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Showing posts with the label apes

10 COOL THINGS ABOUT PLANET OF THE APES (2001)

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I try to find 10 cool things about Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes .

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES REVIEW - PODCAST

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We review War For The Planet Of The Apes on The Big Rewind .

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES - VLOG 25/07/17

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I talk briefly about War For The Planet Of The Apes .

PLANET OF THE APES - GAME REVIEW

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Check out my review of  Planet Of The Apes   on the PS1 only on retro gaming super-site  1MoreCastle.com .

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES - REVIEW

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What a strange franchise. Really, when you think about it, that was five movies about talking apes they made back in the day, along with a TV series, of course, and now two more films! After going beneath the Planet Of The Apes , escaping it, conquering it, now, finally, we get to see the epic Battle For The Planet Of The Apes and, after such a massive build up, it's sure to be something special and unforgettable. Or a dud, whatever. As it turns out, the Apes franchise ended with more of a whimper than an all-out "battle". With the ever growing plot-holes added on between each movie from the first sequel onwards, reaching near-incomprehensible levels, the logic of this whole story finally comes crumbling down in a messy effort featuring yet another fine performance by Roddy McDowall and a couple of promising ideas but mostly unremarkable developments. For one thing, it's weird that Caesar is still alive and that the world crumbled this easily off-camera. B

CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - REVIEW

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Going back to this one post- Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (and Rise) was certainly a bizarre experiment seeing as Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes is essentially the basis for these reboots even if it has a pretty different vibe and plot to it. As with every Planet Of The Apes sequel, the film starts with some hugely unconvincing expositional dialog only there to explain what happened between movies and justify stuff that was foreseen in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes . Roddy McDowall is back, not as Cornelius mind you but as that very ape's son Caesar, who was being kept hidden by circus ringmaster Armando (Ricardo Montalban reprising his role) as the humans started freaking out about the future and, following a disease affecting cats and dogs, using apes as slaves performing all kinds of mindless manual tasks for them. Ludicrous? Definitely, but no more than time-travelling apes. The thing is, this whole pet scenario makes very little sense and the fact that all the

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - REVIEW

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Who knew that a franchise based on talking apes taking over the world somehow would still be around today making big bucks? And with Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes not so much rebooting the whole thing as it was essentially remaking the fourth and fifth films (Conquest and Battle), it's amazing that a story we've seen told over and over is still putting asses in cinema seats. I was no fan of Rise, those CGI apes were a turn off, the film itself was really clunky and I was nowhere near excited to see Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes . And this is coming from a fan of the first 5 movies, especially the original classic. There was something missing from Rise, menace, stand out performances and a good, convincing build-up being part of it. With Dawn, we continue the story after a virus has wiped out most of humanity and super-smart ape Caesar has built a community of his own kind in San Francisco. The plot, this time, revolves around the humans wanting to fix some generator

KING KONG ESCAPES - REVIEW

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Not content with churning out tons of Godzilla movies, legendary Japanese studio Toho followed a King Kong vs. Godzilla crossover movie with a straight-up King Kong movie entitled King Kong Escapes which saw poor old Kong not only get kidnapped (again) but get hypnotized and eventually fight a robot version of himself. The film opens with the baddie, amusingly named Dr. Who, setting his Mecha-Kong (or Mechani-Kong) loose in order to use him as part of some kind of bizarre mining operation where a rare element would be uncovered. Unfortunately, Mecha-Kong turns out to be useless and nowhere near as powerful as the real Kong. So, you've guessed it, Dr. Who goes to find the iconic beast and, with the help of some well-delivered ether bombs, Kong is soon put to sleep and taken back to Who's lair where he is hypnotized by a glowing lamp and sent out to do the job Mecha-Kong couldn't. As with every single plan Dr. Who's ever had in this movie, this all backfires and King

WHY COOKIE ROCKET?

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RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - REVIEW

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Making a good film involving talking apes throwing spears has never been an easy task. The Charlton Heston-starring original almost feels like a fluke in that it did everything right with content that could so easily have been botched-up. I mean, what's sillier than apes riding horses? I'll tell you. CGI apes riding horses. Yes, many of the old Planet Of The Apes sequels failed to capture the original's stature, yes the TV series didn't have the budget needed and yes the Tim Burton remake is the director's worst achievement to date. And yet I would gladly sit through Mark Wahlberg's soulless journey once again rather than rewatch this new offering. Why, do you ask? Seen the trailers? Really what it comes down to is the sheer irrelevance that this entire production displays. The "rise" of the apes has been pretty much covered left and right in previous instalments besides, here's one film which will no doubt ruin the end twist of the ori