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Planet of the Apes (2001)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 9:33 pm    Post subject: Planet of the Apes (2001) Reply with quote



Confession: I enjoyed the original "Planet of the Apes" when I first saw it in 1968 and several times over the years since then. But frankly the ape makeup just never impressed by very much: rubber masks that were marginally flexible, and actors who didn't do a very good job of walking and moving like apes.

Say what you will about this 2001 remake, but it certainly took the make up to the next level. And the acting was pretty good, with a fine cast striking a good balance between human behavior and simian movements.

This versions plugs some serious holes in the plot of the first film. The origin of the ape civilization and the way the astronaut gets into the future are tied together, and the story takes place on a planet other than Earth.

But this version creates it's own gaping black holes in the plot, like when the original spaceship pilot-chimp from the present arrives in the future long after the human astronaut does, even though he left first.

Okay, so this is about time travel and the normal laws of physics don't apply. But the rules of good story telling should always be followed, and this movie just doesn't do that.

The newly-arrived, long-overdue chimp is mistaken by the apes as a prophesied messiah, so the simians and the humans suddenly go all religious.

If you're still with the movie at this point, you'll love the ending, which involves a cameo by Aperaham Lincoln — and that's not a typo.

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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember the exact moment when I stopped watching this movie.

I actually have this on Blu-ray (for some reason). When Helena Bonham Carter makes the comment about, "....having a bad hair day", I hit the stop button. I've never watched another minute of the film.

I can't tolerate dated, glib catch-phrases which are completely out of place.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Superb ape make-up movies: This version of POTA, Congo, Mighty Joe Young remake.

I have to agree that the ape make-up from the original POTA does not stand the test of time.

No doubt they did the best they could when the movie was made.

Still love the film.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gosh, Brent, you just don't understand the way they make these science fiction movies! Shocked

Ya see, that was just a translation of an "ape language" term into a colloquial English phrase for the sake of the English speaking audience.

In fact, that phrase in the ape language doesn't even refer to the speaker's tonsorial condition at all! The expression actually refers to a day during which the person's pet rabbit misbehaves.

She meant she was having "a bad hare day".
Very Happy


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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scotpens
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
I have to agree that the ape make-up from the original POTA does not stand the test of time.

No doubt they did the best they could when the movie was made.

John Chambers received an honorary Oscar for his work designing the facial prosthetics for the ape actors in the original film. (The Academy Awards didn't have a Best Makeup category until 1981.)

The actors playing apes found that they had to constantly make little facial movements to keep the prosthetics from looking stiff and mask-like. I always wondered why those apes were so twitchy!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Yep, and we appreciate what the actors were trying to do, but unfortunately it just sort of shifted the rubber around and called attention to the fact that their faces were stiff.
Sad
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Dec 21, 2022 8:57 am; edited 1 time in total
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2022 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
_________________ Planet of the Apes (2001)


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An energetic, adrenaline-charged, and slightly surreal remake of the classic '68 original, still based on author Boulle's novel. Back then, some preferred the term 'reimagined' — as if 'remake' is a dirty word now. Such pomposity.

But we can imagine what director Burton's penchant for nightmarish landscapes and dark fairy tales would look like if imposed on the well-known Planet of the Apes storyline.

With such preconceptions, it's not at all a surprise what this film ended up becoming — in fact, it's fairly predictable, perhaps its biggest weakness. It's no surprise that many of those crowd shots of soldier apes here resemble the scary monkey-things from "The Wizard of Oz."

Ironically, the first drawback for this version is its faithful adherence to the novel. The hero astronaut (Mark Wahlberg a.k.a. Marky Mark) in this one really does travel to another planet, where the inhabitants (ruling apes & underdog humans) speak perfect English.

The explanation for this bizarro planet and its presumed natives in the final third is not nearly as elegant as the logical one in the classic '68 film. We're asked to go along with the fanciful concepts and not think it out very much — this is fairy tale madness, after all, dressed up as science fiction for the masses. Burton seems to be in conflict with himself here — the eclectic stylist at odds with presenting a standard summer popcorn flic for the consumers.


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Where Burton and some of his actors do succeed is in presenting most of the new ape characters. Tim Roth pretty much steals the movie from everyone as the central villain, Thade.

Interestingly, this film was more accurate than the original in that it understood that chimpanzees are the most violence-prone and bad-tempered of the apes in our reality (gorillas are actually more benign). Thade, a super-chimp for lack of a better term, is possessed of power on several levels (physical, social, political) and uses it in displays of frightening ferociousness.

Roth so loses himself in the role that, even as I viewed this a 2nd and 3rd time, knowing who it was under that ape make-up, I still could find no traces of him. It's a triumph of make-up FX and stellar method acting.

All the actors who play apes in this picture, including Helena Bonham Carter (as a sympathetic chimp) and Michael Clarke Duncan (as a huge gorilla), succeed in dazzling the audience to such a degree that, unfortunately, all the ones playing humans, including the main lead, come off as very bland.

The climactic battle between the two armies is exciting, and we tense up some more as Thade's villainy appears to near an end. Then everything becomes abruptly copacetic on this weird world, and the final (secondary) climax back on Earth still doesn't make sense to me, not after the 3rd time, and probably not when I see it a 4th time.

No sequel — so I think Burton's just messing with us.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10


_________________ Planet of the Apes (2001)


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Apes Trivia: Cameo by Charlton Heston as the dying bedridden father of Thade.

~ Some of Heston's dialog is an homage to his famous lines as the astronaut Taylor in the original film.

~ Back in 2001, a year before the first Spider-Man film opened, this had a very impressive opening weekend of $68.5 million.



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 8:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
I remember the exact moment when I stopped watching this movie.

I actually have this on Blu-ray (for some reason). When Helena Bonham Carter makes the comment about, "....having a bad hair day", I hit the stop button. I've never watched another minute of the film.

I can't tolerate dated, glib catch-phrases which are completely out of place.

I'm sure I rolled my eyes every time the actors in this movie worked too hard to convince us that the apes were "just like us", but it was just one of the flaws I managed to tolerate and get past so I could see the whole movie and get what enjoyment I could out of it.

Admittedly the final scene when the astronaut crash lands in (what appears to be) Washington and then finds himself on another ape planet (or the same one, many years later — who the hell knows whch?) ruined the entire movie for me!

I didn't just roll my eyes at that moment, I shouted, "Oh, brother! What a crock of ape-crap THAT is!" Sad

So, this particular movie is one that ultimately disappoints some viewers (like me), while other movies redeem themselves with good aspects . . . if you stick with them.

But no movie is perfect. Therefore my point is, don't give up too quickly.

But of course, I have my own list of things I "can't tolerate", just as you do, so I too have given up before "The End" appeared on screen a few times. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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