Grizzly Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Tonight I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Unfortunately, it’s not often anymore that I leave the theater feeling anything but disappointed. From Pirates 4 to Green Lantern to Cowboys & Aliens, I’ve handed MJR theaters more than my share of wasted income this summer. Tonight however, well – I haven’t been so pleasantly surprised by a movie in a long time. I love the original Planet of the Apes, but I thought the Tim Burton crapfest had killed any hopes for a series revival. That was until tonight, when I saw Rupert Wyatt‘s take on the rise of Caesar. Here is a movie that had everything going against it and still found a way to come out looking respectable. In a market severely over saturated with sequels, prequels, and remakes, they took a series that already had 5 movies, a TV show, a cartoon, and most recently – 2001’s universally panned remake – and they produced something not only watchable, but dare I say ‘Good’?

For those who don’t know, this is the story of Caesar. He is the chimp that would eventually lead his kind out of captivity and change the course of the Earth forever. Basically, he’s like the Spartacus of Apes, but smarter…and more important. The reason he is smarter is because his mother was used in a lab to test a new drug, which was meant to repair brain function in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Turns out that the drug not only repaired brain function, but actually improved it. So when ‘Bright Eyes’ gave birth to a baby chimp, she passed the cognitive ability onto her offspring.

Now I don’t want to write a synopsis or anything here, but there are a couple of things I’d like to comment on…

First, Andy Serkis. You might not know his name, but I bet you’re familiar with his work. He played ‘Gollum’ in The Lord of the Rings and will reprise that role in the upcoming The Hobbit movies. He was ‘Kong’ in King Kong, and now he is Caesar. This guy is – simply put – awesome. But for some reason, he seldom gets the credit he deserves. He does all the movements, expressions, and speaking, but because you don’t see his face people don’t appreciate what he does. So I just wanted to say that I do. I bring it up mainly though, because much like in LOTR, he stole the show. The rest of the cast was good enough, but there really wasn’t a scene with Caesar where he wasn’t the focal point, and Serkis couldn’t have done a better job.

Speaking of the rest of the cast, they are all recognizable to film and TV fans, much like the casts in earlier versions which boasted names like Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Kris Kristofferson, Roddy McDowall, Ricardo Montalban, Sal Mineo, M. Emmet Walsh, John Randolph, and of course – Charlton Heston. And while it’s not what would be considered a cast that is guaranteed to put butts in the seats, it is a cast I liked.

James-FrancoIn addition to Serkis, our other lead is one of my favorite actors working today – James Franco. He’s the adoptive father to ‘Caesar’. Playing Franco’s ailing father, fresh off a real career resurgence, thanks to Dexter is John Lithgow. Lithgow’s character is actually the catalyst for the drug’s development, as well as the one who inadvertently starts the ball rolling for the eventual ape uprising. Perhaps the next biggest name is also the actor who was probably most underused – Brian Cox. The love interest is Freida Pinto and as the A-Hole, fittingly so, is Harry Potter’s own Draco Malfoy. And last but not least, star of GB favorite Reaper – Tyler Labine.

They paid special attention the honoring the old movie, starting right away with the opening scene basically being a reverse of when Heston got captured back in ’68. There was smaller stuff like the orangutan being named ‘Maurice’, no doubt after Maurice Evans, the actor who played the orangutan ‘Dr. Zaius’, or Franco’s boss ‘Mr. Jacobs’ – named perhaps for producer Arthur P. Jacobs? Then you have Tom Felton’s character – ‘Dodge Landon’, a reference to the characters Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Landon (Robert Gunner), Heston’s fellow astronauts in the original Planet of the Apes. And most obvious of them is Caesar’s mother being named ‘Bright Eyes’ by the doctors, just as Zira calls Heston.

Aside from all the name play, they also pulled in perhaps the most well-known line ever spoken by Charlton Heston:

riseoftheplanetoftheapesukNow the second thing I wanted to talk about is something that I absolutely loved, and it’s spawned by the nods to the original. This marks perhaps the cheesiest part of the movie, HOWEVER, it set up something more, and you don’t see much today. It’s something you might not notice on DVD – total control of the crowd. In one instance they delivered maybe the cheesiest line in the movie, and then as the whole theater was laughing we are hit right away with an event that silenced half the crowd, and had the other half verbally gasp. It was awesome, it was a moment of mass realization where you’re one of a few hundred people in a room, and for just a second everyone is in awe. It’s like in Fight Club when Norton goes through the plane tickets and the light bulb clicks on in everyone’s head. I don’t want to ruin it, but if you see this in the theater, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It was obviously done on purpose and I loved it. It reminded me why I love the going to the theater despite the cell phones and talking teenagers.

They took one of the most iconic movies ever made and delivered a prequel that actually enhanced the story, rather than giving us a Phantom Menace and ruining it…

This movie delivered for me on every level, and if I had one complaint it’d be that over the course of the 8 years within the movie, no human characters appear to age, but I can look past that. I found this movie entertaining and well worth the price of admission. In fact, outside members of the SFPD, I don’t know who wouldn’t like this. You could argue that some of the cast was underused, but I liked that it focused on the apes instead, and it was an interesting parallel to the original, with Caesar experiencing a lot of what Taylor did.

I’m giving it 4/5 APES.  


Dark Knight Rises: First Pictures of Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman and Marion Cotillard!

We’ve already seen Bane, and the new Superman, so it’s only fair we finally got a look at our new Catwoman…


And Marion Cotillard as ‘Miranda Tate’ or who we believe to actually be ‘Talia al Ghul‘.


For more on Batman and The Dark Knight Rises – Click Here!

Superman Revealed: Henry Cavill In The Cape

Well it’s about damned time we finally get to see what our latest Man of Steel will look like when he debuts in the next Superman movie also titled the Man of Steel. I was wondering how Cavill would look in it or which direction they were going with the suit. I wasn’t worried about Cavill looking lame, but the suit was my main concern and it looks completely fine in the picture. Behold! And all hail IGN for the image! Not only does the suit look excellent, this picture looks extremely bad ass! I’m anticipating the hell out of this movie right about now with the cast they have lined up so they can release a trailer ASAP. Actually that’s not very realistic based on their anticipated release date of 2013. Not much is known about the plot other than Zod being in the movie as the villain, so hopefully with this picture out more is revealed soon! Let your voice be heard down below if you love or hate Supes new look! (Or lack there of!)

Friday Night Lights the TV show…the Movie…? Sure Why Not

Looks like we just cannot let you go Coach Taylor.

Several outlets, including IGN, EW.com, and E! Online are reporting that Peter Berg, director of the first Friday Night Lights movie and Executive Producer of the awesome just ended series is moving forward with a movie. While promoting his new series Prime Suspect, Berg says in regards to the FNL flick to E!Online, “We’re writing a script. We’ve been meeting with Jason Katims, the last couple of weeks. We have a real good script idea. We want to do it. We’re very serious about doing it and we intend to do it.” Jason Katims in case you forgot, was the showrunner of Friday Night Lights during it’s five season run on the peacock. More quotes? Okay, here Katims elaborating to EW.com, “It is something that we had talked about for a couple of years, almost in a half-kidding way. And then a few months ago, (exec producter) Brian Grazer and Pete called me saying they really wanted to do this. We had some meetings and we came up with a direction that we really loved. The trick was to figure out a way to both honor the series and not move away from that, but still find something that would be a satisfying movie in and of itself. It’s still very early — I’m just beginning to plot out the story for the script — but it’s something that we’re all excited about.”

Continue reading Friday Night Lights the TV show…the Movie…? Sure Why Not

More Helpings of ‘True Blood’ – HBO Signs on for Season Five

True Blood fans, rejoice!  Creator Alan Ball has announced that the hit HBO series will continue for a fifth season under his own executive producer-ship.  Rumor has it that HBO has signed the series on for more than one continuing season, Alan Ball only agreeing to be at the helm for one more (though he may decide to continue his run).

Continue reading More Helpings of ‘True Blood’ – HBO Signs on for Season Five

Marvel Comics Review: The Punisher #1

I have four words to say after reading this comic book: Thank you Mr. Rucka. The fresh start (and another #1 from Marvel) for Frank Castle has been one of my favorites from Marvel so far. Daredevil was great and Moon Knight is right behind but after all of the garbage that The Punisher character has been through this issue was nothing but win all the way through.

Frank Castle was like a ghost in this issue, lurking in the shadows before he would strike and when he did it was fast, bloody and brutal. This is the best Punisher since the MAX series by Garth Ennis, but it’s a step below it in regards to violence and swearing. I don’t mind the swearing being gone and the violence is only one notch down. They aren’t shy with it. I can’t believe I’m saying this but he almost reminded me of Spawn in this issue the way he showed up a couple times, took out some scum and departed.

Obviously I don’t want to see the whole series be about the detective in this story, Walter Bolt, while Castle is just some force of nature lurking in the shadows. I honestly can’t remember where Castle’s story left off because the character took a downward spiral after Civil War and was in the toilet with the abomination that was Franken Castle.

So now I’m hoping to see what Frank Castle has been up to since Franken Castle and what his relationship with Detective Bolt is. I give the issue a five out of five bears.

The art, story and return of Frank Castle was truly epic. It may seem like a quick reed because of this dialogue free opening and the last part that recollects events through a police report but the whole thing just flowed seamlessly. Excellent work by Greg Rucka and the artist Marco Checchetto in bringing the Punisher back to respectability. This $3.99 comic is worth every penny and there will be a new one out in two weeks! I can’t wait!