Planet Of The Apes | ||||
Tim Burton Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Estella Warren 2001 special edition — two-disc set; widescreen; closed caption; audio commentary by director Tim Burton and music composer Danny Elfman; theatrical trailer; interactive behind-the-scenes. DVD-ROM: screenplay; script; storyboard comparison; NUON-enhanced; HBO First Look documentary; five extended scenes; multiple featurettes "Simian Academy", "Face Like A Monkey", "Costume Tests", "On Location in Lake Powell", "Chimp Symphony Op. 37" and "Swinging From the Trees"; makeup tests; gallery of multi-angle features; theatrical trailers; "Rule the Planet Remix" music video by Paul Oakenfold; concept art; design gallery. DVD-ROM: novella; Web links |
Too much monkey business? No. Director Tim Burton's reinvention of the sci-fi novel by Pierre Boulle is at its satirical and technical best when concentrating on the depiction of a simian society and on a wealth of exceptional, vanity-free actors done up as apes. Too bad that the undertaking is hindered by the script's faulty internal logic and a gratuitous coda that defies what's gone before. In a plot paralleling the 1968 film based on the book, a lost astronaut (Mark Wahlberg) crash-lands on a world dominated by intelligent chimps, gorillas, etc. He falls in with a primitive underclass of humans, startles the apes with his smarts, is championed by a humanist chimp (a sympathetic turn by Helena Bonham Carter) and runs afoul of a cruel ape general (the astounding Tim Roth) who wants to keep humanity in its place. The ape make-up, the art direction and the mimicry of primate behavior are cool, but it's your basic "bargain matinee" in the end. Decor note: Sexy model Estella Warren plays a pouty human babe in a loincloth. | |||
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