Planet of the Apes (Special Edition) | 
| Director: Tim Burton
Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $1.33
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Rating:  723 reviews
Sales Rank: 10029
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd, Special Edition, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: FOXD2004095D
UPC: 024543028970
EAN: 0024543028970
ASIN: B000062XGX
Theatrical Release Date: July 27, 2001
Release Date: February 11, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Billed as a "reimagining" of the original 1968 film, Tim Burton's extraordinary Planet of the Apes constantly borders on greatness, adhering to the spirit of Pierre Boulle's original novel while exploring fresh and inventive ideas and paying honorable tribute to the '68 sci-fi classic. Burton's gifts for eccentric inspiration and visual ingenuity make this a movie that's as entertaining as it is provocative, beginning with Rick Baker's best-ever ape makeup (hand that man an Oscar !), and continuing through the surprisingly nuanced performances and breathtaking production design. Add to all this an intelligent screenplay that turns Boulle's speculative reversal--the dominance of apes over humans--into a provocative study of civil rights and civil war. The film finally goes too far with a woefully misguided ending that pays weak homage to the original, but everything preceding that misfire is astonishingly right. While attempting the space-pod retrieval of a chimpanzee test pilot, Major Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) enters a magnetic storm that propels him into the distant future, where he crash-lands on the ape-ruled planet. Among the primitively civilized apes, treatment of enslaved humans is a divisive issue: senator's daughter Ari (Helena Bonham Carter) advocates equality while the ruthless General Thade (Tim Roth) promotes extermination. While Davidson ignites a human rebellion, this conflict is explored with admirable depth and emotion, and sharp dialogue allows Burton's exceptional cast to bring remarkable expressiveness to their embattled ape characters, most notably in the comic relief of orangutan slave trader Limbo (played to perfection by Paul Giamatti). Classic lines from the original film are cleverly reversed (including an unbilled cameo for Charlton Heston, in ape regalia as Thade's dying father), and while this tale of interspecies warfare leads to an ironic conclusion that's not altogether satisfying, it still bears the ripe fruit of a timeless what-if idea. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
In remaking this classic sci-fi horror film, director Tim Burton takes on a whopping challenge and succeeds. Astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) is part of a space station crew that, in the year 2029, is conducting experiments in training genetically engineered chimps to perform complex away missions. When Leo's chimp disappears into a worm hole, Leo unadvisedly goes after him, ending up in a parallel world in which the monkeys are the keepers and humans are traded and caged like animals. It's a horrifying place, and the whole atmosphere, colored by Burton's direction and Rick Baker's incredible special effects makeup, is charged with terror. Leo becomes a heroic figure in the eyes of his defeated human brethren, and he puts his trust--and his hope for escape--in Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), a forward-thinking ape who believes in human rights. But Leo has formidable opponents in Thade (Tim Roth) and Attar (Michael Clark Duncan), two power-hungry, testosterone-charged apes who wish to rid the planet of humans altogether. This excellent rendition of PLANET OF THE APES is more than just a remake: it includes intense physicality on the part of the actors, complex mythology lacing the story, chilling philosophical realizations, and an amazing cameo by original APES star Charlton Heston. The combination of those complex parts makes for a riveting viewing experience.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 718 more reviews...
Apes Gone Wild June 16, 2009
D. J. Nardi (Washington, DC)
This movie isn't like the 1968 classic Planet of the Apes. The plot isn't as substantive or thought-provoking. Rather, it is an action movie more along the lines of the contemporaneous The Time Machine. However, the makeup for the apes is pretty good, even after 8 years. Overall, this can be a fun movie to watch, but won't have the staying power of the classic.
An entertaining misfire (potential SPOILER alert) May 24, 2009
Dusty (California)
I was horrified when I first learned that Hollywood was attempting to cash in by remaking yet another film classic that had been done perfectly the first time. Was it only to make more money, and to sneak their own imprint on to the original filmmakers' success?
Ironically, this is typical of the kind of human behavior that the original Planet Of The Apes railed against. Yet, if you watch the documentary Behind The Planet Of The Apes, you'll marvel at just how oblivious some Hollywood executives were to the philosophical messages in the original film. One of them claimed that the filmmakers might have quietly slipped a few messages into the film, but overall it was intended as nothing more than a simple action/adventure. This goes a long way to explain why Hollywood fails so often, despite so much money and so much talent at its disposal.
And as if to drive home the point that thinkers are the powerless minority in Hollywood, director Tim Burton's commentary for this "re-imaging" of the original seems to show that Burton was only marginally more aware that "hidden" messages existed in the original film--messages that cried out like a banshee to anyone who actually bothered to THINK about that film. Even worse, I like Tim Burton's work, but the commentary reveals that Burton, though possessing a degree of thoughtfulness, may not be as articulate as one would hope. And this may best explain why this remake of Planet Of The Apes can best be described as an entertaining misfire.
I borrowed this film from the library, so I wouldn't lend any financial support to Hollywood's remake-for-profit schemes. I also watched it with my thumb resting on the remote-control's stop button. My goal was to see what this remake was all about, without allowing it to ruin the original's real impact on me.
So no one was more surprised than me, when I had no trouble seeing Burton's Planet Of The Apes through to the end. As a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed this film. The reason is because the story is entirely different than the original, so there's little risk of Burton stepping on the original's toes. Even better, this film did not succumb to Hollywood's obscene tendency to tack a happy ending onto every story about rape, murder, holocaust, or homo sapiens being overthrown by "lesser" species. In that regard, it seems more like a continuation of the original series, rather than a remake of the original.
Even so, apart from the ending, this your typical Hollywood action film--the kind of film that Richard Zanuck apparently originally envisioned back the late 1960's. There's a studly leading man with mediocre acting skills (no offense--I like Mark Wahlberg), a deliciously beautiful woman (actually two of them, if you find apes attractive), an easily recognizable evil villain who is blindly followed by hoards of unrecognizable and expendable henchmen, and a story line that relies heavily on deus ex machina to tie the screenplay's many loose ends together. This is the kind of film that Arnold Schwartzenneger would feel perfectly at home in. And there's nothing wrong with that, since it doesn't water down the power and force of the original film's message. Indeed, to Burton's credit, this remake does make a few humble attempts to insert social and political commentary.
However, in terms of filmmaking, I do not believe that this was Tim Burton's finest hour. For example, in the original film, the important "hunt" scene takes place in an expansive locale, with lots of motion and wide shots. You feel that a lot of effort was put into that scene, and this makes thoughtful people wonder why the filmmakers placed so much emphasis on the hunt.
However, the "hunt" scene in Burton's remake takes place in a clausterphobic jungle, and the only thoughtful question that results is, "why did a film with this kind of budget do an entire hunt scene on a sound stage the size of my living room?".
Films with real messages usually employ devices like foreshadowing, which often make the second viewing even more satisfying than the first. But here, again, Burton and Zanuck show no interest in making the audience THINK. For example, there were abundant opportunities to foreshadow Simos' future significance in the opening scenes that are surrounded by chimps in cages, yet no attempt was even made. Not even a nameplate for Simos on one of the cages--even though the screenplay called out for "METALLIC SQUARES stamped with SERIAL NUMBER and NICKNAME". The only real foreshadowing was Alexander's insistence that Pericles had been taught to return to the mother ship, which later helps to explain the silliness of his "miraculous" return at just the right moment.
Likewise, the brief montage of Earth transmissions contained only typical, iconic scenes from history--the kind of montage that a hungover high-school film student might throw together a few minutes before their 15-second film project is due: Hitler speaking, Iwo-jima flag raising, Castro speaking, a frame from The Day The Earth Stood Still, and Bill Clinton confessing that he stained Monica Lewinsky's dress. (The screenplay called for different, but equally irrelevant clips). There were no clips of Koko the gorilla using sign language. No clips of Jane Goodall living among the chimpanzees of Western Africa. No clips of pack animals serving humans. No clips of the Ku Klux Klan or George W. Bush behaving like animals that settle disagreements with violence. There were also no clips of any events that would have occurred between today and the future time in which the film is set. So many opportunities lost here!
I was also dumbfounded by the lack of sheer horror on Mark Wahlberg's face in the final scene--as well as director Tim Burton's apparent lack of direction that Wahlberg should exhibit horror in a horrifying situation. I think Burton has been working with puppets too long to adequately direct live actors anymore.
Where the film really shines is--as expected--with special effects. The opening shot of the cross-shaped Oberon nestled below Saturn's rings was awe-inspiring. And of course the ape makeup itself was inspired--Helena Bohnam Carter never looked so good. Burton also did a great job of capturing the way that apes move and behave, in obvious contrast to the original film's insistence that apes move and behave much like humans. The human actors playing apes hung, swung, and used their toes, much like real simeans would. Unfortunately, they also jumped and threw aggressors into the air with an unrealistic amount of power. I also wasn't entirely satisfied with the ape voices, which too often sounded like a cross between James Earl Jones and Barry White. It was also annoying to see a 100% survival rate every time one of those egg-shaped space pods crashed into a planet. I've suffered more damage with fender-benders in parking lots.
Overall, this is an entertaining film, spoiled mainly by the unavoidable comparison to the original, and Tim Burton's lack of attention to detail. As an action/adventure that is meant to make obtuse Hollywood executives even richer, this film succeeds. As a thoughtful statement on the human condition, it mostly fails. Somewhere in between lies a film that is more or less worth watching--as long as you don't expect too much from it.
Spank that monkey! March 16, 2009
Pastor of Disaster (Wexford, Ireland)
Hmm, I watched this one on the telly the other day and in my view it is a better film than it gets credit for. A little more effort in filling in plot holes would have been nice though, although the ending (spoiler warning) was made as it was to spawn a sequel, it was annoying to have had them miss out on the opportunity to make an "Aperaham Lincoln" gag, which was of course mighty frustrating. The thing that annoyed me most about the film was that the humans could speak, for me, the original 1968 film had Charlton Heston's main shocking capacity to the apes, was not that he was a spaceman, but that he could talk. By having everyone being able to talk, it immediately robs Leo Davidson's character of the one thing that would have made him uniquely interesting and that bothers me. The idea that the apes and humans had originated from the crashed ruins of the Oberon was another rather elegant plot twist that impressed me, the fact that the crew reported that the revolting apes had overcome them was a little paradox however, it would have been better if the computer log had said that they were abandoning the wreckage of the ship (or the ship, I am unclear if it had crashed before the ape mutiny) and going off to found a colony somewhere. And where did the horses come from? Don't tell me that on the Oberon, the apes were doing the exploration, and presumably the horses were in charge of repairing the ship or something? A little more care and thought would have made this a decent film, but even so, it really not that bad, I enjoyed watching it for the second time (after seeing at the flicks in 2002) more than I thought I would. And one last thing, as if a big mighty gorilla would less an tiny chimp boss him around. If I was one of the gorillas, I would have told general Thade to get stuffed.
Its always hard to remake such an iconic film as Planet of the Apes, but this is a decent enough effort.
 Tim Burton's Folly November 14, 2008
Marc Alexander
While it is often a mistake to compare remakes to the original film, I will gloss over the mediocrity of Mark Wahlberg's performance and focus on what concerns me most. When this film was made, Charlton Heston, who gives an outstanding but unbilled performance as a dying simian patriach, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. In short, he was a man dying from a terribel. To cast him as a dying man was both egregiously cruel and insensitive. Shame on Tim Burton!
Lacks the Punch of the Original November 5, 2008
The JuRK (Our Vast, Cultural Desert)
There are so many good things about this "re-imagining" of THE PLANET OF THE APES but it just doesn't have the creative punch of the original. It's unfair to say that because, of course, everyone is familiar with the 1968 sci-fi classic that spawned several sequels and a TV series so there's no way around that popularity.
The opening space sequence was too long. The story awkwardly shifted gears several times. The final battle felt contrived and the aftermath was terse and predictable (I'm sorry but I'd staying on whatever planet had Estella Warren in a skimpy loincloth). And the final scene--meant as a homage to the original Rod Serling penned whammy ending--only left me scratching my head.
But the makeup is amazing. Top notch production values. Fun to see Charlton Heston in a cameo (and hear famaliar lines from his version).
Just didn't come close to the original.
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