(27 July 2001) Director Tim Burton Screenplay William Broyles Jr.,
Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
This movie was underrated. Loved the use of
the lines from the original series.
In this, Mark Wahlberg seems so young.
The cast includes Tim Roth, Michael Clark Duncan (RIP),
Helena Bonham Carter, Paul Giamatti—who's great—in fact,
everyone's great. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa gives a top-notch
performance. It delivers all the elements we want from a "Planet
of the Apes" movie. The excitement and build up for this movie
was incredible and it holds up and is still enjoyable.
It seems incredible, considering CGI was just
beginning (Jurassic Park was 1993), that this movie
relied a lot on costumes and performances and yet was so good
(much credit goes to the script and the actors), when the next
movie (2011) was so far along. I'm just really glad that
when they finally had the ability to make these movies what they
always should have been, they were popular enough to be re-made.
The original series had/has a cult following. I watched
them every time they were on TV (before cable LOL). They
were so different, so original.
1968 Planet of the Apes
1970 Beneath the Planet of the Apes
1971 Escape from the Planet of the Apes
1973 Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Much of this movie hinges on the
unrelenting viciousness of Tim Roth's character, "Thade".
How much of being a glorified hero is the other side
of the coin from a really 'good' villain . . . This movie builds
and builds until that epic moment when the two groups face off,
then, suddenly, the apes begin to run on all fours, fast.
Surprisingly fast. Keeping ahead of horses fast. And
the battle rages until . . . the epic landing of the first space
pod.
What a heartbreaking moment when Pericles
drags himself back to his cage. It runs to the heart of all
these movies (cruelty to animals).
Near the end when Thade loses his shit, I
remember, watching it in the theater and it was really scary and
intense.
The surrealness kept going right up until the
end. Love endings like this. It achieved the unreality feel of
the original right down to the epic Statue of Liberty on the
beach moment from the first movie. They had fun with that.
[In reading the Trivia on IMDb, there was
controversy over Charlton Heston and the NRA—nothing's
changed except Heston passed away in 2008.]
action movie freak
