Monkey business... (Planet Of The Apes [2001] (DVD))

Member Name: Critchyboy

Product:	Planet Of The Apes [2001] (DVD)
Date:	27/09/01 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic Make-up effects, Brilliant acting, except Mark Wahlberg., Short enough not to outstay its welcome.

Disadvantages: Hideously thought through ending - eek!

I am a massive Tim Burton fan. His films are excellent. Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks and Sleepy Hollow. When it was announced that Burton was to direct Planet of the Apes I was ready for something really special...

The film starts with Mark Wahlberg on a space station training chimps to fly shuttles on dangerous missions. Chimp one gets sent off and gets lost. Mark goes to 'fetch his chimp back' and ditto the above.

And so begins his adventure on the Monkey planet. There's a round-up as in the origional and a number of key in-jokes for fans of the first one.

The make-up is amazing. I have never seen actors looking so realistic as chimps, Rick Baker has done a marvellous job and all credit to him. But there aren't just chimps, there are all sorts of simian characters populating the planet.

The actors are superb. Anyone who can sit through six hours of make-up, jump up and down and act their socks-off deserves huge amounts of respect. Tim Roth, Michael Clarke-Duncan and Helena Bonham Carter all do a fantastic job. Tim Roth especially, is menacing as General Thade.

I found it a little violent for the rating it recieved. The chimp fights were scary - not so much because of what you saw, but purely because of the excellent sounds that went with it. Truly terrifying...

The story is engaging enough, but you really can see the 'exciting' twists coming. And as for the end - it is a lesson on how to ruin a perfectly good film. It doesn't really seem a Burton-esque ending, but rather a deliberate attempt to set up a sequel.

On the whole the film was entertaining and engaging enough, just forget the hash of an ending. The make-up, acting and effects more than make up for that...

Summary: