Mighty Joe Young
As a child living in Africa, Jill Young saw her mother killed while protecting wild gorillas from poachers led by Andrei Strasser. Now an adult, Jill cares for an orphaned gorilla named Joe -- who, due to a genetic anomaly, is 15 feet tall. When Gregg O'Hara arrives from California and sees the animal, he convinces Jill that Joe would be safest at his wildlife refuge. But Strasser follows them to the U.S., intent on capturing Joe for himself.
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- Cast:
- Charlize Theron , Bill Paxton , Rade Šerbedžija , Peter Firth , David Paymer , Regina King , Robert Wisdom
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Reviews
I love this movie so much
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
This time I think the remake is fine. I thought the original was lightweight at best, being a kind of King Kong sequel. People were enamored with gorillas in those days, not because they were endangered but because they were simply interesting. In this one, the bad guys are poachers who kill a woman and a gorilla. Once the young woman begins to protect Joe, she and Joe become their target. As Joe gets bigger and bigger his stock rises. The positive about this film is that the special effects and Joe's being is so much more convincing that the stop action stuff of the forties. Of course, that doesn't mean the original is less worthy; it's just that things get cleaned up here. This is a good movie and doesn't beg comparisons.
The main problems I had with this is not Joe himself, but sadly, the overall story as well as the acting and effects. Despite the implausibility of a gorilla like Joe, he's the only character with any redeeming quality and he's not even real. The 1940's version with the Harryhousen effects are far better than this uninspired outing. The underlying message that this movie and others like it love to convey is 1- that animals are still on this earth solely for our amusement, regardless of the well meaning intentions of a few, and 2-never underestimate the blind stupidity of people in large groups.Basically an oversized ape is taken from the only habitat he's ever known and where he's felt safe all his life and thrown into a fake man-made enclosure on the other side of the world for tourists to gawk at and the media to milk until the next flavour of the month presents itself. During a gala event where Joe is to be displayed in front of high society types, things take a turn for the worse and as usual Joe, like any other wild animal, reacts violently,however as several people with more money than sense got hurt in the ensuing melee the typical consensus is to lock him away to be euthanized. To wrap up, Joe is freed from prison, the poachers trying to kill him are defeated, Joe redeems himself by saving a child from a fire and he ends up roaming free again back in Africa. It's a very syrupy and artificial and kids won't see that it's full of holes but this just isn't enjoyable on any level for anyone over 10 years old. There's lots of silly and deliberate attempts at generating cheap laughs whether it be a sports car getting trampled or a Mercedes getting trashed. It's all very obvious as is the teary premature death of Joe, which even blind Freddy could see coming. A box office bomb if ever there was and it's not hard to see why. A total miss.
Mighty Joe Young tells the tale of a young woman who's an owner of a giant gorilla named Joe and his environment is in danger. So Charlize Theron's charcther and Bill Paxton's charcther decides to go to Los Angelus so Joe can have a normal life as a bunch of poachers are out to get him as they killed Theron's charcthers mother when she was just a baby. Overall the story to this is very good,the music is very good and the cast is also very good. I saw it a few times before on TV and it was on Film 4 today. I may never know why this got a low rating cause I seen nothing wrong with it. Overall I really enjoyed this movie and I also was shocked that the gorilla wasn't a real gorilla AT ALL,he was a animatronic created by Rick Baker.Awesome effects.My verdict watch it.9/10
I wasn't sure whether I would like Mighty Joe Young. I did see it once with my family beforehand and didn't think much of it. When I did decide to give it a chance again, I am glad I did. I wasn't expecting a perfect family movie, and while this movie is very dark, it also manages to be quite sweet too. I will admit that the beginning is very dark and intense even for a family movie. I will also admit that the plot is very formulaic and that the villains are rather cartoony.What made this movie though for me was Joe. He was designed superbly and acted very convincingly. Even for an ape, I found him quite adorable, after seeing films like Congo where they scared me so much. Other pluses are the superb special effects and the splendid scenery. Not to mention the lovely music score. The acting was a mixed bag; Charlize Theron was gorgeous as Jill, and Bill Paxton was very good as Gregg. The supporting actors ranged from good to so-so. The relationship between Joe and Jill was very very convincing and sweet, well to me it was. And I know the ending was more King Kong with a happy ending, but I will confess I cried. Maybe it was because I loved Joe so much, I have a habit of empathising with characters that I grow to love.Overall, it is a decent family movie. It mayn't appeal to you first time, but if given the chance as it did with me, it may grow on you. 7/10 Bethany Cox