Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This movie puts EVEN the original Kong to shame! T-Rex looked like a child's toy! When Gorga exerts himself with fighting "dinosaurs" or chasing villagers, he sounded like he needed an inhaler! Then, when the circus owner was dealing with the rifle being jammed, Gorga stood there like he was waiting to get shot! And when the circus owner and the female trekker were in the nest, a piercing scream was heard, but her mouth was covered by her hand! Wonder how much money this farce when in the theaters?

This movie is not only the poor man's version of KING KONG, but it is also plagiarizing it! Circus owner and trapper go to a lost world with creatures that time forgot located at a plateau in Africa to find a giant ape who is worshiped by a tribe. Also they find diamonds and the ape becomes their friend. I saw this movie and let me think. GASP! This is not only plagiarizing KING KONG, it is also plagiarizing THE LOST WORLD (the plateau with dinosaurs as explained in the story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), SON OF KONG (there is one scene where the ape's finger gets bandaged) and KING SOLOMAN'S MINES (the diamonds). Just like how JOHNNY TEST is plagiarizing DEXTER'S LABORATORY, FAIRLY ODDPARENTS and SCOOBY-DOO (read my comments on those shows). Also the effects are awful with a capital A! Let's start with the dinosaur that Gorga fights. It looks like a combination between an alien and Barney the Dinosaur. Gorga looks crappy. Either it is a paper-mâché mask, decorated kitchen gloves and jacket covered in wigs or they couldn't afford money to buy a whole gorilla suit which is why he is seen from the waist up. Also footage from GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON is seen. Speaking of stop-motion animation, in the late 1970's David L. Hewitt who not only directed this movie, but played the title simian was planning to remake or re-release this movie under the title THE GREAT GORGA (as reported in a February 1978 issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND) with a higher budget and stop-motion models. A stop-motion T-Rex and Stegosaurus were made by Larry Arpin. He also made the ape. He was going to animate these beasts but during that time other studios from across the globe wanted make their own rip-offs and Dave didn't want to get caught in that mess so he called it off. What a pity. It would be a great movie to help other people to get their minds off what Dino De Laurentiis did to KING KONG in 1976. It is available on DVD by Something Weird and it plays double-bill with the porno film, ONE MILLION AC/DC (they both came out in 1969) which features the same dinosaur from that movie. (Read my review and you will thank me for saving time you will never get back.) Bottom line: If you have a knack for finding bad movies, dinosaurs, apes and stop-motion animation then give it a watch. Rated G alright. Bring out the kids so they can learn what a bad movie is and what plagiarism is too. This has been another "Matthew Rants."

**Possible Spoilers Ahead**This five-cent fiasco was directed by the same dude who gave us THE WIZARD OF MARS and GALLERY OF HORRORS. Many of the cast were associates of the infamous Al Adamson. It's been called the worst King Kong rip-off ever made and I won't dispute that accusation for a minute. Anthony Eisley, the owner of a nearly bankrupt circus, journeys to the African jungle (Bronson Canyon) to capture The Mighty Gorga. This critter is guy in a giant gorilla suit with painted-on mis-aligned eyes. Normal-sized gorillas seen earlier in a zoo are scarier than Gorga but then, Curious George is scarier than Gorga. Eisley and sour-pussed heroine Megan Timothy are also menaced by the local Indians. (Timothy sagely explains that Indians belong in South America, not Africa, but no explanation for their presence is ever given.) Other fun stuff: bloodless gunshot wounds, bad acting, dumb dialogue, volcano and cave-dragon scenes cribbed from other films, and a toy tyrannosaurus that lays big purple eggs. (The origin of Barney? Or did director Hewitt expect to premiere this masterpiece on Easter?) By the way, what kind of crazy clown would pay to see a cock-eyed gorilla in a circus? Probably a crazy clown like myself who paid to see it on tape.

"The Mighty Gorga" is probably the worst King Kong rip-off there is. The plot concerns an impecunious circus owner going to a Congo that looks strangely like southern California in search of a giant species of ape that will make his circus some money. Along the way he picks up a woman who is searching for her father (who also wanted to exploit the giant ape), and they encounter a tribe of Indians (played by Caucasian actors) who sustain Gorga on the flesh of maidens so that he doesn't trash their village. The characters wonder what Indians are doing in Africa, but no explanation is ever given (and, incidentally, the only Black person observed during their visit to the Congo speaks English without a foreign accent). In the final scene, the protagonists still haven't captured Gorga, but state their intention to do so although they have no idea how they will transport him back to the States. The special effects are simply unbelievable - the giant ape costume is worse than anything seen in a high school drama production, the one composite shot of the ape and the humans together is pathetic, and the "Indian" scenes (especially the colloquies between the witch doctor and the ape) are like "Gilligan's Island" scenarios; but worst of all is the dinosaur sequence in which the human characters fend off a plastic Tyrannosaur puppet (no exaggeration - it's really that bad) by pelting it with its own eggs, and then observe it being fought to the death by Gorga - this scene is an absolute insult. Even as a devotee of schlock cinema, I was shocked at the ineptitude of this film - it fell far below my already low expectations. If there is a worse giant ape film around, I haven't seen it, and I'd have to see it to believe it.