As Good As It Gets

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

I am going back and revisiting the Apes films from the original series. I had only seen the first three before and so this is the first time I am seeing it and WOW. 'Conquest' is a violent shift in tone. The 'Apes' films were always sort of political but this one is on a whole other level. The story finds Caesar, son of Zira and Cornellius, grown to manhood in a dystopian future where apes are used as slaves. Over the course of the film he is constantly abused and goes mad and leads an ape revolution. This is a dark and angry film and it's hard to believe Fox didn't get scared and cut the thing even more so than it is (the ending is butchered in the editing room). Its hard not to infer Marxist metaphor in the story of Caesar's revolution and his hatred of slavery. Does it work? Yes and no. Roddy McDowell gets a far more juicier role to the play. He's great. The movie isn't fun though. There's no sense of humor or camp value to anything. It just gets kind of depressing seeing men in ape costumes endure abuse. I suppose it achieves everything it sets out to do but camp fun and self aware humor is what made this series. The original is a very funny and biting satire despite it's political undertones. This one is 100% earnest.

20 years after the events of "Escape from the Planet of the Apes", circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban) is trying to help Caesar (Roddy McDowall), the offspring of the late Cornelius and Zira, attain freedom, knowing full well that his power of speech will mark him as dangerous to the future of man. Of course, things naturally go from bad to worse in a hurry. The story shows how in the year 1983, all cats and dogs died off, and apes replaced them as family pets. But the apes evolved and grew a great deal in eight years, and mans' inhumanity to his fellow creatures has turned many apes into mistreated slaves. Ultimately, Caesar will lead a revolt."Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" is a typically interesting entry in this generally well regarded series. Some people will inevitably be turned off by the grisly violence (which is even more pronounced in the unrated version), but those with stronger stomachs will find this to be a rousing and potent entertainment. It's not exactly subtle about its themes, and messages, but it proves to be utterly compelling just the same. One can't help but side with the apes, and despise human villains such as hard-driving, ape-hating Governor Breck (Don Murray) and his flunky Kolp (Severn Darden). It's very well paced, clocking in at a reasonable 87 minutes (88 minutes in unrated form), and has some well staged action. It gets off to quite an energetic start, and offers little in the way of let-up. The viewer easily sides with the apes, and enthusiastically cheers them on. It may be uncomfortable to witness their ultimate blood lust, but it's still understandable.McDowall is great as usual. His final monologue is pretty powerful. Murray is rather over the top, but is also amusing with the way that he over enunciates words at times. Montalban is so wonderful that you miss the character once he's written out of the story. Hari Rhodes is excellent as a man named MacDonald, who more than anybody understands where the apes are coming from. Familiar faces in small roles include John Randolph, John Dennis, and Gordon Jump. Supporting player Lou Wagner was a series veteran; Buck Kartalian had also appeared in the classic original film.Very well directed by J. Lee Thompson, this is solid entertainment that offers a scathing indictment of human ignorance, bigotry, and fear.Eight out of 10.

The problem with these Planet of the Apes sequels seems to be that they get too ambitious or hasty with their stories. In the third film it worked because of great actors and because it actually flowed well with the original film. In this case the story flows well with the original, but not at all with the previous two.What do I mean by that? Well, the events of the second film paved the way for the third film which was supposed to work as a prequel to the original, in its own way. And thus this film is trying to bridge the gap between the third and the original. Explain how the planet of the apes came to be. The only problem is that it insists on using the characters from the third film, and that simply doesn't work timeline-wise. The world has changed a lot between the two movies and not in a realistic manner. It like a magician snapped his fingers and suddenly the world was abruptly changed in the blink of an eye.Not helping the matters is that the film doesn't quite have the scope, the talent or the budget to pull of the story it wants to tell. It has a big climax, but you don't buy it as well as you should.Still, the characters are nice, especially Caesar, played by Roddy McDowall, who also played Caesar's father Cornelius in two of the previous films. It's shame that they couldn't work Kim Hunter back in some way, but McDowall is nice as well.Still, if you've liked the films so far, I don't think you should stop at this point. It's nowhere near as good as the original, or even the third one, but it's worth watching in order to get the full experience.

When I saw this for the first time in the 1980's I was really excited by the style of the film. The art direction gave a really good feel for a totalitarian regime in the future and it had a very clinically sterile look about it which emphasizes the authoritarian '1984' environment the film attempts to depict.The storyline is simple enough. The apes are being used as slaves in a fascist culture which is allegory for Orwell's warning in the novel 1984, also a film. The ape central to the story is educated and can speak. He emerges as the great hope for his species to emerge from slavery. Revolution ensues as the slaves attempt to overthrow their masters.There's nothing complicated about this movie and was the second best of the five films with the original starring Charlton Heston obviously the best.