Too many fans seem to be blown away

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

While there's something for everyone (almost) in this action sci-fi, it's unlikely to be your most memorable movie experience. Amiable he-man Brad Harris stars as a mercenary soldier who's double crossed by his medic companion (Lawrence) in a bungled heist, but survives to seek revenge upon the mad doctor now experimenting on gorillas with mind control programming.Aside from the shirtless Harris, flexing his body-built physique as he cavorts in a jungle pool, Tarzan style, there's also the scantily clad trio Esmerelda Barros (as a fabled native girl accompanied by the ubiquitous cheeky chimp), Adriana Alben (as Harris' sultry, former flame) and Ursula Davis as the short-shorts wearing pawn in Lawrence's diabolical plan to lure Harris to his lair for the purposes of programming him for mind control. There's a great dancing scene to showcase Harris' moves, a couple of violent ape attacks, some safari wildlife-spotting, and the promise of much more that never really eventuates. Like an early James Bond film meets "King Kong" or "Planet of the Apes", it has camp moments, but is mostly just clichéd and boring with an anti climax that's disappointing and uninspired.

Marc Lawrence who had blacklisting problems and was exiled for years from the USA had to take parts in a lot of really bad films. But I don't think he sunk lower in his career than when he took the part of the mad scientist in Kong Island. At least Lawrence got to chew a set full of scenery and after that a whole jungle on this mythical tropical island where there are a whole lot of gorillas running wild. Lawrence thinks they'd make great soldier/slaves and he's invented a control device to implant in their skulls so he can bend them to his will. Dr. Moreau on his island never thought of anything this fiendish.Brad Harris who was one of many peplum heroes got to occasionally wear a shirt in this, but we saw enough of his well developed torso and shoulders. It was a change of pace for Harris who is the hero, but the film belongs to Marc Lawrence though I'm sure he winced at the mention of this one.

"A diabolical team of scientists land on 'Kong Island' determined to implant devices into the brains of the gorilla population that will transform them into an unstoppable army. Their plan for world domination runs off the tracks when a descendant of 'King Kong' arrives and the mayhem begins," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. The promised "descendant" of King Kong never arrived, at least not in my copy of this film.Alternately dubbed "Kong Island" or "King of Kong Island" for English language listeners, this cheap Italian production includes gunfire, two gorillas, plus three sexy women: topless "savage girl" Esmerelda Barros (as Eva), bikini clad Adriana Alben (as Ursula), and leggy Ursula Davis (as Diana). Star Brad Harris (as Burt) shows off his chest, too. Tune in to see how all this, with kidnapping and simian surgery, is made dull.** Eva, la Venere selvaggia (9/29/68) Roberto Mauri ~ Brad Harris, Marc Lawrence, Esmerelda Barros, Ursula Davis

Seriously, I have a soft spot for KONG ISLAND, and the only people who might be so violently opposed to it would have to be stupid enough to take it seriously. This was a cheap, trippy, low budget Italian exploitation film made before Italian exploitation films were all the rage. Sure, it dared to evoke the mighty name of Kong, and it is all mighty silly once you get down to brass tacks, but so what? This is a Jungal Trash movie about white Anglos going to darkest Africa to have all sorts of fascinating adventures while the natives carry the luggage. Anyone expecting anything else is seriously wasting their time.Muscleman turned 60s matinée idol Brad Harris manages to keep a straight face as he plays a former mercenary double crossed by creepy Mark Lawrence (yes, Mark Lawrence) who intends to take all the loot from a diamond mine payroll heist to -- and I am not making this up -- create a master race of superhuman gorillas radio controlled by brain implants to do his evil bidding. Which involves kidnapping various scantily clad supporting actresses for purposes that the English language version never bothers to explain.And right here we have to stop and do a little Italian genre film 101 for the newcomers: If you've seen the cut, bleached out, nappy looking fullscreen English version circulating on various bargain bin DVD sets, you haven't even seen half of this film. That's a TV print that's been shorn of any content that 1970s era television wouldn't tolerate, such as nudity. Italians usually made two versions of their films, a somewhat tamer version for export that would be translated to English, and then an Italian language print with no holds barred.The highlight of the film in it's uncensored form are extended sequences of Euro horror boob babe Esmeralda Barros (THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT) prancing around the jungle wearing nigh but a leather kerchief around her waist, which manages to get lost in time for the big finale where she goes stark naked. A nudity-friendly export print with Greek subtitles is available on the Retromedia DVD which runs a full seven minutes longer than the standard English travesty, and then there's an insanely rare Italian language print that even clocks the Greek version by a couple minutes with some extra safari scenes thrown in to establish plot.It's a quirky, goofy, lunkheaded film for sure. But to the initiated it's a pleasure to see, with a dreamy psychedelic music score by Roberto Pregadio, a veteran Italian genre film supporting cast led by curvy Adriana Alben, pretty Ursula Davis, sneering Paolo Magalotti, and Mark Farran. The film was written by Euro horror favorites Walter Brandi (BLOODY PIT OF HORROR), his frequent collaborator Ralph Zucker (BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT) and directed by spaghetti western regular Roberto Mauri. His frequent star Brad Harris executive produced, and all of it is "presented by" schlock cinema maestro Dick Randall.If you take it seriously you're missing the point, and if you get all bent out of shape watching movies about radio controlled gorillas kidnapping Italian B movie actresses in their underwear you have nobody but yourself to blame for wasting your time on it. But please, make sure you at least track down one of the prints with the nudity. For now that means the Retromedia DVD which isn't hard to find. 7/10, for being so lovably goofy.