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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57207 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Billed as a "re-imagining" of the original 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 honourable 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 make-up (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

Synopsis
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 make for a riveting viewing experience.

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Customer Reviews

COMPLETE PANTS
If he was dead, Charlton Heston would turn in his grave.

My hopes were high, the film was woefully disappointing. The effects were okay but the story was poor, as was a very wooden Mark Wahlberg (who i normally rate highly).

IF YOU WANT TO SEE APES, GO TO A ZOO.

Where did the horses come from?
When I heard that Tim Burton was re working this 60s classic based on Pierre Boeull's seminal ecological satire,I could have jumped for joy. When I saw the trailer, I nearly had a canary...of excitement.But then it occured to me that the 1968 original was pretty amazing. The ape make up may have been equivalent to an average fancy dress monkey suit but that wasn't the point.
This film is seen as a homage to the original, even ol' Charlton was shoehorned in somewhere as was Nova his tasty friend. They even decamped to Arizona where the original crashlanding happened. Michael Clarke Duncan is suitably impressive as Attar and Tim Roth exudes evil as the human hating General Thade. Somewhere in the mix it all becomes a bit of a damp squib. You can't fault the obvious effort that went into it, the actors even attended ape school!
The story goes thus....
Captain Leo Davidson(Mark Wahlberg) is an astronaut who follows his test pilot monkey Pericles into an Electric Storm that distorts time and space. He leaves a ship of humans and Monkeys and is propelled into the future 3,000 years to a world of...Humans and monkeys. The apes are now the leaders with humans herded and treated like farmyard animals. Davidson organises a band of resistance which include trusty Kris Kristofferson, Emilia Warren and Helena Bonham Carter as Human sympathising Ape. Davidson follows his homing beacon which tell him that his rescue party has already arrived. the signal gets stronger as they approach the old religious ruin of CALIMA, home of the mighty Simos, the father of the apes.
The film on occasion is excellent such as when Charlton Heston, this time cast as Thade's dying father,tells Thade to smash an ancient urn which dates from the"time before time" This urn contains a rusty old space gun very similar indeed to Leo Davison's own. This mind blowing twist is a great send up of Organised Religion and the effect of thousands of years of Chinese Whispers.
The ruins of CALIMA seem vaguely familiar to Davidson and a Braveheart scale battle ensues at the end with our resistance heroes and the Ape army. Then this mighty battle is trivialised when Pericles arrives out of time and space with a big thumbs up!
Ape and man now friends Anyway this is an average film based on a classic film based on one of the greatest satires ever written by the greatest director on this planet. A pity it all misfired somewhere.