From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 2 16:34:00 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!news.solace.mh.se!news.xinit.se!news.xinit.se!newsfeed5.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: magus@mindspring.com (Mathew Tschirgi) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (1968) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Oct 1998 04:47:23 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. Lines: 36 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <70eg8r$1148$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 908772443 33928 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #14908 Keywords: author=tschirgi X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:14104 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2135 PLANET OF THE APES STARRING: CHARLTON HESTON AND RODDY MCDOWALL There are mainly two groups of science fiction. One group is primarily action based using scientific impossibilities as objects in the story, such as INDEPENDENCE DAY, STAR WARS, and EVENT HORIZON. The other group creates a scientifically impossible situation that is resolved by using brains and logic rather than brawn and weapons like many of the STAR TREK films, DARK CITY, and DR. STRANGELOVE. PLANET OF THE APES falls in the "brains" category. It starts with a ship crashing on another planet. The crew members, which include Taylor (CHARLTON HESTON), decide to explore. This planet seems barren until the trio of astronauts discover a race of stupid humans. Taylor comments, "If this is the best they have, we'll have this planet conquered in about 6 months." Soon chaos erupts as a group of gorillas charge forward and begin to brutally attack any human they see. Taylor is trapped on the PLANET OF THE APES. He finds some friends in the form of Cornelius (RODDY MCDOWALL) and Zira (Kim Hunter), a pair of chimpanzees devoted to domesticating humans. The Head of Science and Religion, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), doesn't wish humans and apes to get along however... This movie won an Honorary Oscar for its detailed make-up effects used on the many varieties of apes in the film. The acting is pretty decent throughout, with some exceptions. Several of the lines are variations on classic humans phrases: "Monkey see, monkey do" becoming "Human see, human do" is a decent example. The special effects of the opening sequence leave a lot to be desired. The first 30 minutes of the film are pretty slow, but the film picks up as soon as the apes come in and doesn't stop until the surprise ending. Those who are used to more action-oriented films will probably be bored by this movie. It has a little bit of action here and there, but not enough to say that it dominates the whole film. PLANET OF THE APES is an interesting science fiction film that will leave you thinking at the end with its subtle commentary on humans as a race. I give it *** out of ****. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:57 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!171.64.14.106!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Laura Clifford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 23:59:56 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28965 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 238257 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487 X-RT-RatingText: C- Summary: r.a.m.r. #28965 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 76 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27140 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2904 PLANET OF THE APES ------------------ In the year 2029, Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg, "Boogie Nights") is training 'his' chimp Pericles to pilot a pod from the USAF Oberon space station. When an electromagnetic storm is encountered and Pericles' pod is lost, Davidson sets out unauthorized and lands thousands of years in the future on the "Planet of the Apes." Maybe if 20th Century Fox had set the proverbial 100 chimps in front of typewriters they would have gotten a better results than this adaptation of the Pierre Boulle novel by William Broyles Jr. ("Cast Away"), and Lawrence Konner & Mark D. Rosenthal ("Mighty Joe Young"). Director Tim Burton's unique look and style are nowhere to be found in this silly, pointless remake. Davidson no sooner lands than he finds himself being swarmed by savages running in terror, whom he wisely joins. However, he's rounded up with the lot of them by the apes which rule this plant and handed over to slave trader Limbo (Paul Giamatti, "Duets"). Ari (Helena Bonham Carter, "Fight Club"), daughter of the illustrious Senator Sandar (David Warner, "Titanic") and simian bleeding heart, believes humans should live with apes on equal standing, an unpopular notion. She takes a liking to Leo, who she deems 'unusual.' General Thade (Tim Roth, "Lucky Numbers") is of the opposite opinion, wishing for declaration of martial law that will allow him to annihilate the race. He's sweet on Ari. It's relatively easy to see where this 'new' story is going from the onset, yet its ultimate revelation has gaping logic holes. The much ballyhooed 'surprise' ending is a nonsensical let down. An attempt at a love triangle, conveyed by Ari and the human Daena (Estella Warren, "Driven") giving each other 'back off' looks over Leo, fails because he never develops a relationship with either of them. The lone sex scene is some hilarious foreplay between elder Orangutan Senator Nado (Glenn Shadix) and his trophy wife Nova (Burton's squeeze, Lisa Marie). Guffaws will also likely greet Charlton Heston's cameo as Thade's Father, the one ape harboring a firearm (!) who sputters some very familiar lines before dying. The only real success of the 2001 "Planet of the Apes" is Rick Baker's makeup, and even that's an iffy affair. No attempt was made to change the human whiteness of the actors' eyes, a real distraction amidst some otherwise impressive work. Roth, Warner and Michael Clarke Duncan (as Thade's right hand man Attar) are given the most impressive makeovers. Giamatti looks more like a skull than an ape and the female apes are too humanized to be given sexual appeal. Tim Roth delivers the most impressive acting job by getting the body language right - his nasty chimpanzee character leaps about, most spectacularly when mounting his steed, but even's he's undone by some obvious wire work. Bonham Carter delivers a goodly range of emotion from behind a stiff prosthetic, but is undone in turn by the silliness of the writing. Most of the film has a set bound look which no amount of mist can cover. The ape's city resembles a dank complex of tree houses. The apes' military costumes (Colleen Atwood, "Sleepy Hollow") as well as their field tents are reminiscent of Eiko Ishioka's work on Coppola's "Dracula." That oriental flavor is also found in Danny Elfman's tribal, percussive score. "Planet of the Apes" was the last blockbuster hope for the summer of 2001, a dismal movie season that's going to the dogs. C- For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28965 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 238257 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487 X-RT-RatingText: C- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:57 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!feeder.qis.net!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Susan Granger Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 00:04:40 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28967 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240083 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 742 X-RT-AuthorID: 1274 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28967 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 35 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27134 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2902 Susan Granger's review of "PLANET OF THE APES" (20th Century-Fox) In Tim Burton's re-envisioning of Pierre Boulle's novel which became a 1968 cult classic, the sci-fi premise remains the same: an astronaut (Mark Wahlberg) crash-lands on a bizarre, brutal world where apes are the dominant species and humans serve them. When captured, he's taken to the misty mountain kingdom of Ape City by the orangutan slave trader (Paul Giamatti). He meets defiant human rebels (Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren) and discovers the socio-political conflict between the tyrannical General (Tim Roth) and his intimidating aide (Michael Clarke Duncan) and a passionate, liberal Senator's daughter (Helena Bonham Carter) who believes humans should not be subjugated by simians. Tim Burton's iconoclastic vision of this fascistic, chimpanzee-dominated society is brought to life primarily by six-time Oscar-winning make-up artist Rick Baker ("Gorillas in the Mist," "Mighty Joe Young") who, incredibly, in a tour-de-force, transforms the actors into apes. Credit production designer Rick Heinrichs and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot too. Unlike the original, in William Broyles Jr.'s rather dull screenplay, the humans are not mute and, despite the rumors, there's no inter-species sex. Clunky Mark Wahlberg is hardly a heroic figure, as Charlton Heston was in the original. But Heston does turn up as an aged, ailing ape, and once again, in a quite different context, utters his famous line: "Damn them all to hell!" But, basically, Paul Giamatti steals the picture, offering much needed comic relief. The conclusion, while not the Statue of Liberty, offers a surprising, if very contrived, twist. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Planet of the Apes" is a dark, primal, action-packed 5, proving "The smarter we become, the more dangerous we get." ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28967 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240083 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 742 X-RT-AuthorID: 1274 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:57 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Bob Bloom Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 23:04:49 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28971 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240251 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 872 X-RT-AuthorID: 1363 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28971 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 102 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27162 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2908 Planet of the Apes (2001) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, Kris Kristofferson, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. Music by Danny Elfman. Directed by Tim Burton. Rated PG-13. Approx. 2 hours I have to say it. Tim Burton's retelling of Planet of the Apes is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. OK, that's off my chest. No more monkey puns, I promise. Seriously, though, Planet of the Apes is one rip-roarin' summer outing, filled with thrills, action, adventure, wit and bits of funny (dare I say, monkey) business. I know, I know, I promised. And for those film buffs who are fond of the original, Burton's version includes a couple tips of the hat to that movie. Mark Wahlberg stars as Capt. Leo Davidson, a deep-space pilot whose ship gets drawn into a magnetic field and hurled into the future. He crash lands on a planet where apes are the dominant species and humans are hunted, captured and sold into slavery. Despite being darker than the original, Burton's film is not as heavy handed nor as sanctimonious. Some of the movie's flashes of humor are surreal as well as typically Burton: An organ-grinder ape with a midget or an elderly ape taking off a wig and removing false teeth as he prepares for bed. Then there are the parents who buy a little girl as a pet for there young daughter. The seller advises the parents to get rid of the girl before she reaches puberty: "One thing you don't want in your house is a human teen-ager," he says. You don't have to be an ape to realize the truth in that statement. Touches such as these are what stamps this movie with Burton's brand. Lines that hearken back to the original movie are sprinkled throughout: The first words spoken by an ape to Davidson as the astronaut is regaining consciousness and grabs the simian's foot to try righting himself are: "Take your stinking hand off of me, you damned, dirty human." Anyone familiar with the first version of the film will, of course, recognize the irony in that piece of dialogue. Another of Burton's in-jokes is to have Charlton Heston, star of the original, play the chimpanzee father of Tim Roth's Gen. Thade. The young chimp goes to visit his dying father. Both have one thing in common, a hatred of humans. With his dying breath, the elder spews out his vile: "Damn them, damn them all to hell," he says before expiring. That is the famous line Heston's Taylor shouted at the conclusion of the original after discovering the planet's terrible secret. The performances throughout are top-notch. Wahlberg plays Davidson not as some gung-ho hero, but as a confused and somewhat frightened explorer who only wants to return home. He is reluctant to lead the human rebellion; his only objective being to find a way off this upside-down planet. This hesitation is what makes his character believable and vulnerable. Roth is ferocious, cunning, cruel and savage as the fascist chimp who wants to rid his planet of all vestiges of humanity. He leaps and bounds as if he had springs on his feet. It is a masterful turn. Helena Bonham Carter is Ari, the chimp who believes that apes and humans can live in peace and as equals. Hers is a smart, compassionate characterization. Michael Clarke Duncan is big and brutal as Attar the gorilla aid to Thade who blindly follows his leader until his faith is shaken. A fine comic outing is given by Paul Giamatti as Limbo, the ape slave trader making a living off the misery of the humans he captures. As the battle between apes and humans looms, the cowardly Limbo pleads, "Can't we all just get along," echoing the words of Rodney King. Much of the success of Planet of the Apes goes to Burton's technical crew, especially production designer Rick Heinrichs and the legendary Rick Baker who created the ape makeup. Burton's musical collaborator, Danny Elfman, provides another fine score, though it is not as memorable as his work on Batman or Sleepy Hollow. The movie's only letdown comes at the very end where Burton tries to outshock the finale from the 1968 original. He comes close, but falls short. Otherwise, Planet of the Apes is what a summer movie should be: An amusement park ride filled with lots of action, stunts and a few laughs. This is one feature in which the expectations lived up to the pre-release hype. Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on golafayette. Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28971 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240251 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 872 X-RT-AuthorID: 1363 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:57 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!206.252.192.28!news.stealth.net!feed.textport.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Harvey S. Karten Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 23:17:22 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28976 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240181 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 570 X-RT-AuthorID: 1123 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28976 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 143 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27143 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2905 PLANET OF THE APES Reviewed by Harvey Karten 20th Century Fox Director: Tim Burton Writer: Pierre Boulle (novel), William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren, Paul Giamatti George Bernard Shaw, a lifelong vegetarian, once said that when he died he would be greeted enthusiastically in heaven by 100 cows, sheep, goats and pigs. That's good news for Shaw--we hope that in 1950 when he expired at the age of 94 he found the reception he predicted. But it's bad news for the 98% of us that are carnivores. Tim Burton now shows us what it must be like to be a human being, having enjoyed steak and bacon, zoos and caged pets, when finally the tables are turned. This time the apes, who considered themselves victimized and oppressed by the human race which had hunted and caged them for a time, turn the tables. The tyrannized becomes the subjugators themselves, treating homo sapiens as inferior forms of life on the titled planet that they rule. I suppose you could see "Planet of the Apes," yet another of the sequels spawned from Franklin J. Schaffner's classic 1968 movie, as an animal rights advocate's wet dream, but such an interpretation would be reductionist, though valid. The current version taken loosely from Pierre Boulle's novel with a screenplay by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, is at once a sci-fi drama with no small amount of action and adventure and a misanthropic view of world history. Revolutions come and go. The victims become the victimizers, then the victimizers are defeated and once again either killed, enslaved or humiliated. In the Twentieth Century we've seen revolutionists by Communists and fascists, fundamentalists and secular governments, all promising freedom and equality of opportunity for all. But extremism breeds reaction and so the cynical cycle of history continues. If you're looking for symbolism, you'll get some, but nothing of the depth of the 1968 version, a visual delight thanks to John Chambers's make-up department whose costumed actors would pass muster even by today's special-effects and costume standards. Schaffner's innovative film was clearer in its allegorical implications, taking on both race and class as he displayed the orangutans at the top of the heap as administrators, the gorillas as soldiers and the chimps as doctors. The divisions are caught vaguely this time around, mostly through dialogue rather than display, as one of the ruling apes, perturbed that a human being calls him a monkey, corrects him violently by stating that monkeys are at the bottom of the status heap just a little higher than humans. The drama takes off as astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg), disturbed that his favorite and highly trained chimp is in trouble in space, pushes off in his space pod on an unauthorized flight to recover his pal. He runs into an electo-magnetic storm that pushes him from the year 2029 to a future time, his pod taking a hard landing on a planet unknown to him. He soon discovers that the apes are in charge and humans are enslaved, some people doing the favored indoor work (house slaves--does that sound allegorical enough?) and others putting in hard labor. He gets together a family of his own species, including the human leader Karubi (Kris Kristofferson), Karubi's nubile daughter Daena (Estella Warren), and convinces one female chimp who is politically on the left, Ari (Helena Bonham Carter) to join the humans. If Ari is the peacenik of the group, her diametrical opposite would be the fascist-like defense minister, Thade (Tim Roth), as villainous as "Sexy Beast"'s psychotic Don Logan and quite a bit hairier. As the rebellion picks up steam, Thade is granted plenary power by the planet's senate, determined to capture all the mutinous humans and to treat leader Leo with extreme prejudice. "Planet of the Apes" is not without entertainment value, a pleasant enough way to kill some time in the theater's air- conditioned auditorium surveying the desolate and almost bare scenery (especially that provided by Estella Warren). But--to coin a critics' cliche--oh, it could have been so much more. After all didn't Tim Burton promise to deliver not a remake but a rethinking of the simian series? Think back to Mr. Burton's surprising box office hit, "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," meant for the little ones but considered by many to stand out for its visual inventiveness and originality of concept. Recall Burton's "Beetlejuice" and "Batman," the former unfolding some dazzling special effects with Michael Keaton's pulling out the stops, the latter, hitting the screens just one year later, a sizzling adaptation of Bob Kane's comic book. Nor is there much of the imagination Burton evoked in his "Edward Scissorhands," featuring a man-made boy whose creator had died before attaching palms to the lad's arms. Instead of psycho-villains like the one played by Jack Nicholson in "Batman" or quirky characters like Johnny Depp's in "Scissorhands," we get a Tim Roth who is wholly bereft of the kind of wit that villains are wont to have and Mark Wahlberg, a 30-year- old fellow who is all too earnest, humorless and generic. What passes for the kind of repartee that allows adults to enjoy the stuff they take the kids to, we get a leaden take-off on Barry Goldwater's statement that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, while the only allusion made to current politics (it's a stretch) would be a display of what President Bush's missile shield could do if it worked. In one scene, the wide-eyed Daena plans a big kiss on Leo, asking him to return to the planet real soon. Maybe he will, but in a surprisingly adept final scene, we're sure that he's going to have his hands full. The film has inevitably generated some discussion of its alleged allegorical import. Critics together with a segment of the general audience have already challenged the film on a racial basis (check the OFCS.ORG website for a growing number of messages about this aspect). Says one OFCS member "there's something very striking about the dichotomy between a bunch of very dark-looking apes and very white-looking humans....with the exception of the 'token black guy'...all of the human are white...."Apes"...deals with issues of race, especially a predominant white fear; black dominance of society....it's not something everyone is going to think about, but it's still there." Unlike the old "Apes" film in which apes are shown have technology and science, the new one in that critic's view shows the simians as "a bunch of primitive, self-destructive, drug-addled bush beaters...during showing of the film when Mark kisses Helena...boils down to the taboo of inter-race relationships, and the film encourages prejudice instead of confronting it by using the idea as titillation....The most disturbing image of all near the end of the film [is of] the primitive, unevolved chimp happily crawling back into his prison cell." OFCS welcomes contributions from the general public on this and other issues presented by films such as Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes." Access ofcs.org, click forums, click "critics discussion forum," and post away. Rated PG-13. Running time: 104 minutes. (C) 2001 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28976 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240181 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 570 X-RT-AuthorID: 1123 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:57 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: JoBlo Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 23:28:42 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28980 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240276 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1021 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28980 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 89 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27168 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2909 PLANET OF THE APES RATING: 7/10 For more reviews and movie posters, visit http://www.joblo.com/ PLOT: A human space astronaut accidentally falls upon a planet ruled by apes. He is taken prisoner along with some other humans, and tries his best to escape his simian captors. Oh yeah, and did I mention that the apes can talk? Kewl! CRITIQUE: Despite this film not looking like a "Tim Burton movie" or its lead human character showing any signs of being a human being himself, I did find myself generally entertained throughout most of this film and do recommend it as fun, summer fare. Although the thing that sets this movie apart from all others is definitely its incredible ape make-up jobs and characterizations. I mean, I was completely convinced that every single one of these apes was for real! I also have to "give it up" to all of the actors inside the costumes, not only for waking up at three in the morning every day to get make-up slobbered all over them for 2-4 hours, but for coming through their costumed exteriors and selling us their characters on the screen as well. I especially enjoyed Bonham Carter's performance, who I believed to be the most developed character in the entire film (human or ape) and Tim Roth's bad guy, who chewed up scenery and oozed evil in every scene in which he took part. Plot-wise, I liked the beginning of the film, the whole build-up once Wahlberg got into the village, the escape and most of the fight scenes, but once things got out into the deserted area (and the final battle sequence), I kinda lost a bit of my interest. I was much more intrigued by the interactions between the characters and the whole idea of "human beings as animals" then I was about the end battle sequence, which just seemed a bit too typical for this kind of film. I also hated the "kid" character who just got on my nerves and didn't really care for the way that the battle sequence was resolved (I won't ruin it here but c'mon guys...you coulda thought of something a little more plausible than that, no?). But the thing that held this movie back more than anything else was its lead character, his cold demeanor and the zero chemistry that he shared with either one of his inter-species love interests. This dude didn't seem to give a rat's ass about anyone but himself and I ultimately didn't really care about what happened to him either. Now I'm not sure if this was the fault of the actor or the script, but the film suffered because of it. Visually, the movie was also nice to look at (especially the apes!), but I definitely expected greater coolness from Tim Burton. The "surprise ending" that highlighted the original PLANET OF THE APES film back in 1968, felt a little tacked on here, and despite being interesting, didn't really make all that much sense to me (unless you look at it from a sequel point of view). So overall, I loved the whole "feel" of the planet, the apes that ruled it, the manner in which they treated the humans, screamed, shouted and reverted the entire evolution chain, but didn't appreciate the film's lack of human character development (why was Kris Kristofferson even in this movie?) and the fact that its lead male and female humans were just plain boring. But I would still recommend this film as a fun, summer movie with laughs, creepiness and a really cool premise. PS: For anyone who has seen the original, I cannot believe that they didn't AT LEAST bring back the scene in which the lead human character (in this case, Mark Wahlberg) goes nuts at the world in which he's suddenly been thrust ("This is a mad house!"- type of thing). The guy in this film barely seems to be "put off" by the fact that he's surrounded by apes who can speak English!! Where's JoBlo coming from? The Arrival (8/10) - Battlefield Earth (7/10) - Godzilla (4/10) - Instinct (6/10) - Mission to Mars (3/10) - Pitch Black (7/10) - (1968) Planet of the Apes (9/10) - Sleepy Hollow (8/10) Review Date: July 27, 2001 Director: Tim Burton Writers: W. Broyles, L. Konner, M. Rosenthal Producer: Richard D. Zanuck Actors: Mark Wahlberg as Leo Davidson Helena Bonham Carter as Ari Tim Roth as General Thade Genre: Sci-Fi Year of Release: 2001 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2001 Berge Garabedian ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28980 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240276 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1021 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:57 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Jon Popick Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 23:50:08 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28991 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237328 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 595 X-RT-AuthorID: 1146 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28991 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 99 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27154 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2906 Planet Sick-Boy: http://www.sick-boy.com "We Put the SIN in Cinema" © Copyright 2001 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved. As cheesy as the original Planet of the Apes film is, it sets a pretty high cinematic bar. It'd be easy to outdo the special effects and best the acting, but tackling the infamous Statue of Liberty ending is an entirely different story. Duplicating or removing it would be a cop-out, and changing it virtually guarantees the new version won't be any good (it'd be like making Rosebud a woman in a Citizen Kane remake). While the new ending is a little clunky (and a lot predictable), director Tim Burton does, for the most part, a pretty decent job with his "revisitation" of Apes. It's probably the most un-Burton-esque film he has made, relying more on special effects, makeup and costume than his typically stunning visual presentation. Apes is a rare remake that is shorter than its predecessor, and one that doesn't cast actors from the original...because most of them are dead (aside from Charlton Heston, who is dead only between his ears, and makes a brief appearance here). There are enough differences to make this film unique (for better or for worse), but it's also similar enough to avoid sending diehard Ape fans into nerd comas. Apes opens in 2029 inside a research station just outside Saturn. Mark Wahlberg (The Perfect Storm) plays Leo Davidson, a pilot chomping at the bit to fly into an electrical storm (didn't Wahlberg learn to stay away from storms last summer?), but a space chimp is tapped to make the journey before any human lives are risked. When the monkey's pod disappears, Leo takes off after it, despite the orders to stop from his commanding officer. Sure enough, Leo's pod vanishes into a Contact-like wormhole that spits him out several hundred years later as he crashes into a strange planet ruled by apes. Like the first film, there are humans on the planet, but they can talk and have more interaction with their monkey overlords, who act a lot more simian than they did in the original. Some humans are slaves, some are kept as pets and some have even been molded into butlers, but the apes are firmly in control of things despite their apparent lack of ability to invent stuff beyond rudimentary weapons and armor. There are no guns, no doctors and generally no knowledge of what lies over the mountain in The Forbidden Zone. While Wahlberg's Leo is clearly crafted in the same mold as Charlton Heston's Colonel Taylor, the only ape character that makes the evolutionary leap from 1968 to 2001 is Ari, played by Fight Club's Helena Bonham Carter (her ancestor was Dr. Zira, which is almost Ari spelled backward). Ari, the rebellious daughter of a senator and the ex-lover of the evil General Thade (Tim Roth, Lucky Numbers), leads the Human Rights Faction and, for some reason, develops an instant bond with Leo. With a few exceptions, the second act follows the original film pretty closely and finds Leo, his hot human squeeze (Estella Warren, Driven), Ari and a handful of others trying to make it into The Forbidden Zone while being chased by the gorilla army (led by Michael Clarke Duncan, See Spot Run). But as things degenerate into Braveheart (Apeheart?) or, worse yet, The 13th Warrior, it becomes clear this film is working its way to a more upbeat resolution, which kind of blows, and, coming from Burton, is just plain disappointing. Yeah, there's a twist, but you can see it coming from a mile away (assuming you know how the first film ended). One major improvement in the film is the appearance of the apes. Rick Baker's (Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas) creatures look amazing and can show much more emotion in their faces. But nearly all of the apes sound like a bunch of people with fake teeth awkwardly jammed into their mouths (which is what they all are, but still). Another minor effects complaint is the over-the-top jumping skills of the chimps. I can overlook the fact that it's preposterous, but the editing of these scenes leaves a little to be desired. You never once see a clean landing, instead getting a jumpy edit. It's like throwing a dummy off a cliff and then having an actor pop into the shot from the bottom. Apes, based on Pierre Boulle's novel, only scratches the surface of the complex racial issues and battles over religion versus science that made the first film such a treat. The screenplay, from William Broyles, Jr. (Cast Away), Lawrence Konner and Mark D. Rosenthal (Mighty Joe Young), does riff on a few of the original's more popular lines, and includes more children and teenage characters, both ape and human. What's more amazing is the inclusion of a swimming scene for Warren, who got to breaststroke in Driven, too (she used to be a synchronized swimmer). Maybe it's because half of the actors were buried under latex (or because there's no Johnny Depp), but Apes seems like Burton's least actor-driven film. There's no weird cross-species chemistry between Wahlberg and Bonham Carter, but there isn't any between him and Warren, either. Roth sounds nothing like himself but becomes a wonderful snarling antagonist. If chimps had moustaches, he'd be twirling his. Danny Elfman's (Proof of Life) score reaches its peak during the opening credits, never factors into the rest of the film, and never equals the unmistakable power of Jerry Goldsmith's original. 1:47 - PG-13 for some sequences of action/violence ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28991 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237328 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 595 X-RT-AuthorID: 1146 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:58 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Max Messier Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 23:51:30 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28993 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240298 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 178 X-RT-AuthorID: 1198 X-RT-RatingText: 1/5 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28993 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 102 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27157 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2907 PLANET OF THE APES A film review by Max Messier Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com Tim Burton has now completed his evolution from the brilliant director of macabre stories about outcast individuals yearning for acceptance, and into a studio monkey whose name is used as part of multi-tiered marketing materials for crap movies. And here he hits rock bottom, with Planet of the Apes. I didn't expect much from this latest "interpretation" of Pierre Boulle's classic novel Planet of the Apes. I mean, how could you top the force and impact of the original film, intelligently co-scripted by Rod Serling (of Twilight Zone fame) combined with the overbearing Chuck Heston growling and yelling at those "damn dirty apes," in one of his best roles of his career? Sadly, I sat down to watch Burton's version of Planet of the Apes and within the first 20 minutes, I was checking my watch and my girlfriend (a big fan of the original film) started to nod off. This time around, the story plays out like a cross between Enemy Mine, Braveheart, and Project X. Marky Mark Wahlberg, who was enjoyable in Boogie Nights and The Corrupter, plays Leo Davidson, a hot shot U.S. Air Force pilot. Leo and his crew are in search of some mysterious magnetic storms (no real explanation given in the film) and Leo sends one of his genetically altered "smart" chimps into the storms to collect data. Leo and his crew lose communication with the chimp, Leo hops in another ship to find the monkey, and then he's thrown through some type of time-space wormhole which crashes lands on the Twentieth Century Fox studio backlot, all mocked up to look like the Amazon jungle. Leo ends up getting captured by a group of talking apes and is sold to a slave trader named Limbo (Paul Giamatti) who in turn sells Leo to a chimpanzee named Ari (Helena Bonham Carter). The kind Ari then helps Leo and his fellow humans escape to the mountains to find Leo's ship. Along the way, monkeys played by Tim Roth (overacting his role of a vicious general named Thade) and Michael Clarke Duncan (who further enhances his career by playing another heavy in a bad action movie) strive out to hunt down Leo and his band of human savages, just like Battlefield Earth! In the end, it all culminates into another Braveheart rip-off human versus ape battle scene. While Rick Baker's makeup work is amazing, the script is a pathetic hodgepodge (courtesy of three writers), the acting is horrible, and the "surprise" ending feels like a swing from a ball-peen hammer into the temple. Wahlberg does not have the physical or mental presence of a Chuck Heston to carry the film or any of its action sequences. This remake, or re-interpretation, as Tim Burton has proclaimed it, is an insult to the intelligence and wit of the original film. The ethical arguments about the equality of species, fascism, and military buildup have been replaced by tremendous amounts of ridiculous dialogue, an unimaginative narrative structure, and a romance between a monkey and a human. Even Chuck Heston's anti-gun tirade (in the de rigeur cameo) seems shallow and jokey. But the main element missing from this Tim Burton Film is Tim Burton. Even though his name is plastered across every billboard in America, John Badham could have directed this film. Even Joel Schumacher could have directed this film. He probably should have. Burton's predominant themes of rejection, isolation, and the search for one's place in the universe, as seen in Ed Wood, Edward Scissorshands, and Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, are completely absent in this Planet. I suppose that's what happen when a great director gets sucked through a wormhole. RATING: * [LOWEST RATING] |------------------------------| \ ***** Perfection \ \ **** Good, memorable film \ \ *** Average, hits and misses \ \ ** Sub-par on many levels \ \ * Unquestionably awful \ |------------------------------| MPAA Rating: PG-13 Director: Tim Burton Producer: Richard Zanuck, Ralph Winter Writer: William Broyles, Jr., Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Estella Warren, Helen Bonham Carter, Kris Kristofferson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner http://www.planetoftheapes.com/ --- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=filmcriticcom&path=subst/video/sellers/amazon-top-100-dvd.html Movie Fiends: Check out Amazon.com's Top 100 Hot DVDs! Visit filmcritic.com on the Web at http://www.filmcritic.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28993 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240298 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 178 X-RT-AuthorID: 1198 X-RT-RatingText: 1/5 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:58 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Steve Rhodes Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 23:57:50 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28998 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240226 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 703 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28998 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 64 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27171 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2910 PLANET OF THE APES A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ** There's a whole lotta gruntin' goin' on as actors in ape suits overact with a vengeance in Tim Burton's remake of PLANET OF THE APES, his BATTLEFIELD EARTH. Both films suffer from poor character development and dopey dialog. Although PLANET OF THE APES is much better made -- Burton is a great visual stylist -- if forced to sit through one of them again, I'd go for BATTLEFIELD EARTH, at least it was campy fun. PLANET OF THE APES is dreary and overwrought. Delivering the film's only credible performance, Mark Wahlberg plays Capt. Leo Davidson, a human astronaut who accidentally lands on a planet where the apes are in command and are abusing the humans. Leo ends up teaming with a blonde bombshell named Daena (Estella Warren, DRIVEN), who dresses like Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and acts like a zombie. Kris Kristofferson, as Daena's dad, plays one of the script's many clichéd characters. Although most of the apes look and act alike, it is Tim Roth, as General Thade, who is given the key role of the main villain. General Thade keeps scheming toward a Hitlerian final solution for eliminating the humans from the planet. The apes run around saying things like, "How many times do I have to tell you to wear gloves when you handle humans?" When they're not spouting their ridiculous lines, they fight like a bunch of wild animals. In the big battle scenes, Burton finally gets it right. These are great moments worthy of a master of the visual. But most of the movie is one silly scene after another. The original was fun, but the remake is dreary, violent and takes forever to get to the brief last act, the only successful part of the remake. The movie does contain one comedic gem. "Be sure and get rid of them by puberty," a slave trader admonishes an ape who is in the process of purchasing a young human child. "One thing you don't want in your house is a human teenager." PLANET OF THE APES runs 1:59. It is rated PG-13 for some sequences of action/violence and would be acceptable for kids around 10 or 11 and up, depending on how well they can handle violent, frightening images. My son Jeffrey, age 12, gave it ***. He thought it was awesome, realistic and funny, but he was bothered by some of the story's logic. The film opens nationwide in the United States today, Friday, July 27, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC and the Century theaters. Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com *********************************************************************** Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email? Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28998 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240226 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 703 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:58 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!tethys.csu.net!nntp.csufresno.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dustin Putman Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 20:56:40 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29005 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240444 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 863 X-RT-AuthorID: 1388 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29005 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 103 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27177 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2911 Planet of the Apes * * (out of * * * * ) Directed by Tim Burton. Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Estella Warren, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Paul Giamatti, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner, Lisa Marie, Charlton Heston, Linda Harrison. 2001 - 119 minutes Rated PG-13 (for violence). Reviewed by Dustin Putman, July 27, 2001. One of the most visionary filmmakers working today is, unquestionably, Tim Burton. Interested in telling strange and unusual tales with a grand helping of imagination and wonder to spare, Burton is a groundbreaking director whose stamp seems to be all over his films, from 1985's "Pee Wee's Big Adventure," to 1988's "Beetlejuice," to 1989's "Batman," to 1990's "Edward Scissorhands," to 1996's "Mars Attacks!," to 1999's "Sleepy Hollow." In each of his movies, he is equipped with startlingly innovative production designs and haunting music scores from Burton regular Danny Elfman. In a nutshell, when one goes to see "A Tim Burton Film," one is sure to walk out having seen something they have never seen before. That being said, "Planet of the Apes," a re-imagining of the cult 1968 hit that spawned four sequels, is the most uneven motion picture Tim Burton has ever had the misfortune of directing. In fact, it doesn't particularly even seem like something that should go on his filmography next to everything else he has been involved with. Elfman's signature excellent score is still here, to be sure, but the movie is nearly devoid of inventive thought or human connection (whether it involve actual homosapiens or apes). Although nowhere near as badly handled or haphazardly constructed, "Planet of the Apes" remains Tim Burton's version of "Battlefield Earth." Set in 2029, astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) crash-lands his one-person space pod on an unidentified planet where apes are the superior life form over human beings, who are treated as slaves and animals. Immediately captured by General Thade (Tim Roth) and his gang of human-hating apes, Leo manages to promptly escape, along with a few of the other captured people, including the beautiful Daena (Estella Warren). Aided by ape-woman Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), who believes humans and primates should coexist as equals, the escapees begin their journey to a place called the "Forbidden Zone," where they hope to reach salvation. Murkily plotted and slightly written, by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, and Mark D. Rosenthal, "Planet of the Apes" is a marginally ambitious sci-fi adventure that feels like it could have used another rewrite. Very little seems to happen in its 119-minute running time, and what does is merely passable--unexciting, frequently uninvolving, and just sort of there. Also desperately lacking in character development, the film never allows you to grow attached to anyone onscreen (with one exception), and so you stop caring and become impatient. The talent roster is certainly impressive, especially for such a big-budget film, but not much is done with any one of them. Mark Wahlberg (2000's "The Perfect Storm") is an arresting actor who is, nonetheless, vapid as Leo Davidson. Nothing is learned about Leo in the course of the film, and Wahlberg's performance seems akin to a mirage--he just doesn't seem to be playing at the usual top of his game. Tim Roth (2000's "Lucky Numbers") disappears behind layers of Rick Baker's flawless ape makeup, as the villainous Thade, and with his human identity also goes a memorable presence. As for the sultry Estella Warren (2001's "Driven"), she is horribly put to waste as the human Daena, who says very little, and seems to be thinking even less. At the climax, we are led to believe that she has fallen for Leo, and it is one of the most laughably unwarranted film romances to come around the pike in some time. Had as much work been done in giving the people a little more personality as was spent on the Oscar-bound makeup, there might have been a little more material to chew on. Thank goodness for small favors. Helena Bonham Carter (1999's "Fight Club") is the aforementioned one exception to the character problems, and she is a standout. As the determined, earnest Ari, Carter paints her role with just the right shading of emotion, longing, and hopefulness, and the results are dynamite. When all is said and done, it is Carter's sparkling turn that should get the much-earned credit. Feeling obligated to one-up its 1968 predecessor, "Planet of the Apes" has two separate plot twists at the end. The first one is more or less predictable, and anyone with a sharp eye will be able to spot the setup during the early scene where Leo crashes his pod on the planet. The second twist appears at the very end, and it is almost enraging in how little sense it actually makes. While the undiscriminating viewer may think it is "cool" and move on, put up to a split second of closer scrutiny unveils it to not only be illogical, but also pointless. Tim Burton may have reimagined the older "Planet of the Apes" for his current version, but the outcome was not necessarily for the better. - Copyright 2001 by Dustin Putman Visit my brand-new web site: TheMovieBoy.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29005 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240444 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 863 X-RT-AuthorID: 1388 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 1 01:12:58 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!nntp.abs.net!feeder.qis.net!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Steve Kong Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 21:00:40 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29009 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240474 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 874 X-RT-AuthorID: 1318 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29009 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 48 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27179 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2912 Planet of the Apes (2001) Reviewed by Steve Kong (Reviews@UltraMookie.com) Copyright (c) 2001 Steve Kong URL: http://www.ultramookie.com/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=7 Planet of the Apes is all Tim Burton style. The movie plot is pretty simplistic and that is good since this is a summer movie. A pilot Leo (Mark Wahlberg) crashes on a plane that is ruled by apes. Humans are second class citizens on this planet and are treated like animals. Leo runs into a group of humans that he befriends, one of the humans is the beautiful Daena (Estella Warren). Helping this group of humans is an ape named Ari (Helena Bonham Carter). The plot? Humans fight for their rights on this planet and Leo is their saviour that fell from the sky. Yes, there is one or two plot twists to this story and a ending that surprised me (thought was unsatisfying), but they story is pretty thin. So what is there to watch in this movie? Simply said, The Apes. The apes in the movie upstage the humans! Tim Roth as the vile General Thade, Michael Clarke Duncan as Attar, and Carter as Ari all turn in wonderful perfomances from under all that make up. The same can't be said about the humans. Wahlberg is a very limited actor and it shows here. Watch just what little reaction he has when he encounters talking apes. And Warren is just there as eye candy, her part is so thin that if she disappeared halfway through the film I doubt anyone would miss it. The apes though are great! Not just because of the revolutionary make up that they have that lets they truly emote, but because the actors that play the apes are top-notch. Roth's performance is only a one note performance, but he plays that note well. And Carter as Ari adds some warmth to any otherwise bland character. Rick Baker (Men in Black) has to be given many kudos for the work he's done for this movie. The ape make up is perfect. The score by Danny Elfman is perfection also. Every detail in this film is done to perfection and that's what should be watched for. It's too bad that all the perfect pieces don't fit together all that well. And although I enjoyed the movie and liked how Burton threw in the surprise ending, the movie in the end is just a mediocre movie -- something that's to be expected from a summer movie, but I expected a whole lot more out of Burton. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29009 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 240474 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 874 X-RT-AuthorID: 1318 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 8 16:01:58 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!cyclone.bc.net!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Edward Johnson-Ott Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 19:45:29 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29066 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 241746 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 591 X-RT-AuthorID: 1099 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/5 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29066 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 85 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27252 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2914 Planet of the Apes (2001) Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner, Kris Kristofferson, Lisa Marie, Erick Avari, Evan Dexter Parke. Special Make-Up Effects by Rick Baker. Music by Danny Elfman. Screenplay by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, based on a novel by Pierre Boulle. Directed by Tim Burton. 105 minutes. Rated PG-13, 3.5 stars (out of five stars) Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo.net Archive reviews at http://reviews.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Edward+Johnson-Ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to ejohnsonott@prodigy.net or e-mail ejohnsonott-subscribe@onelist.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. Because the press screening of "Planet of the Apes" was one day past last issue's deadline, I was afforded the opportunity to see the film a second time, listen to audience reactions and read a heap of reviews before writing this piece. The chief complaints of those who disliked the futuristic adventure appear to be that the movie focused on visuals instead of substance, that the story was thin, that Mark Wahlberg's character was colorless and that the surprise ending sucked. To those people I would like to say – What the hell did you expect? This is a Tim Burton movie, boys and girls. Tim Burton movies have great art direction and thin, clunky stories. For the blissfully nasty, disjointed and underrated "Mars Attacks!" (Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader and I were two of the only critics in America to praise the movie) Burton reportedly tossed vintage "Mars Attacks!" trading cards onto the floor and based his story on the ones that landed face up. Burton's re-imagining of the 1968 story of an astronaut that lands on a planet where apes rule men looks great. The apes, courtesy of make-up magician Rick Baker, are dazzling and Ape City is a wonder to behold. Like astronaut Leo Davidson (Wahlberg), the film hits the ground running, whisking viewers through a head-spinning series of solid one-liners and engaging vignettes and establishing a sense of thrust that carries us through the more traditional fight scenes that come later. As for Wahlberg, consider what Burton does with his character. From his start as a filmmaker, Burton has shown his fascination with colorful misfits (Pee-Wee Herman, The Joker, Ed Wood, the ack-acking Martians, etc.) and lack of interest in standard issue heroes. So Leo Davidson spends most of the movie getting the living shit kicked out of him before the biggest guilt trip in history is dropped on his shoulders. As for lack of color, remember, Leo only launches into space to get his monkey back. He doesn't want to lead humanity and he isn't looking for romance from a pretty, but dull human (Estella Warren) or a dynamic ape (Helena Bonham Carter, terrific as an equal-rights activist). As a man who just wants out, Wahlberg is focused, subtle and sly. The surprise ending provides the requisite shock (and some more dandy visuals, particularly of the approaching authority figures), but admittedly isn't nearly as satisfying as the one in the original. For the original ending to work, we only had to make one simple connection, for this one, we have to write a whole new screenplay. The 1968 "Apes" boasted a handful of great scenes, cool looking monkeys, a deliciously hammy performance by Charlton Heston (who appears uncredited here as an aged chimp on his deathbed, re-delivering a classic line) and a killer ending. But viewers had to suffer through numerous dull stretches punctuated by social and political messages delivered with the grace of a wrecking ball. The 2001 "Planet of the Apes" offers a different set of great scenes, much cooler looking monkeys, fine acting from Wahlberg, Bonham Carter, Paul Giamatti and Tim Roth, and a not so good ending. It also gives us another chance to experience the skewed vision of Tim Burton and that's nothing to complain about. © 2001 Ed Johnson-Ott ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29066 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 241746 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 591 X-RT-AuthorID: 1099 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/5 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 8 16:01:58 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!newsfeed1.swip.net!swipnet!newspeer.monmouth.com!feeder.via.net!news.he.net!news!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Mark O'Hara Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 20:28:42 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29099 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242697 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-AuthorID: 1335 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29099 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 103 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27265 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2917 Planet of the Apes (2001) The ending of Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES is one that I like. Because I enjoy pondering the details of almost any film I’ve seen, this original divergence from Pierre Boulle’s novel – as well as from the 1968 Charlton Heston vehicle – is fascinating, if rather unpopular among many American viewers. Although the quality of Tim Burton’s films is uneven, each one of his works is an event. Craftsmanship and vision showing in each one, Burton’s movies are steadily building him the reputation of an American master. In his dark imaginings Burton reminds me of the writer T. C. Boyle, who began publishing his stories and in little magazines and then progressed to putting out novels with major publishers. Likewise, Burton paid his dues early in his career, and has been fortunate enough to be able to impose brilliant originality on his films – even though the movie machines of Hollywood expect many dollars in return. Don’t know about you, but I’ll admit to a willingness to see a film just because Burton’s name is the last one in the opening credits. What’s cool about PLANET? Perhaps the setting is not as visually stunning as in BATMAN, but it is just as dark. In fact, most of the piece has received the criticism of being rather lightless. The symbolism works well, though: the dark heart of man has engineered this chaotic hell, and man is suffering the just deserts. The simian beings that rule the planet – and there many races of apes, as well as many forms of racism – occupy quarters that appear comfortable. Structures sit among huge trees and hills that must be difficult to navigate for mere humans. No doubt the set’s magic is aided through painted backdrops and canvases sketched upon the computer. The film really does move. Not many subplots divert our attention. When Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg), in an attempt to rescue a space pod piloted by a chimp, flies into an electromagnetic storm, he is flung far into the future. Crashing through the forest of this seemingly alien planet, he sinks in a murky pool, reminiscent of the creepy swamp where Luke Skywalker is mentored by Yoda. But Davidson has no familiar faces around. The humans he spies seem somehow subhuman. After the apes round them up, the stage is set for an escape engineered by Davidson, the American Air Force officer who is not willing to accept this world turned on its ear. The escape attempt takes up much of the running time, with the band of humans accepting aid from a female ape named Ari (Helena Bonham Carter) and exploring the forbidden desert where, according to mythology, the ape civilization began. Apes caging humans? The irony is delicious, and the moral is as clear as it was in the 1968 version. How should we treat animals? What role will evolution play in the future? When will the world finally be free of slavery? Gladly, Burton’s version presents these questions while refraining from clearly answering them. Unfortunately, the film’s agenda also includes an oblique attack upon Christianity, specifically, the idea that a being will return to spread salvation upon his people. It certainly seems as though this founding father is imbued with more superhuman traits than a mere Arthurian figure. As Davidson, Mark Wahlberg is competent but not outstanding. His goal is to get himself off the planet, and we like him only mildly because his character is developed too quickly. His decision to steal a pod and try to rescue the chimp has consequences that reverberate throughout universal history: here’s what would really happen if Star Trek’s Prime Directive were breached! Wahlberg is a decent action hero, though the script perhaps could have given him more personality. Carter is very good as the sympathetic ape Ari. She is actually a human rights activist who is not human! Rick Baker’s makeup people have given her comparably little facial hair, so it is easier for us to accept a slight romantic interest between her and Davidson. Bonham Carter’s performance proves again that a good actor can shine through the heaviest disguise. The strongest acting is turned in by the baddie. If I might continue the comparison to STAR WARS, what Darth Vader is to Luke, General Thade (Tim Roth) is to Davidson. The perfect rival and foil – a simian Machiavelli. Roth must relish the role of a "heavy," as he grows delirious with all-too-human hatred and vengeance in PLANET. Along with Gary Oldman, Tim Roth is setting the standards for villains in the modern cinema. Paul Giamatti is buried under the guise of a slave-trading orangutan, but his performance is solid. He’s very funny; part of the irony here is the personification that shines through this supposedly non-person. What a strong character actor Giamatti is. Estella Warren as Daena, the comely human woman who is part of the escaping band, is underused. In this area the script is unsure what to do. Should Davidson grow more attached to Daena or to Ari? We can’t decide either. Michael Clarke Duncan is barely recognizable as General Thane’s protégé, General Attar. This mammoth actor again turns in a rather quiet but solid job, though Attar’s character seems occasionally conflicted. Finally, Kris Kristofferson is vastly underused. His craggy face just begins to add a rounder dimension to the plight of the humans on this terrifying planet, when he is plucked from the story. In a wise and witty appearance, Charlton Heston wears the ape latex in this revisiting. He's Thade’s father, whose dying words reveal some of the mysterious history behind the race reversal. Look for some clever references in this sequence. In a season that is rather bare of well-made films, PLANET OF THE APES is competent if not spectacular. It’s full of action and engaging special effects, and the appearance of the apes is, probably for the first time, believable, thanks to Mr. Baker and his crew. What makes the film better than average is the risks taken by Burton, especially with that heady ending. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29099 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242697 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-AuthorID: 1335 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 8 16:01:59 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!isdnet!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Ram Samudrala Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 20:41:53 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29111 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242559 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29111 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 73 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27283 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2920 Planet of the Apes http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/planet_of_the_apes.html /Planet of the Apes/ is a cult film. The numerous references to it in /The Simpsons/ (which is a cult TV show) alone qualify it as such, but the original film, based on the novel /Monkey Planet/ by Pierre Boulle and released in 1968, has also spawned four sequels and two television series. Tim Burton's revamping of the classic is a typically interesting and dark look at the complex consequences of small actions. Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) is an astronaut on a space station itching to explore a newly discovered wormhole, but manned flights are not permitted by his commanding officer. Instead, Pericles, a genetically-enhanced chimpanzee, is sent to explore the anomaly. When Pericles disappears, Davidson defies orders and goes after it and crash lands on a planet where apes are at the top of the food chain and humans function as their slaves. Davidson eventually discovers that he is responsible for such a situation, since the spaceship carrying a bunch of genetically and otherwise enhanced primates also crash landed on the same planet while searching for him, except that it was an event that occurred in the past. This secret has been guarded by General Thade (Tim Roth), who desires to exterminate all humans and rule the planet with an iron hand. The primates progress to create primitive societies while the humans are held in check. However, considering that humanity itself is little better than the other animal species, the primates aren't exemplary in their behaviour and are unable to shed their primitive trappings. There are three distinct spatio-temporal locations in the film: Earth in the year 2029 where Davidson begins his journey; the planet Davidson crash lands on in the future; and an Earth to which Davidson returns. The movie portrays them as distinct from each other, though it could be readily interpreted as being the same: i.e., when Davidson's mother ship first goes into the wormhole, it ends up in a past earth leading to a completely different kind of evolution (and thereby wiping out the existence of the current Earth---paradox accepted) ultimately leading to the planet of the apes, and Davidson simply "returns" to a future earth where he discovers his fight has been vain (this would be colinear with the vision of the original film). There's no denying that whatever Tim Burton does, it has his clear trademark look and feel about it, and it is invariably interesting. The movie here is less intellectual than the original film (a general trend observed as cleverness in effects substitute for originality in ideas---the one exception I can think of to this is /The Outer Limits/ series). The acting is quite good: Mark Wahlberg does a decent job though it is the monkeys that carry the film. Rick Baker deserves kudos for the makeup. The sound track by Danny Elfman is excellent as usual. The movie ends in the style of /The Twilight Zone/ or /The Outer Limits/ and is different from the ending observed in the original (which I thought made more sense since that implies the two Earths are one and the same). Catch this one on the big screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29111 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242559 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Aug 21 21:59:41 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news1.ebone.net!news.ebone.net!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!feed.textport.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Eugene Novikov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 21:20:13 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29199 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 244169 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 610 X-RT-AuthorID: 1577 X-RT-RatingText: A- Summary: r.a.m.r. #29199 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 114 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27367 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2922 Planet of the Apes (2001) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ "Bow your head!" Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, Carey Hiroyuki-Tagawa. Directed by Tim Burton. Rated PG-13. Reading a review of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes by an internet critic I respect, I stumble upon this quote: "So, a "reimagining," as Burton has been calling it, of Planet of the Apes would surely be ripe for Burton's brand of psychological autopsy. A human man, alone among hostile, intelligent apes, unable to relate to the uncivilized, subjugated homo sapiens he encounters... Bring on the angst, the hero's twisted self-torture, all the stuff that makes you wonder what happened to the director as a child!"* The reviewer then expressed her disappointment that the film was in fact nothing like she expected, that Burton strayed from his usual cathartic misfit tale, as riveting as his best ones have been. The fact that her sentiment was echoed in reviews around the country shows how unfair the critical faculty has been to this gem of a sci-fi movie. From Burton, everyone expected a movie that is extraordinary in spirit; this one is simply extraordinary in craft. It had to happen sometime, and I don't think I mind. Mark Wahlberg takes over Charlton Heston's role in the original 60's Apes, but not his loincloth. He plays Captain Leo Davidson, a scientist/astronaut who takes a shuttle from his space station to go after an escaped chimpanzee and gets caught in an electrical storm that rockets him two hundred years into the future. He crash-lands on a planet where -- you guessed it -- apes rule and humans are caged and enslaved. The biggest difference between this set-up and that of the original movie is that while the apes Heston had to contend with were merely skeptical and condescending, treating humans much like we treat monkeys, the simians here are downright malevolent. Tim Roth, cast somewhat against type, plays Thade, the cruel, fearsome, rotten-to-the-core villain who ridicules the human rights movement led by Ari (Helena Bonham Carter). When Leo is captured and imprisoned, Ari helps him escape the clutches of the corrupt slave trader Limbo (Paul Giamatti) and lead a group of humans to his crashed ship, showing them that humans weren't always the subservient species. Much has been made of the ending. I won't go into it except to say that it isn't entirely "Burton's new ending." It's truer to Pierre Boulle's novel than the original movie was, though even here it's slightly modified. But in all the hubbub about its plausibility -- or lack thereof -- something has been lost, and that is Burton's pure technical skill in staging an action movie. He is as comfortable operating in this alien world as he was in the dank, foggy woods of Sleepy Hollow. His Apes is, in fact, remarkable-looking, though many were put off by the fact that it's not his trademark look. Why not let the guy do something different? Wahlberg makes for a good no-nonsense hero, and the love triangle between him, Ari and a sexy human female is, until the very end, only implied, sparing us a potentially laughable subplot. The make-up effects by the legendary Rick Baker are amazing, making the original look even sillier by comparison. And Burton keeps the movie skipping along at a nice pace, stopping only to give us a look at Roth snarling ferociously at the camera (and to give Heston a nifty cameo). This is as solid a summer movie as one can expect, beautifully mounted, well-acted and with a nifty shocker of an ending. More importantly, despite the detractors' loud grumblings, this is a Tim Burton film. *MaryAnn Johanson, The Flick Filosopher Grade: A- Up Next: Sexy Beast ©2001 Eugene Novikov ===== --Eugene Novikov lordeugene_98@yahoo.com "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts." (Daniel Patrick Moynihan) ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29199 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 244169 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 610 X-RT-AuthorID: 1577 X-RT-RatingText: A- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Aug 21 21:59:41 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!newsfeed.bahnhof.se!newsfeed1.bredband.com!bredband!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Homer Yen Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 21:26:59 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29203 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 244174 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-AuthorID: 1370 X-RT-RatingText: C+ Summary: r.a.m.r. #29203 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 97 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27371 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2923 "Planet of the Apes" – Gorilla Warfare by Homer Yen (c) 2001 On a distant planet, perhaps in another galaxy or in another dimension, apes have remarkably evolved to a superior state while Homo sapiens, oddly, are the animals. The human race has become a scourge. They are caged, prodded, displayed for amusement, and sold into slavery. Some are even kept as pets. At first, this film seems to project itself as biting satire – an ironic piece of social commentary about our own arrogant sense of aggrandizement. But the film's initial edginess considerably dulls as these notions fade and "Apes" devolves into an unremarkable story about a lost space traveler trying to return home. The 20-minutes-too-long opening introduces us to Captain Davidson (Mark Wahlberg), a pilot working on a research space station. While on a search and rescue mission, he is blindsided by one of those Star Trek-like swirling spatial anomalies. Hurled through time and space, he eventually crash lands on a strange planet. Looking like a contestant on "Survivor 4," without benefit of supplies or technology, he comes across a band of humans, dressed in post-apocalyptic fashion. They are running for their lives, pursued by apes. But these aren't the simians that Davidson remembers back on Earth. These species seem to be eons ahead on the evolutionary scale. They speak, have superhuman strength, and are as nimble as Jackie Chan. Eventually captured, he meets militant extremist General Thade (Tim Roth), who considers the human population an infestation and wants to eradicate the whole species. However, Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), a civil-minded daughter of a powerful Senator, keeps his genocidal plans in check. But her influence can only go so far. And when Thade becomes convinced of Davidson's threat to the ape-world's balance of nature, he calls up his army whilst Ari and Davidson flee into the hinterlands. Much of the film focuses on their journey to a destination where they believe they can find help while Thade and his military troops give pursuit. But their travels provide too few exciting or tense moments. Meanwhile, Mark Wahlberg lacked the leading-man charisma, unable to inspire his ragtag band of followers. With this kind of leadership, only the hand of God could prevent a complete slaughter. The Ape characters seemed more, well…human. Roth-as-Thade is gloriously malicious as the fascist leader. Carter-as-Ari turns in a compassionate performance as the sympathetic aristocrat. Also of note is Michael Clarke Duncan who lends an air of nobility as Thade's trusted friend. And likeable was an orangutan slave trader (Paul Giametti) whose witty banter and sour disposition made him seem like a distant cousin to Jim Carrey's "Grinch." The realism of these apes is incredible as advanced make-up techniques give these creatures an uncannily human look. Yet they still maintain such apish traits as sniffing, roaring, beating their chests, swinging, and walking with that distinctive simian gait. Their world is all the more imposing thanks to director Tim Burton's dark and gloomy otherworldly visualizations. Meanwhile, maestro Danny Elfman (who did "Batman") composes a soundtrack filled with ominous sounding passages and gothic/military anthems. "Apes" gets an opposable "thumbs up" for visuals, presentation, and for its overall imaginative look and feel. However, it gets an opposable "thumbs down" for a bland story, a lackluster drama, and its absurd resolution. While competent and handsome looking, it needed greater profundity, zip, and intensity. As it stands, there's no reason to go ape. Grade: C+ S: 1 out of 3 L: 0 out of 3 V: 2 out of 3 ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29203 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 244174 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-AuthorID: 1370 X-RT-RatingText: C+ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Sep 11 11:20:46 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!luth.se!cyclone2.usenetserver.com!usenetserver.com!feed.textport.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Shannon Patrick Sullivan Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 19:07:21 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29385 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 247033 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29385 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 57 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27557 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2934 PLANET OF THE APES (2001) / ** Directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by William Broyles Jr, Lawrence Konner, and Mark D Rosenthal, based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth. Running time: 121 minutes. Rated PG for frightening scenes by the MFCB. Reviewed on August 15th, 2001. By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN Synopsis: In the near future, astronaut Leo Davidson (Wahlberg) is lost in an electrical storm in space, and crash lands on a planet where apes are the dominant lifeform. Davidson comes to believe that they key to his escape lies in the remote Forbidden Zone. Allying himself with a ragtag band of humans, as well as human-friendly ape Ari (Bonham Carter), Davidson tries to reach the Forbidden Zone while being pursued by the malevolent ape leader Thade (Roth). Review: Tim Burton is well-known for lending his films a distinct visual flair; in concert with a good script, this often produces a genuinely memorable moviegoing experience (such as 1999's "Sleepy Hollow"). Sadly, Burton's "re-visioning" of "Planet Of The Apes" is long on appearances but short on anything else. This is little more than a by-the-numbers action flick with an inordinate amount of money thrown at it. "Apes" is wonderful to look at; as good as the make-up was in the original, Burton's team has done an even more spectacular job in bringing the title creatures to life for the modern version. And there is much promise in an exciting early scene in which Wahlberg is captured by apes employing tactics that feel genuinely simian. But afterward, the picture degenerates into a standard chase story; there's even an annoying kid sidekick to complicate matters. The revelations which occur in the Forbidden Zone are likely to surprise very few, and a literal deus ex machina strains the bounds of coincidence much too far. Burton's biggest problem, though, is that he creates few characters of interest: Wahlberg is bland and unengaging, the villains are stereotypes, the other humans mere ciphers. Even Bonham Carter's unusual (and sometimes disconcerting) Ari simply services the plot. A pointless, tacked-on twist ending cements the banality of the whole exercise. Copyright © 2001 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | Shannon Patrick Sullivan | shannon@mun.ca | +---------------------------------+---------------------------------+ / Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) go.to/drwho-history \ \__ We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars __/ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29385 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 247033 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jan 5 16:00:17 2002 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!feed2.onemain.com!feed1.onemain.com!feeder.qis.net!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Christian Pyle Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2001 02:26:10 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 30340 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 269288 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-AuthorID: 1057 X-RT-RatingText: C Summary: r.a.m.r. #30340 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 65 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2306 rec.arts.sf.reviews:161 Planet of the Apes Reviewed by Christian Pyle Directed by Tim Burton Written by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal (based on the novel by Pierre Boulle) Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Michael Clarke Duncan Grade: C Twentieth Century Fox has been trying to get a new "Planet of the Apes" franchise up and running for awhile. The still-popular 1968 original spawned four sequels, two TV series, and countless merchandising, so a reprise was inevitable. When Tim Burton took over the project (from Oliver Stone, of all people), I had high hopes; Burton has a gift for turning cult camp into engaging films (see "Batman," "Ed Wood," "Mars Attacks"). However, this "Planet" is unevolved. The astronaut running from monkeys this time is Capt. Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg). While working on a deep-space research station in 2029, cocky Leo flies into a strange electrical storm and finds himself transported to a planet ruled by apes. He's abducted with a group of primitive humans, including beautiful Daena (Estella Warren) and her father (Kris Kristofferson), who will be sold as slaves to the simian aristocrats. While in captivity, Leo meets ruthless General Thade (Tim Roth), who is bent on eradicating all humans, and human rights advocate Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), the rebellious daughter of a senator (David Warner). Before long, Leo has escaped from bondage and led Daena, Ari, and a mixed group of humans and apes out of the city. The rebellion finally gets Thade permission to exterminate humanity . . . The original "Planet" with Charlton Heston, who has a cameo in the remake as Thade's father, had a disarming freshness that no remake can recapture. Like a lot of 1960's science fiction, "Planet 1968" mixed social commentary with the action in a way that made the film seem like an allegory. True, its commentary picked easy targets and tended to be simplistic. The main subject was the conflict between science and religion, which was reduced to "science good / religion bad." However, it worked because the allegorical aspect made its simplicity charming. The commentary in Burton's "Planet" seems trite and forced. Burton's target is racism, with the apes as the "master race" and the humans as the oppressed minority. The script seems peppered with race-related soundbites just to lend some depth to a superficial storyline. The screenwriters for "Planet 2001" seem to have borrowed the basic plot outline from "Antz" (power-mad general bent on genocide, young female aristocrat who teams up with a lower-class rebel on the run), but they forgot to borrow the cleverness of that film's dialogue. Most of "Planet" seemed tedious. The only part I liked was the controversial ending. "Planet 1968" was co-written by "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling, and its memorable twist ending was one of his best. So, "Planet 2001" is obliged to provide a similar twist, and it does. Burton's ending inverts the original version's ending while paying homage to it. The ending's a lot more clever than the rest of "Planet 2001." © 2001 Christian L. Pyle ========== X-RAMR-ID: 30340 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 269288 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-AuthorID: 1057 X-RT-RatingText: C From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jan 5 16:00:20 2002 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!newsfeed.bahnhof.se!newsfeed1.bredband.com!bredband!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feeder.qis.net!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Jerry Saravia Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 02:45:16 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 30520 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 274248 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #30520 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 76 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2480 rec.arts.sf.reviews:179 PLANET OF THE APES (2001) Reviewed by Jerry Saravia December 19th, 2001 RATING: 2 1/2 stars I am not a huge fan of the original "Planet of the Apes" but I do recognize its place in pop culture history in its upfront look at civil rights and impending nuclear doom as told through a science-fiction scenario. Still, as a movie, it was entertaining but also fairly cheesy and campy with a grand, majestic and overblown performance by Charlton Heston. No one would ever mistake the original "Apes" as the latest example in subtlety. Tim Burton's "reimagining" of "Planet of the Apes" is also fairly fun, campy, and cheesy but it lacks urgency and a real stroke of imagination. Mark Wahlberg has the Heston role, this time as an Air Force pilot named Leo who loves to work with chimpanzees. One beloved chimpanzee operates a pod that goes through some nebulous cloud and disappears. Wahlberg goes after the chimpanzee in another pod and crash lands in some strange planet populated by apes who talk. In this planet, the humans are slaves to the apes, and Wahlberg is the latest intrusion as he becomes a personal servant to them. He meets with several human slaves including Kris Kristofferson, who quickly disappears from the movie, and Estella Warren as the latest Raquel Welch model in blonde curls and fittingly precious clothing. She is so severely underwritten that we forget her function in the story, outside of making goo-goo eyes at Wahlberg. The apes include Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), a rebellious thinker who believes in equal rights for all species and falls for Wahlberg, the raging General Thades (Tim Roth), a murderous, rampaging, glowering ape who wants to destroy all humans, the stoic Colonel Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan) who follows Thades every command, and Paul Giamatti as Limbo, the con-artist who is only interested in saving his own neck. There is also a powerful cameo by Charlton Heston (!) as Thades's dying father who wishes all humans extinct. Most of this is fun to watch and the visual style is dead-on with its view of shadowy woodlands and arid desertscapes in this ape world. I also like the finale where the apes run after the humans on all fours, ready for combat. All the actors do a superior job of portraying apes in both body language and gestures. The human characters are less prone to such credibility, but that says a lot for any action blockbuster post-"Jurassic Park." One crucial difference from the original "Apes" is that the humans here can speak English whereas in the original they could not speak one word, even Heston who you may recall could not utter a syllable for at least an hour into the film. The idea of apes feeling superior to the human race is all lost here. The movie is an impersonal misfire at best, an attempt by Tim Burton to show he can do a workmanlike job directing other people's ideas. Any capable director could have done an efficient job with this project, so why did the man who created Edward Scissorhands and Pee Wee's strange adventure helm this except to gain respect in an industry that does not reward its own artists? True, Burton also helmed "Batman" and its first sequel but both were molded under his own personal vision - a world where he shares an understanding and compassion for freaks. None of Burton's touches are evident in "Planet of the Apes," which not so much remakes the original as much as reiterate it. What we have is a bland, undefined hero who accepts apes matter-of-factly, truly nefarious villains, some good special-effects, plenty of ironic, self-aware gags and catchphrases, and a roughly implausible though not wholly surprising finale that seems to make room for a sequel. So, yes, you are likely to be entertained but cineastes will be left pondering the following question: Where is Tim Burton? For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/JATMindex.shtml E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at faustus_08520@yahoo.com or at Faust668@aol.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 30520 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 274248 X-RT-TitleID: 1108704 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/4