Stars: Bill Paxton, Charlize Theron, Rade Serbedzija, Naveen Andrews, Regina King, David Paymer

Director: Ron Underwood

Summary: Joe is a fifteen-foot-gorilla who has grown up with his lifelong best friend, Jill Young, in the remote mountains of Central Africa. Poachers make it necessary for Joe and Jill to relocate to California but an enemy from Joe's past appears on the scene who will do anything to recapture him...

An enormous gorilla exhibits endless compassion and courage. In his native jungle he cares for and protects an orphaned girl who later brings him to Los Angeles to save him from ruthless poachers. However, once there, the man-made confines and threats from a new set of cruel and greedy trophy-hunters cause the otherwise gentle, but misunderstood, beast to totally flip out. Remake of the black and white classic.

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Charlize Theron is the latest stunning blonde to be hanging around some big ape in a Hollywood movie, this one a remake of the 1949 semi-classic with echoes of the superior King Kong. Theron plays the daughter of an American researcher killed by poachers in Africa. The baby gorilla left in her care grows up to become a hugely tall and broad specimen named Joe, living in the mountains as a mostly unseen legend among people who live there. Along comes an eco-minded emissary (Bill Paxton) from a California sanctuary, who talks the jungle girl into providing safe haven for Joe at the LA facility. The transition is not without discomfort but everything is aggravated via a conspiracy of poachers to get Joe into their own greedy hands. Director Ron Underwood (City Slickers) uses a combination of special-effects techniques to give Joe life and personality, and he succeeds quite effectively. The requisite giant-ape-goes-amok scenes are all in place-a couple of them pretty intense--as is a conclusion that finds the simian hero performing a stunning feat of escalation. Underwood attempts to give a little modern spin to some classic Hollywood conventions regarding wild hearts lost in civilization and the results are pretty agreeable family fare. --Tom Keogh

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1998
Release Date:	January 22, 2001
Runtime:	110 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B E D 888233
Keywords:	Joe, Mighty, General, Young, Drama
Genre:	Drama