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Planet of the Apes - The Evolution (Complete Series)

Planet of the Apes - The Evolution (Complete Series)

List Price: $49.98
Your Price: $39.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: good movie
Review: if you're gonna listen to anyone, listen to me..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THESE ARE THE BEST MOVIES EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Planet of the Apes is the most creative and amazing movie series I have ever seen. YOU HAVE TO GET IT!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AMAZING!!!
Review: There are no words to fully and accurately describe it

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sci-fi, overt political commentary, and lots of bananas.
Review: Classic series. A must have for any Apes fan. Makes for a wonderful rainy day Ape-a-thon. Order in lots of bananas and enjoy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Planet Of The Apes Outlasts The Rest
Review: I have been a fan of the Planet Of The Apes series since 1970. This new compilation of the entire Apes series is a chance for people who have not seen the Planet Of The Apes series to enjoy 5 classic science fiction movies. The plotlines in each movie are extrordinay.

Enjoy

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't waste your time on this one.
Review: Battle is the last of the Planet of the Apes series. This one fell FAR short of the others. You might want to watch it for completeness if you are going through the series. One or two scenes are interesting in light of the preceding films, showing historical development of the ape culture since Conquest. END

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Ape will sometimes kill entire series...
Review: Claude Akins makes for a tough gorilla, and Roddy McDowall manages to keep his dignity as king chimp Caesar, but by the time this fifth film rolled around, the "Apes" series sorely lacked inspiration.

My question is this: if the previous movies were financially successful enough to warrant yet another sequel, why keep slashing the budget? Evidently because of the law of diminishing returns, which begs yet another question: Why not stop while you're ahead?

Okay, on with the review. Bad gorilla Aldo (Akins) wants to take over Ape City (a shabby collection of treehouses). King Caesar wants to find out what his parents (Cornelius and Zira from the first 3 flicks) told the government way back in the third movie. And loony mutant human Kolp (Severn Darden) wants to kill all the apes and retake the planet. Ape kills ape, mutants attack in a flimsy little battle almost as well-choreographed as some of the better episodes of "The A-Team," and there's a domestic tragedy; seems Caesar's boy isn't going to be able to take over when his pappy dies.

Features a surprisingly effective Paul Williams (yes, the little fella who wrote the songs for "The Muppet Movie) as an intellectual orangutan. For some reason, Lew Ayres (Paul Baumer in the classic 1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front") also plays an orangutan. And if that weren't enough (and it is), the late, great director John Huston cameos as... another orangutan.

Director John Landis ("Animal House") is in it, too. As a human.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting Apes Sequel
Review: This is fourth sequel to "Planet of the Apes" somehow is lacking as a denouement to the series. John Huston as the Lawgiver brings the entire series full-circle as best he can in a rather economical way. J. Lee Thompson leisurely directed the unsubstantial battle sequences. This is a highlight of the film as the mutating humans' attack Ape Village via yellow school buses laden down with an arsenal of weaponry in a totally preposterous sequence, which brings the house down. Roddy McDowall as the stalwart Caesar defends his rigid code of ethics with subdued dignity. J. Lee Thompson reflected the essence of 1970's ambiguities of its society with this inspiring parable.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Cult Classic
Review: Planet of the Apes is a great "What if" tale. There have been oodles of movies where the heroic space travelers lurch forward in time to find earth in a completely different state. But when "Apes" was released and we found that the planet was ruled by monkeys, that took the cake! Charlton Heston is one of our heroic space travelers here. The theory of talking ape evolution is very interesting even if not very likely. In one of the later of the Ape series we find that humans are using apes to perform menial tasks but an uprising takes place. They are not only used as slave labor but mistreated as well. Monkey racism I guess you'd call it. That uprising is spearheaded by Ceasar, a talking chimpanzee (played by the late Roddy McDowall).

The series takes us forwards and backwards to show us how the simian race was able to take over in the first place. Unfortunately, the later films in the series are not the same caliber as the first but some of you may still find them enteraining nonetheless.

As for the first Ape film, you would expect that the ape makeup would count for 90% of the acting but gratefully, the acting is top notch in spite of the makeup jobs. The ending really blows you away because you're involved in the film so much that you aren't trying to figure out where the astronauts have landed. You just want to know why the monkeys are talking. Also interesting is that the apes have their own heirarchy. The gorillas are the brutes so they are all soldiers. The chimps are intelligent so they are the scientists and the orangutangs are the elite so they rule the land.

I suggest that if you are not familiar with the entire series that you just start with Planet of the Apes for now. At least that way if you're disappointed you can stop there and you won't have wasted money on the rest of the series which many consider to be substandard.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) is nowhere near the quality of the first "Apes" but it's box office success lead to the relase of Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) which is a little better storywise. Then came Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and finally Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). If you're a collecter then you should have all the Ape films. If you're really planning to watch them for entertainment value then Planet of The Apes and Escape from the Planet of the Apes are your best bets.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Just get Planet of the Apes 1
Review: Man, Planet of the Apes was one of the best movies ever! Great endning, if I hadn't already heard it before. Surprising, almost, how each advancing movie in the series gets worse and worse though.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes: horrible. It was almost funny at how lame those people who worshipped the bomb were. A waste of my time watching it.
Escape from the Planet of the Apes: even worse. Somehow those two chimp human-lovers from the 1st and 2nd movies are back and go back into present time. This is boring, just watching them get clothes and drugged. Wow.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes: geez. these new Ape movies are really making me not like the first one! But this one is cooler because it turns out that the ape who makes monkies rule the world is actually those 2 chimps' son, Caesar. He starts the rebellion of apes against humans. (so for the Ape civilation to exist, those 2 from that time had to go to the past, have a son, and make it happen...who'd have thought?)
War of the Planet of the Apes: Okay, I just had to turn off the TV during this one. Leads of to where the apes and man are dukin it off for the world. You get the picture.

So if you want my opinion, just get good ol' Planet of the Apes #1. The others arent as good at all. (#3-5 kinda tells you how the Apes ruled the world, like the history of how it happened. Good for someone who actually cares about it, but no one does.) the series should have just ended at the part with the Statue of Liberty on the beach scene. would have been much better.


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