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Summary: You've got to love it!
Review: What can I say? These loveable films will endure the test of time and regardless of critical comment, will be watched by all ages over and over again. The added bonus of the two-hour "making of" documentary only makes this set that much more of a bargain. Buy it for your kids, your grandkids, or yourself. You will not regret it.
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Summary: Boring unitl the battle
Review: This last movie in the Planet of the Apes saga starts off very slow and quite boring, until the battle againsts the mutant humans finally gets underway. The battle doesn't seem to last very long and the movie ends with the generic, can't we all just live together in peace message. I still think the quality of the apes movies tends to get worse for each successive one, but all together its a great piece of film history.
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Summary: NOVA RULES
Review: They're all great films. But the first is obviously the best. The next one is the best sequle. Too bad they kill Nova! She was great.
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Summary: Finally on DVD!
Review: For another reviewer, "I'd rather have them on DVD, than VHS anyday!" They're great. The first one is a classic. The second is the best sequle. The third is better than five. The fourth has the best action. Five is ok, but would be better if they stuck with the original storyline. The Behind video is also great. I recomend this on DVD, for those that still have them on VHS. Even in widescreen. DVD is the best!
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Summary: Every Planet Of The Apes
Review: I have found all of the Ape films, are showing on what can happen in the future. Also things can change in time, over the years.
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Summary: It's about time!
Review: I became a fan of POTA when I was 9 years old, watching butchered versions every year or so on late night TV. 24 tears later I'm still a fan and for good reason. These movies are still VERY cool. Heston gives a weight to the original that elevates it beyond it's already lofty script and direction. It's more than just a sci fi action flick; it's mythologically and philosophically engaging- something that many of the Trek films couldn't achieve (but I like them too). I must confess, though. Battle for the Planet of the Apes does have several inconsistencies with the first two films. There seems to be a movie missing after Battle that would explain them, but unfortunately, that is not the film Tim Burton will be making. I like to think I know why the inconsistencies are there- but it would take more than 1000 words. Enjoy these movies- while you can!
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Summary: Well-loved but uneven sci-fi series
Review: If you're an "Apes" fan, you've probably already pre-ordered this set. If you're an "Apes" newbie, maybe you'd better rent some of them first. Here's my take on the 5 films:PLANET OF THE APES - This wildly popular but heavy-handed and amateurishly directed film of Pierre Boulle's "Monkey Planet" still has a great idea going for it. Charlton Heston (overacting as usual) is Taylor, an astronaut stranded in a future world run by a corrupt ape government that keeps humans as slaves. Heston is pretty annoying, but after he's shot in the throat and captured, we identify with his repeated attempts to show the apes he's intelligent. Befriended by sympathetic chimpanzee scientists Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (Roddy McDowall), Taylor escapes with his new love interest Nova (Linda Harrison) and, in the famous shock ending, finds out where he really is. Repetitive and slow-paced, but fun. With Oscar- winning make-up by John Chambers, one of Jerry Goldsmith's cruder scores, and lots of messagey dialogue about evolution -- you can tell Rod Serling worked on the screenplay. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (who did "Patton" next). BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES - A lot less poky than the original, and generally more entertaining. Taylor and Nova ride across the Forbidden Zone. Taylor stumbles into the hide-out of some radiation-scarred mutants who presumably survived the nuclear holocaust. They worship a big atomic bomb. The lonely Nova meets another astronaut, Brent (James Franciscus), who's less condescending towards her than Taylor was, though he does try to kill her a couple of times under the telepathic influence of the mutants. Meanwhile, a cadre of gorillas led by Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) and the warmonger General Ursus (James Gregory) delve into the Forbidden Zone looking for Brent and Nova. There's some funny, dated social commentary (the pacifist chimpanzees hold a sit-in peace protest against the gorillas) and a typical 1970 ending in which the bomb is detonated and a narrator intones, "An insignificant green planet is dead." Big Chuck was finished with the "Apes" saga but returned the next year in another post-apocalypse cult favorite, "The Omega Man." ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES - Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Zira (Kim Hunter), along with a third chimpanzee, Milo (Sal Mineo), manage to escape from Earth 3955 before it blows up. They land on Earth 1973. The tables are turned as Cornelius and Zira are befriended by kindly scientists Bradford Dillman and Natalie Trundy. Cynical genius Eric Braeden (now on "The Young and the Restless") wants to kill the apes, who are expecting a baby. Helpful circus owner Ricardo Montalban takes them in and adopts their baby, who goes on to star in the next installment. Passable entertainment, but it's no fun watching the likable, witty Cornelius and Zira become hairy martyrs. With a rinky-dink score by Jerry Goldsmith and a confusing explanation of infinite regression. Watch for M. Emmet Walsh as the military aide with the oranges, and don't get too attached to Milo. CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - It's 1991, and humans have turned apes into pets because all the cats and dogs were killed by an outer-space virus in 1983. Over the past eight years the apes got smart enough to be conditioned as domestic servants. Enter Caesar (Roddy McDowall), the adult son of Cornelius and Zira. Caesar's friend Ricardo Montalban has kept him away from society. When Caesar sees how humans are brutalizing apes, he gets mad and starts planning a revolution. With a band of orangutans, chimps, and gorillas, he clashes with the human army and gives a stirring speech. It's the shortest film in the series, but it's lead-footed and erratic, with the climactic skirmish shot way too close in. Typical piece of hackwork from J. Lee Thompson, who also directed the next and last one. It's the only PG-rated "Apes" movie (the rest were G), probably because of increased violence and lots of electroshock torture. BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES - An okay finale. It opens in 2678, with John Huston as the Lawgiver, a wise old orangutan who teaches his class about Caesar (Roddy McDowall). The rest of the movie is set in about 2015 and involves Caesar's problems with the barbarous gorilla General Aldo (Claude Akins) and a band of mutants from the Forbidden Zone. The film brings the "Apes" saga almost full circle, with the humans in Ape City reduced to slaves (who can still speak, having not been lobotomized yet). The battle scenes are staged better than in "Conquest," and there's a lot of action and the usual political parallels (at one point Caesar says "Let us reason together," just like LBJ). Also with Lew Ayres, Paul Williams, Austin Stoker ("Assault on Precinct 13"), and John Landis as a human slave. Landis got to know "Apes" make-up designer John Chambers, who later appeared in Landis' directing debut "Schlock." The irony of the "Apes" series is that it preaches non-bigotry, but it's still racist on some level. The warlike, bestial gorillas are dark-skinned; the more intelligent and peaceful orangutans and chimpanzees are light-skinned. Fox may have been able to get away with that in the early '70s, but if they want to revive the franchise today they'd better rethink the color-coding a little.
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Summary: About time Fox released the DVD. Too bad it isn't anamorphic
Review: These movies came out on video in August 98 and included a terrific 6th tape of behind the scenes action. I was all set to replace it with the DVD version, but it's not anamorphic, so it doesn't seem worth it. If you're buying for the first time, DVD should be your choice. But if, like me, you own the tapes, you don't really gain anything.
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Summary: science fiction in the social sphere.....
Review: Although "The Planet of the Apes" and its subsequent sequels were not great movies, they do represent something that we do not see a great deal of in science fiction movies today, social commentary. The "Planet of the Apes" depicts an intelligent sentient group of beings that is first suppressed, then turns the tables on its masters, and finally comes to live side by side with humanity. Rod Serling, whose "Twilight Zone" TV series was always fond of dealing with social causes, saw in this movie a depiction of the racial struggles that were happening in the United States in the 1970's. The series of is both a warning of what could happen, but in the end says that coexistance is possible.
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Summary: The Apes Have Landed---On DVD!
Review: At last, The Planet of the Apes saga can be seen as it should always have been--in a new digital master. I've been waiting for the series to be released on DVD ever since DVDs first came out, as it is one of my all-time favorites, and finally the time has come. I only hope, now, that the "Planet of the Apes" television series is served the same justice some time in the near future, joining the ranks of such heavyweights as "Star Trek: The Original Series" and "The Twilight Zone: The Collection."
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