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Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Under Rated - Awesome Movie!
Review: I think they made so many great choices in this re-make.
The ending - which it seems a lot of people did not enjoy, really made me think - and was so abrupt, and unexpected...

Although they changed quite a bit from the original - they really updated everything, and gave the Apes more originality and characteristics than the original - I think I'm going to watch it right now! : )

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: fun movie
Review: Not the best movie ever and not the worst. I'm not sure why everybody wanted to crucify Burton for making this. It's a good time. Fans of the original Planet Of The Apes are a pretty uptight bunch of people who seem more brutal than the gorillas in these movies! This is a great DVD.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Tim Burton's Revisioning a Little Blurry
Review: My rating is actually 2 1/2 stars.

I was little worried when I heard Tim Burton would be directing, and, it turns out, for good reason.

There is no doubt that the film is visually impressive--as is some of the stuntwork. The authenticity of the makeup is simply unbelievable.

I also thought that Mark Wahlberg would be too young for Heston's role, but the changes to the story mask that quite a bit. And Wahlberg--sorry, but I can't get past the image of him in Boogie Nights--plays his role with a certain emotional detachment. Tim Roth is convincing, if a bit over the top, playing the human-hating General Thade.

Nice cameos went to David Warner (a sci-fi regular) and Chuck Heston. As to the latter, it's ironic that his character espoused something of an anti-gun ideology considering the actor was once the president of the NRA. For the record, he plays Thade's dying father.

The story is similar in some major respects and dissimilar in others. Basically, astronaut time travels, crash lands on a planet dominated by apes, tries to get the heck out of there. Those are the similarities. The dissimilarities included talking humans and no societal organization structure for the apes based upon breed. Those two things aren't necessarily bad, but considering that the humans dressed like savages, I thought the humans should sound a little more 'primitive.'

Burton's climactic scene has the movie making a revelation that Burton hoped would top original's (Heston finding the Statue of Liberty buried hip deep, decaying but still standing). Suffice to say, it didn't even come close. Then, again, perhaps it's unfair to try to hold Burton to that standard. Still, his ending made absolutely no sense.

It's okay for a time killer, nothing more.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: get a life!
Review: The criticisms on here seem to have been written by steroetypical Trekies! Apes movies, comic books, cartoons, tv shows, toys, and various merchandise are all fun, but they are also extremely absurd. Monkey Planet is an absurd novel, as is the original Apes movie which bastardized the novel. Burton's ending is much closer to the original novel's, but he still get's slammed by folks who take things way too seriously. Burton's Planet has a lot going for it and I enjoy it and the original movie and it's various follow ups. It's all fun stuff, but some people are way too uptight to just enjoy it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It's like "Charlie's Angels": It has only the same tittle...
Review: Tim Burton finally sold out to Hollywood and decided to gain some well deserved huge money. Also in this boat, Tim Roth probably aearned the greatest paycheck of his career.

This remake is bad, man, really bad. First of all, if it has Walhberg on board it's a sure step to kill any empathy or charisma for a main character.

Yes, Tim tried to convince that he was not in it just for the money, by making absurd changes to the original story and making a stupid, open-ending that leave all the ways open to sequels and more sequels.

This movie is rubbish.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: The most idiotic thing about this remake is that the humans were able to speak. In the original, humans had lost the ability to speak and were truly like less intelligent animals, unable to communicate in a spoken language. Needless to say, they couldn't read or write either. I guess the producers of the remake couldn't stomach the idea of a big-budget film featuring dozens of mute extras. One of the worst films of the 21st century.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: THE MOVIE SELF-DESTRUCTS
Review: I had read all the hype concerning the ending of this movie and how it is not a good "remake." In watching the film, however, I was totally absorbed with it, until that awful, awful ending. (More on that later). Burton's direction is good; the ape makeup is the best ever; Helena Bonham Carter is delightful as the ape Ari; Mark Wahlberg made it through the movie without having to take his shirt off (Charlton spent most of the original in a loincloth, if you'll remember,ladies). The irony of having Charlton Heston cameo as Tim Roth's dying ape father is splendid. Paul Giammatti is wonderful as Limbo, and Estella Warren is gorgeous and effective as the beautiful Daena. I liked the heroism the humans evidenced by the end, and Roth's diabolically manic performance was awesome.
Danny Elfman's Afro-influenced score also great.
Now, the ending..what makes it worse is that in Tim Burton's commentary, he never actually tells you what in the world he was hoping to achieve with this completely inexcusable ending. Not only did it negate what we had just viewed, it made Wahlberg's heroic efforts completely useless. I remember in the first when I saw the crumbled Statue of Liberty, my mouth drop opened and the full impact of the movie is irreplaceable. Burton's enigmatic ending is just so far out of left field and so preposterous, it destroys what could have been a film Burton could be proud of. For true impact, watch the original, not that it's better, it's just that it makes sense.
Shame on you Tim!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a waste of a good novel
Review: I saw the original and thought it was great. This "re-imaging" was so vastly inferior to that, that it's a wonder the script ever got greenlit to begin with. I had heard that the film was bad, but I liked the original so much I rented it when it came out on video anyway. What a mistake.

I didn't simply dislike this version because I'm a fan of the original, it is truely a horrible horrible film. The script is pathetic and the ending seems like it was made by someone under the influence of heavy narcotics who didn't care about whether it made sense or fit into the movie or not.

This film is almost ridiculously campy with the bad dialogue and lines thrown into it simply to elicit a slight grin based on a connection from the first film. I think they added a bunch of scenes just so they could have something cool to say on the commentary track and in magazine interviews. The apes act ridiculous and you're never left with the feeling that this could actually happen given the absurd things they do. I'm surprised Burton didn't throw in a monkey car that runs on bananas or something. There's even a little dwarf that runs around collecting money like a chimpanzee would do at the circus.

Even if they took all the "ape camp" out, it's still a pathetic movie. Mainly because of the script and the horrible directing by Burton. The stunts look pretty bad and fake. Many things don't make sense, like why apes would ride horses if they can move faster than horses anyway. Even Wahlberg gives a pathetic performance.

The only entertainment value in this entire movie is the "funny" things that an ape society does that compare with what humans do. The only redeeming thing about renting this trash was that it was the best sounding DVD I've ever heard, and REALLY gave my 5.1 surround system a work. Almost worth the rent to check it out until some better DVDs come along that have sound work as good. The DVD also is fairly packed with extras. If you "are" a fan of the film, you should really enjoy the DVD as it comes packed with some great specials to accompany the movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Piece of Crap!
Review: What a major let-down! This "remake" isn't worthy of the name "Planet of the Apes" and ruins the entire franchise.

All of the intelligence has been stripped away for this disappointing, over-hyped showcase of special effects wizardry. The 2001 remake of the original (and far superior) 1968 sci-fi classic, was little more than a glorified way to bring the Apes series into the CGI-era of movie production.

This film was made solely to make money, whereas the original film was a brilliant new approach to movie-making: so much so, that it was a vision. This crappy, tired upon its own release "remake" lacks all of what makes a great movie great and reduces the Apes series to little more than a cheap roller coaster ride of thrills.

The ironic Rod Serling ending is not part of this weak remake, nor is the potential for a mind-blowing series. Any true fan of intelligent science-fiction should steer clear of this catastrophe. The fact that the story does not take place on earth makes the whole concept lose 99% of its potency. (And I don't care if I did just spoil the ending).

This movie doesn't just make me angry, it just downright stinks! It's a disgrace that movies like this are even made, and that Hollywood today has no respect for past legends and will blaspheme by selling them out to such sensationalistic tripe.

Pure and utter garbage, through and through!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Tim Burton and 20th Century Fox do not mix...
Review: Well it is not a big secret that during production of this movie, Burton and Fox disagreed on almost every aspect of the production. Budget, shooting time, script rewrites, casting, set design, almost everything. It was the most diificult project Tim has ever done and the way this movie almost meanders along in it's slow way, makes it look like even the editor couldn't put the film together because the footage was shot so out of sequence. The make-up, Forget it. It looked like they were wearing rubber maskes. The end leaves the door open for a sequal, but not likely as the director and studio have parted company with bad feelings.


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