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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Elisabeth Shue gets her monkey on..., September 5, 2006
Everyone's got goals in life, things they hope to achieve at some point or another, and one of mine was to someday have my very own monkey butler...alas, after watching the film Link (1986) I'm having second thoughts as I've learned you can take a hulking orangutan out of the jungle, dress him up in butler gear and teach him to serve, but at some point he'll probably go a bit nutty on you and rip your arm out of the socket just for kicks...directed by Richard Franklin (Roadgames, Psycho II, Cloak & Dagger), the film stars Elisabeth Shue (The Karate Kid, Leaving Las Vegas, Hollow Man) and Terence `General Zod' Stamp (Superman II, Alien Nation, The Limey). Also appearing is Steven Pinner, Richard Garnett (Doomsday Gun), and David O'Hara (Hotel Rwanda).
Shue plays Jane Chase, and American college student in England who lands a housekeeping/assistant gig with an eccentric professor named Dr. Steven Phillip (Stamp) in his isolated, coastal country estate, the majority of the residents being primates (seems the professor's experiments involve trying to find the common ground between human and primate intelligence or some such thing). As Jane arrives at Doctor Phillip's home, she meets the three beasts, the first being an orangutan butler named Link (whose actually dressed as a butler and likes to smoke cigars...a habit he picked up in the circus), a young chimpanzee named Imp, and an older female chimpanzee named Voodoo. Not long after Jane settles in the apes stage a sort of revolt (Link learns of his impending `early' retirement), the Professor goes missing, and Jane soon finds herself prisoner within the house, which is fortified with bars on the windows, cut off from the outside world as someone (or something) has trashed the phone line. Not only that but it seems Link has taken a real shine to Jane, illustrated earlier by his penchant for ogling her as she strips to take a bath (which also provides us with a brief side shot of a nekkid Shue), even to the point of being jealous of Jane's playful relationship with Imp, the small chimpanzee. David (Pinner), Jane's boyfriend, worried for Jane's welfare, makes the scene with a couple of friends, providing some fodder for Link, as his mischievous ways turn deadly. Eventually Jane discovers what happened to Dr. Phillip, along with discovering Link is a heck of a lot smarter than she gave him credit for eventually having to pit her wits against the orangutan's for survival.
Overall I liked this film, but then again I'm somewhat biased towards anything with monkeys in it, the exception being that awful Tony Danza/Danny DeVito film Going Ape! (1981)...the human characters in this film don't really amount to much as Terrance Stamp is barely there (talk about weak characters...his role is solely to provide the setup for Jane and the apes before he exits, stage left), and Ms. Shue is stuck with a somewhat annoying character redeemed mainly by the fact she's incredibly easy on the eyes (and then some). When I say annoying I refer specifically to her judgmental tendencies in terms of her employer and his relationships with his ape subjects. Her character sought out the professor and wormed her way into a position supposedly due to an admiration and respect she had for the man and his work, but once in place she begins expressing issues she has with how he operates and the way he treats his subjects (his character never physically abused the animals onscreen, but he was strict with the creatures, as it's important to show dominance, apparently), which seemed a bit presumptuous if you ask me. How do you come into a situation with someone whose made life out of working with apes, and then proceed to tell them their business? And it wasn't like his work bordered on the unethical or anything, except perhaps in the eventual disposition of the creatures. Anyway, the real star here was the orangutan cast as `Link', as he seemed to take direction like nobody's business. So often his expressions perfectly fit the scene making him standout above a lot of human actors currently in the business. There were a few sequences where it was obvious there was a pint-sized human dressed up like an orangutan running around, providing a stunt double for the real deal. I did learn a number of things from the film, including the following...
1. Elizabeth Shue is smarter than a chimpanzee monkey, but only slightly.
2. You don't want to anger an orangutan butler as they can really hold a grudge.
3. Cooking a phone in the microwave isn't good for the phone or the microwave.
4. Steer clear of water wells on isolated country estates, especially if there's a homicidal monkey butler on the loose.
5. When a monkey butler takes his coat off, it's go time.
6. Orangutans are monstrously strong, enough so to tip an automobile, pry up floorboards, or rip an arm from the socket.
7. In a battle between a wild dog and an orangutan, always bet on the latter.
8. Monkeys will eat just about anything, including rats, pigeons, and cats.
9. Beware of mail slots in doors when an angry orangutan is about.
10. Orangutans like to look at hot, nekkid women as much as I do.
As far as the direction, I thought Richard Franklin did fairly well providing some interesting shots and creating some real tension. I still like his earlier film Roadgames (1981), with Jamie Lee Curtis, better, though. One aspect of this production I didn't care for was the continual sense that the humans present were as stupid as they were, at least compared to the primates. Part of this is obviously due, in my opinion, to a general underestimation by the characters of the primates intelligence, but sometimes the human characters were just plain dumb. Had the apes been treated with some sort of chemical enhancement to make them smarter I would have been more willing to accept their ability to continually outwit the humans, but that wasn't the case here. There are a few good scares to be had, but not really any gore (we don't actually see anyone's arm ripped from their socket). All in all the film does have some flaws, but ultimately I found it entertaining and worth my time.
The picture, presented in widescreen (1.66:1), enhanced for 16X9 TVs, looks very good on this Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD release. The Dolby Surround 2,0 audio comes through well, but it did seem a little soft at times. As far as extras there's an original theatrical trailer, a teaser trailer, a 5X7 reproduction of original poster art along with liner notes by Michael Gingold, a managing editor of Fangoria magazine.
Cookieman108
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a cult classic, July 15, 2001
LINK is one of these great Films of the 80's , it was made at a time when you could still go at your local cinema and watch a masterpiece , LINK was awarded at the FILM FANTASTIQUE festival in France , it is an absolutely brilliant Film , do not listen to "poor"leo maltin the so-called critic and his so-called humor , he does not know what a Film is . LINK is really a cult classic.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Fun and Thrilling Suspenser., January 4, 2002
This 1986 Horror Suspense thriller stars Elizabeth Shue and
Terrence Stamp ( Star of the Superman movies). It's about a Woman
who wants to spend a month in a Mansion with a professor and to
study two Chimpanzees with a Elderly Butler Orangutan named
" Link". But one of them proves to be aggresive and wants them all dead, but one of them has to escape the wraith of " Link".It's one of my Guilty-Pleasures all thanks to Anchor Bay who brings alot of Great Horror and Sci-fi movies including some Good Guilty Pleasure movies from the 80's, and this one is like a cross between " Monkey Shines" and " Psycho".
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