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Directed by |
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Specs |
- Widescreen 2.35:1
- 16:9 Enhanced
- Dual Layer (RSDL )
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Languages |
- English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
- English: DTS 5.1 Surround
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Subtitles |
English, Hebrew, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish, Icelandic, Croatian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish |
Extras |
- Deleted scenes
- 5 Theatrical trailer - (Doctor Dolittle 2, Moulin Rouge, The Apes Saga)
- 2 Audio commentary - Director Tim Burton; Composer Danny Elfman
- Cast/crew biographies
- 8 Featurette
- Production notes
- Photo gallery
- Animated menus
- Music video
- 6 TV spot
- DVD-ROM features
- Multiple angle
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Planet of the Apes: SE (2001) |
20th Century Fox/20th Century Fox .
R4 . COLOR . 115 mins .
M15+ . PAL |
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When Tim Burton finally signed on to direct the remake of 1968 classic Planet of the Apes, his fanbase probably breathed a sigh of relief and anticipation that the project had fallen into the hands of someone with vision and substance. Batman, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and one of my personal faves – Mars Attacks! - certainly weren’t typical Hollywood quick-buck, no-brainer film making. With the unique look and success of Sleepy Hollow still fresh in minds, you’d have thought that PotA was going to be a dead cert critical and box office winner. So what went wrong? To start with, in an effort to deflect bad press and try to throw off inevitable comparisons, Burton tagged his version a “re-imagining” rather than a straight remake. Being the cynical bastard I am, I ignored this and took the film for what it really was, which was undoubtedly a remake. I wasn’t the only one who saw things this way. If you’d seen both versions, the unanimous vote was in favour of the original. If you’d only seen Burton’s vision, then you’d most likely have given his a thumbs up for style, but a big thumbs down for story and execution. Still, when sci-fi is thin on the ground and the cinemas are full of endless Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe Oscar Winning Performances©, even a so-so film about tyrannical apes can be moderately entertaining for a change and a welcome diversion from reality. For the three people in the world who are unaware of what the film is about, the remake is changed only trivially from the original, and has Mark Wahlberg (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch) as the trainer of an intelligent chimp aboard a space station. When scientists discover an anomaly in space, the chimp is sent out in a small spacecraft to examine it and soon disappears off their screens. Marky Mark, defying orders, goes out after his chimp and is thrown into the future, crash landing on a nearby planet. Imagine then his shock when he discovers that on this planet, humans are slaves and the planet is ruled by... CHICKENS! Okay, I’m kidding. Of course it’s ruled by apes. I bet you didn’t see that twist coming... Captured by the apes, Marky’s not happy with his predicament, and makes a break for where he believes his crew will rescue him, with a band of humans and ape sympathisers in tow. From here, the rest of the film appears to be about Mark’s attempts to free the humans, maybe get jiggy with a female ape and hopefully escape the planet. Don’t be fooled though, it’s really just a big lecture about humans and their politics and what’s wrong today (Burton basically admits this in his commentary). This is Tim Burton trying to prove he can have a Big Message in his movies while still being quirky enough to have Tim Roth play a psychotic monkey general. Nothing new here, when this is exactly what he did with Edward Scissorhands (without the psychotic monkey general obviously, he used a guy with shears for hands instead. Same difference, really. And am I the only one who think Edward Scissorhands is really a film about Burton’s adolescent masturbation guilt?) The New Ending, Or, What the F**k’s Going On Here? (no spoilers, I promise.)
On a final critical note, but one which needs to be said (me being the opinionated idiot that I am), Burton’s choice for an ending left a final sour taste in my mouth which I had problems getting past. The ending to the original Planet of the Apes is probably one of the greatest and most recalled in cinematic history (and works without having to watch the sequels), whereas the ending to Tim Burton’s version doesn’t make any sense at all within the confines of his film. Not a single person I’ve spoken to can explain it, and even Tim Burton seems a little embarrassed by it in his commentary. He hints that it is designed to make sense only when the sequels are made and slyly tries to shift the blame for this towards the studio heads. The problem is that if there aren’t any sequels - which is a real possibility - we could be stuck with an ending that looks cool, but is completely ignorant of the preceding two hours. Cool looking monkeys or not, that’s just not good film making.
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Enough of the bad things already, let’s take a look at what you’re really interested in. When you have lots of shots of wide barren landscapes, an ape versus human battle and a bit of outer space in your movies, only a 2.35:1 aspect ratio will do for that epic “Ben Hur with monkeys” look. Then, with the wizardry of DVD technology, you naturally have to have it all 16:9 enhanced for those groovy widescreen televisions. So, with these initial checkboxes present and accounted for, this DVD is off to a good start and things look mighty promising. Then you hope that the transfer for such a recent big budget blockbuster is up to the job of drawing you in to the sumptuous world of Tim Burton's imagination. So, taking a deep breath, you press PLAY and... exhale happily when you see how good the picture looks. From the opening space shots with the rich inky black, the wonderful ape costumes and superb makeup applications to the ape actors which look stunning, the level of detail shown here is fantastic. The many set pieces, each very different from each other come up a treat with impressive clarity that retains its film like looks without appearing overly artificial. From start to finish, the picture exhibits great colour, abundant fine detail, and shadows which never get bogged down with the many dark scenes and sets. Say what you will about Burton’s hatchet job on the story, but this DVD shows he really knows how to create a wonderful world for his vision, and this DVD is the perfect showcase for it.
Audio |
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Plenty of you will buy this DVD simply in anticipation of the spectacle it will present in the multi-channel home cinema environment. Even an average movie can be given a new lease of life on DVD, as people can forgive a few story flaws as long as it serves up the goods aurally. With that in mind, you’ll die smiling knowing that this is yet another Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS release which can supply the audio impact when needed. Planet of the Apes presents plenty of opportunities for your gear to utilise these formats, moving sound around your room with dynamic effects in the opening setups out in space as they enter the magnetic storm, the battle against the apes create a nice soundfield and even some of the more mundane ape city sets and quieter slow sections in the middle pleasing your ears. Throughout the film the audio is served up clearly, enabling even the heavily madeup ape actors to be as distinct as the normal humans characters, something which really helps you to suspend disbelief. It’s this quality to the audio (and the video as well) which makes the failure of the film even more frustrating to me, because the transfer side of this DVD is just so bloody good.
Extras |
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Overall |
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I look at this film in two ways: 1. It’s another slice of big budget science fiction, which is something we just don’t get enough of these days, so I like it in that respect and can forgive some of the slip ups. OR 2. As a film, Tim Burton pretty much dropped the ball on this one because he focused way too much on getting the apes looking just right and trying to be preachy, but not enough on casting a hero who could act and writing a story that was entertaining, or indeed featured an ending which made sense. This DVD, however, I just can’t fault. It just does everything right. With a great looking picture, fantastic sound and an absolute bucketload of extras, it’s one of the best quality and value for money releases available.
LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1386
Send to a friend.
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And I quote... |
"...a great looking picture, fantastic sound and an absolute bucketload of extras, it’s one of the best quality and value for money releases available" - Vince Carrozza |
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Review Equipment |
- DVD Player:
Sony DVP-525
- Receiver:
Sony STR-DB1070
- Speakers:
Wharfedale s500
- Centre Speaker:
Polk Audio CS245
- Surrounds:
Wharfedale s500
- Subwoofer:
DB Dynamics TITAN
- Audio Cables:
Standard Optical
- Video Cables:
standard s-video
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