"Incredibly Long Title" Review!

     

     I originally saw this film when I was a kid so maybe that was about the time it was released on VHS.  I believe I watched it with my father, if I am not mistaken, as he is a big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote the novel.  I only remembered one part of it, until today that is.  The part I could recall was Tarzan as a teenager and taking a nice long hearty piss on the mean apes head.  My only guess as to why I remembered this was, it's friggin funny, even for an adult it's a mite amusing.
     So I had been in the mood to watch a good Tarzan movie and for people that are in the know, a good one is very hard to find!  This one with its ridiculously long title is considered by many to be the best of the lot.  I personally haven't seen all of them so I really can't say at this point.  
     Most people know the story of Tarzan either by stories they were told as kids or they went about it the easy way and watched the Disney cartoon of a bunch of years ago.  The Disney one is okay but I wanted live action.  This particular film is acted pretty well on the whole.  Christopher Lambert in his first English speaking role of his long career and Andie Macdowell in her first movie role ever and they both do rather well.  Ian Holm, who plays the Captain that brings Tarzan back to civilization, plays him for the most part well.  There are a few times where he goes a bit on the over acting side but he kinda is an over actor anyway.  The other cast members do a decent job of not sticking out, so i guess that's good because if they stuck out that usually means they were bad.
     All of the effects are completely practical so no CGI at all in this, well because it wasn't really in used yet for drama films and saved mainly for science fiction.  I do believe there is a few real apes in this picture but for the most part they are all people in ape suits and it sticks out badly.  All the blood is very bright so it kinda sticks out like red paint, but that was how things were done in the 80's.
     I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this picture when it took place in the jungle and showing how Tarzan grows up.  Very entertaining!  Then when the film shifts to civilization it kinda gets boring and the time between they skip over a bunch of shit that would have been interesting to the story.  It does have a rather uneventful climax and abruptly ends when I was ready for more jungle activity.
      I have to say that this movie is just okay.