Though Dino Delaurentis’ 1976 version of KING KONG proved to be a critical and box office failure, the mega-buck advertising campaign put giant monster movies back on the map. Audiences wanted more monster mayhem, and independent distributors were quick to jump on the bandwagon. The KING KONG fiasco influenced various studios around the world. China’s Shaw Brothers studio produced THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN. England’s Dexter Films came up with QUEEN KONG. Korea came up with the worst Kong rip-off of them all—simply called A.P.E. The movie was directed by Paul Leder, the man who also directed I DISMEMBER MAMA, VULTURES, and BODY COUNT. Jack Harris (who produced the original THE BLOB, SCHLOCK, and DARK STAR) released this Korean American co-production in 3-D to cash in on the post-Kong craze. Harris was a true master of marketing, and somehow he convinced Forrest Ackerman to run a major cover story in his Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. I doubt Forry ever saw the film, but nevertheless he ran a feature story complete with an exciting cover painting of the gorilla battling a JAWS-esque shark. Though the article covered every nuance of the plot, there were no other photos in sight. This exposure piqued the interest of monster-hungry youths, who plunked down their hard earned cash to see this mirco-budgeted abomination. Incidentally, this cost Forry Ackerman a lot of readers, and this was the beginning of the end for the longest running and best monster magazine of all time. Image Entertainment has released some very bizarre films on DVD over the last couple of years, but even they have not released something this obscure. Surely it’s a big risk for them because it’s hard to see this one turning a profit.

A 35 foot ape escapes from a toy ship, and gets attacked by a rubber shark when it hits the water. After throttling the shark, the Ape swims to nearby mainland Korea, and begins trashing some paper mache houses. At the local airport, American actress Marilyn Baker (Joanna Kerns) arrives to shoot a film in Korea. She is met by her boyfriend Tom (Rod Arrants), an American reporter working in Korea. The Ape keeps menacing the countryside, and the eye witness reports alert the Korean military commander, Captain Kim (Lee Nak Hun) and the leader of the American forces, Colonel Davis (Alex Nicole). While Marilyn is shooting her movie on an abandoned street, the Ape passes by and is struck by her beauty. The Ape grabs her just as Tom and Captain Kim arrive in their army jeep. Colonel Davis orders military helicopters to drop gas bombs on the giant, so they can take him alive. The gas doesn’t have it’s intended effect, but it makes him groggy enough so that he lets go of Marilyn. Tom saves her in the confusion, while the Ape escapes. Captain Kim tells Tom to take her to his home in Seoul, where she will be safe. Tom drives her to captain Kim’s house where his wife keeps watch over her. Somehow, the Ape figures out her position and heads for Seoul. The beast rips apart all the buildings it sees until it comes to Captain Kim’s house. It knocks down the house and recaptures Marilyn. Tom, Captain Kim, and Colonel Davis must find a way to stop the Ape and rescue Marilyn!

This movie makes THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN look like GONE WITH THE WIND. I’m not sure if A.P.E. was the first joint U.S.-Korean feature, but the two styles just do not mix. The story, drama, and especially the special effects are of High School caliber. The script is really atrocious, and produces some of the worst dialog I’ve ever heard in my 20+ years of bad movies. The acting is terribly amateurish with most of the cast talking on telephones. Joanna Kerns occasionally manages to inject some emotion to the surreal proceedings, and B-movie vet Alex Nicole chews scenery as the seemingly demented Colonel Davis. The behavior of the gorilla in this movie is completely non-sensical, and the beast does little else than lumber around ridiculously. The ape suit itself is one of the worst to ever grace the big screen. It is not even as realistic as the ones from 1950’s films like GORILLA AT LARGE, BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, or BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA. The rest of the special effects are completely laughable, especially the pathetic attempts at 3-D trickery. Whenever an object "pops out" of the screen, a string is clearly observed leading it! Besides all the badness, A.P.E. adds countless scenes of fleeing Koreans, buzzing helicopters, and charging tanks. This is obvious stock footage to pad out the thin movie to feature length. A.P.E. does not work as a satire, though it is full of in-jokes. The movie director’s name is Dino, a poke at the producer of the 1976 KING KONG. In one amusing bit, the gorilla stumbles onto a movie set where he witness the filming of a Korean martial arts movie! The giant ape does a jig and gives attacking helicopters the bird. Yet the humor is not campy or fun like THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN.

A.P.E. is presented in the original widescreen ratio of 1.85.1, with 16x9 enhancement. This movie was filmed on the cheap, with an extremely low quality film stock. Image’s transfer is actually pretty good and the source print used is relatively free from speckles and dirt. Grain is a problem and the picture looks fuzzy, though both these imperfections are attributed to the Z grade film stock, and not anything on the part of Image. When a movie is filmed in 3-D, seldom does the image look normal when projected in 2-D. If you are a fan of this movie, you will be happy with the image quality. The Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 soundtrack is not as pleasing, however. The sound effects, dialog, and music sound muffled. It sounds as if the microphones used during filming were too sensitive and picked up too much background noise. The audio elements are all out of whack, and sometimes the explosions are not in synch with what is being shown onscreen. The beast itself is surprisingly silent, and makes no roars at all. The muffled dialog is spoken entirely in English, including the Korean actors who speak in unbelievably poor English (you’ll wish they were dubbed!). A.P.E. includes a symphonic musical score which isn’t bad, considering the nature of this film. The score is performed by the Korean National Symphony, and sounds undistorted on this otherwise atrocious soundtrack. Image’s DVD does not contain any extras at all, not even a trailer. I have a theory a trailer was never produced, because if it was they would have to show scenes of the film, which would surely telegraph how poor of a movie is.

A.P.E. is the bottom of the barrel for giant monster films. It is a great example of how not to make a movie. If you want to see a fun, campy Kong rip-off, go see THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN, KONGA, or KING KONG ESCAPES. I love cheesy monster flicks, but this is one to avoid. If you are a giant ape completist, or simply enjoy this film for its brain-numbing badness, you’ll be happy with the transfer delivered by Image Entertainment. Be aware of the problematic soundtrack, though. But because of the sheer absurdity of it all, I really can’t recommend purchasing this disc. If you have to see this piece of simian cinema, try a rental first.

A*P*E* is available from DVDEmpire.com

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