Watch in horror as the A*P*E Mercilessly attacks the same building in 5 different shots, and then sometimes the same shot repeated later in the film. Marvel at the special effects as foam pieces fly off the "rocks" that fall toward the same three men also repeated about five times. Become engrossed in the finely developed characters, and their emotional dialogue like "Just too big for a small world like ours," or "Lets see him dance for his organ grinder now!"
If the makers of this film were serious, I'll be a monkey's uncle, haha. But seriously, you'll have an ape of a time(I don't even think people say that one). I'm not monkeying around; you'll go bananas!
Important note: you can see the head part of the ape costume moving seperately from the rest of the costume and you don't even have to be looking.
Here's what I really think: It's bad, oh boy is it ever, especially the repeated stock footage and footage from other movies, and the 3 minutes, LITERALLY 3 MINUTES, of time wasted by showing children playing with a puppet. There is a shot of firemen rushing through the supposedly panic-stricken city but look closely(or not so closely you can still see it); In the background you can see people shopping. Let's not forget the ending (don't worry, you won't care if I tell you how it ends) which is 15 minutes of tanks shooting, soldiers running up to the camera looking into it, and then shooting 3 or 4 rounds out of a rifle I'm certain only holds one round(I don't know anything about guns, but it had the handle dealy on the side that you cock to load and unload). All this while the ape disco dances which I suppose is him being shot and reacting, but I would think that all that firepower and he would probably run away. Then the ape dies. You can tell it's going to happen too, because after what seems like hours of being shot in the head and chest, the A*P*E vomits blood. These things are the reason to watch the movie. I'm not exaggerating when I say A*P*E is one of the funniest films of all time.
Ape
1976
Action / Adventure / Fantasy
Ape
1976
Action / Adventure / Fantasy
Keywords: gorillaapenewspaper reporter
Plot summary
A newly discovered 36-foot gorilla escapes from a freighter off the coast of Korea. At the same time an American actress is filming a movie in the country. Chaos ensues as the ape kidnaps her and rampages through Seoul.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
A Comic Masterpiece
"I never thought I'd be getting jealous of a 36 foot ape."
Truly awful King Kong rip-off that is so bad you have to see it to believe it. The ape, said to be thirty-six feet tall, is just some guy in a cheap gorilla suit that the filmmakers got at a costume shop or a yard sale. This isn't even a full body ape suit. It's got sleeves with gloves. There are several instances where you can see the skin of the guy's wrists as he moves his arms about. That's the level of quality we're talking here. That's how few *beeps* this movie gives. He's filmed mostly from the chest up. When they do try to show you some scale for the ape's size, they do it with cheap stuff like toy boats and crummy miniature buildings. The ape also moves in slow motion throughout the movie. Let me be clear: they didn't slow down the film. The "actor" in the ape suit just moved really slowly to emulate slow motion! Like a kid playing make believe.
The cast is especially bad. This is the film debut of Joanna Kerns, the mom from "Growing Pains." Her screams will haunt me for weeks. So unbelievably shrill. Be prepared to turn your volume down. Laughably, at one point while in the palm of the ape's hand, Kerns stops screaming and says "Be gentle with me, big guy." She returns to screaming almost immediately. Bizarre! Kerns has a romantic subplot with a very '70s-looking guy named Rod Arrants. They kiss a lot. Pretty much every time they are in the same scene, Arrants is all over her. Long-time character actor Alex Nicol plays a foul-mouthed Army Colonel here. I have to believe his performance is intended to be funny. It makes no sense any other way. Bruce MacRae is listed as responsible for the music. He should have been arrested and charged with assault. The score is relentless and will make your ears bleed.
As the helicopters approach the ape, he stands there and makes these wild gestures with his arms. For the life of me, it looks a lot like he's dancing. Was the guy in the ape suit inebriated? Very likely. Further evidence of this is the scene where the ape flips off the Army. Yeah. The guy in the ape suit was loaded for sure. It's so terrible. There are lots of pointless scenes. Such as when the ape pulls a snake off of a tree and throws it -- hitting the camera! This goes nowhere. It just cuts away to another scene and when it returns to the ape he's moved on to something else. The only reason I'm giving this a 2 instead of a 1 is because of the unintended comedy. It's one of the worst movies ever made.
Better than Dino's, if that means anything
I've always seen the 1976 Dino De Laurentiis produced King Kong as a big budget rip-off of the original instead of a remake. Therefore, that makes South Korea's The Great Counterattack of King Kong an inferior copy of a poor copy. Released in the United States as A*P*E*, Attack of the Giant Horny Gorilla and Hideous Mutant, this is one schlocky piece of business.
An American/South Korean co-production, this film was intended for a 3D release, as is quite evident when you see the flaming arrows shot at the camera that the big ape cannily dodges against a blue screen. It was released just before the much buzzed about and aforementioned Kong, complete with a poster that trumpeted that this Kong would fight a great white shark, going blockbuster to blockbuster against Jaws. This battle would be foreshadowed (and was probably ripped off from) a 1976 Famous Monsters of Filmland cover.
They even teased this movie as being called The New King Kong, which is — to be incredibly colloquial — a true balls move. It's also legally inadvisable, as RKO sued them into the ground, forcing a name change to Super Ape and finally A*P*E* Attacking Primate MonstEr. Why the acronym? As they were shooting in Korea and M*A*S*H* took place there (and was such a big deal at the time),it just seemed like a funny pun. Yes, a funny pun whose punchline is lost in the mist of time, but a pun nonetheless.
In fact, the lawsuit also forced the producers of this film to state that this movie "was not to be confused with King Kong." That's right, please don't confuse this movie about a giant monkey kidnapping an actress and fighting planes with any other film.
Starring Joanna Kerns, who you may know as Maggie Seaver — mom to the Growing Pains TV family — as Marilyn Baker, A*P*E* wastes no time getting started. An overdubbed ship crew discusses Kong's attack in Harlem, making it seem that this film is a sequel to either the original or the upcoming remake (legally we must inform you again that this film is not to be confused with King Kong),which makes sense in the former and none at all in the latter. But what do you expect for a film that took two weeks to shoot and had a budget of $23,000?
Read more at http://www.thatsnotcurrent.com/monkey-madness-look-back- ape/