I´m not surprised.
"What makes A*P*E fun is how it rarely stops to think. The drama is washed away by retared dialogue and lame attempts at comedy, the directing his highly questionable. Or maybe it's more the editing?"
Ah.....it´s that hard to tell, huh?
Then it must be a great movie....
"Come to think of it, Mimi Leder's Deep Impact is just like Paul Leder's A*P*E but with a tidal wave instead of a big ape. That's a fact according to me and you have nothing to say about it."
But I love Deep Impact(1998)......it makes Armageddon(1998)look even more bland than before.
Good review and thanks......now if you only could do a review of Fernando Baldi´s Missione finale/Ten Zan - Ultimate Mission(1988)......think about it.
Posted by: Megatron | February 05, 2014 at 14:39
No, Megatron. I wasn't tricked by anyone. You just don't understand that you hurt me when you claim everyone I know is afraud or a troll or something else. What you're telling me is that I'm stupid and that I don't have any friends.
So get that into your mind. I have a life, I have real friends - IRL or through the web.
Posted by: Fred Anderson | February 05, 2014 at 16:00
Fred: No, I mean it like that....but you could be tricked......and I know you have real friends in IRL.
I don´t think you´re dumb....but just be careful.....promise me that.
Posted by: Megatron | February 06, 2014 at 14:10
Have you seen it in 3D?
It doesn't help make it any better.
Posted by: Volker | February 10, 2014 at 16:12
No, but I've seen there's a german DVD in 3D :)
Posted by: Fred Anderson | February 10, 2014 at 16:14
That's the one I'm talking about. It's awful. The 3D version is anaglyphic and looks like it got ripped off of YouTube.
I would SO buy a color 3D BluRay of this, though !!! (Hello rights holders, are you reading this?)
Posted by: Volker Stieber | March 19, 2014 at 14:08