The Mighty Jungle

Just a brief note as that is all this movie merits. I rented this movie because the video cover described an action packed adventure, or something like that. This was back in the early 1980's. To my amazement, I saw it again on TV a month or so later. I could not believe any TV station would have the stones to show this thing to the public. The only, and I mean only thing of interest is how the movie portray a peyote trip after one of the guys eats a bunch of it by mistake. The guy in Africa I think? No South America. I can't remember as the narrator keeps jumping back and forth between two stories on both sides of the Atlantic. And no, it is not my summary that is confusing, the movie is really one big HUH? Absolutely the worst movie ever made.

Did anyone watch "Daktari" as a kid? Well this is pretty much a precursor to those adventures, only this time it is the Amazonian jungle that our intrepid explorers find themselves pretending to be in whilst the archive is interspersed with their adventure. They are on the hunt for some ancient Aztec treasure but along they way "Connors" (Marshall Thompson) finds himself and his team at the mercy of the beasts and the blow-pipe wielding natives who have seen the script and the storyboard and want nothing to do with what's about to happen. It's that former aspect that really grates the most. Not because the acting is especially bad, it's really just mediocre more than bad, but because Lou Krugman's narration is intrusive to the point that is virtually obliterates all the dialogue and ensures that any attempt at characterisation is thrown under the Land Rover. It had three directors: perhaps each did a different day? Or perhaps one said "quiet"; the second "action" and then the third begging "cut"? In any case, they didn't focus much on providing us with much of a story and the use of the actuality is so bleedin' obvious as to leave the thing in a sort of cinematic docu-limbo. The "Tarzan" and "Bomba" films made decades earlier showed that even with the most basic of kit and budgets it was possible to do more in five minutes than this does in an overlong ninety minutes. Avoid, sorry. Mighty it isn't.

All I can say about this movie is "wow, that was bad!" I admit, i was in tears laughing about 15 minutes into the movie - but it was from a combination of the rediculous narration and the horrible horrible pain the movie was causing me. Essentially, this guy and a guide go back into the jungle to look for his lost party; along the way you will witness about an hours worth of stock animal footage (supposedly of the Congo, but there is a fair bit of American wildlife mixed in) and 20 minutes of rediculous wanderin through the jungle. The movie cuts back to another jungle traveller now and again showing how easy of a time he is having, while the other two are facing a life and death struggle. The point of the movie seems to be that if you respect the jungle, you will be okay, but if you are looking for treasure, the jungle is a horrible place. In the end this is a horrible movie that leaves you screaming for the hour and a half of your life back. If you love to rent bad movies, then i would recommend this one - cuz its a whole new level of bad!

I wish to god it was just a hallucination because then I wouldn't have to wake up to night sweats thinking about how horrible this movie was. This would have been a great movie if it werent for the pointless plot, the unreal amounts of stock footage, the incessant plodding of the narrator (yes! a narrator!), the lies on the back of the box, the acting and basically the entire production value. As of this review, this movie isnt on the worst 100 list, but it should be... it should be.

So if you're reading this ... go get the mighty jungle!! Did I mention that it's actually funny at some points? Not really 'haha, that guy said something funny' funny, but more like 'I have to laugh to relieve the pressure that's mounting on the inside of my head' funny. So rent and enjoy!!!

1 out of 10.

Horrid. Epically bad. What can make a bad movie worse? An endless droning of a narrator whose voice could cure insomnia. The movie is supposed to be set in the Amazon, so the guy looking for him starts in the Congo river basin in Africa? It makes no sense. Elephants trumpeting, but there aren't elephants in the Amazon rain forest... This isn't a movie, it's more of a combined documentary and commercial to stay off hallucinogenic drugs. But, it has the opposite effect. It makes you want to take drugs to dull the pain of this movie. I shut it off after around 40 seemingly endless minutes, and would warn you- avoid this trash.