Escape From the Planet of the Apes

Starring:Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman, Natalie Trundy, Eric Braeden, William Windom, Sal Mineo, Albert Salmi, Jason Evers, John Randolph, Harry Lauter, M. Emmet Walsh, Roy Glenn, Peter Forster, Norman Burton, William Woodson, Tom Lowell, Gene Whittington, Donald Elson, Bill Bonds
Director: Don Taylor
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Planet of the Apes - The Legacy Collection (Planet of the Apes [1968] / Beneath the / Escape from the / Conquest of the / Battle for the)

Average customer rating:

Hard to rate a mixed bag, but these films are fun nevertheless
The Greatest SC-FI Saga Before Star Wars
An amazing collection at an even better price!
All the movies plus a bonus
Great Concepts, Great Characters, Classic Moments, Chilling Possibilities

Planet of the Apes - The Legacy Collection (Planet of the Apes [1968] / Beneath the / Escape from the / Conquest of the / Battle for the)
Starring: Roddy McDowall , Kim Hunter , Bradford Dillman , Natalie Trundy , and Eric Braeden
Director: Don Taylor , Ted Post , and J. Lee Thompson
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series
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ASIN: B000E6ESEY
Release Date: 2006-03-28

Description

Disk 1: *Planet of the Apes ('68)

Disk 2: *Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Disk 3: *Conquest for the Planet of the Apes

Disk 4: *Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Disk 5: *Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Disk 6: *Behind the Planet of the Apes (bonus disc) *Documentary ?Behind the Planet of the Apes? *Planet of the Apes trailer *Beneath the Planet of the Apes trailer *Escape from the Planet of the Apes trailer *Conquest of the Planet of the Apes trailer *Battle for the Planet of the Apes trailer *Planet of the Apes Cross Promotion trailer *TV Spot for Behind the Planet of the Apes *Fox Interactive Presents: Behind the Scenes of the Planet of the Apes game

Customer Reviews:

Hard to rate a mixed bag, but these films are fun nevertheless.......2007-06-07

Like the Airport Terminal Pack (Airport/Airport '75/Airport '77/Airport '79 - The Concord) the "Planet of the Apes" film series widely ranges in quality. ALL of them are fun enough to watch, however, the last two are extremely campy and very poorly made.

Back in the day when producers made sequels, prior to the VCR/DVD era, the films consistently earned less money with each sequel; therefore, less money was spent on each sequel as the expected turnout and revenues would be less. That is not the case today with the VCR/DVD generation wherein if people missed a film in the theaters, they could rent or purchase it later. This meant a larger audience for a film as it would have, in a sense, multiple releases: first would be the actual theater release, then the plain first edition on VCR/DVD within about six months, then followed by a "special edition" the next year, and then a "director's cut", and "special extended version" followed, and so on. This allows for a film to get a larger following; therefore, sequels and prequels have become big business. This means producers put more money into these films now than they did before to pull in not only the established fans of the film series, but also new fans who may have just caught up with the series by renting or purchasing the prior films.

With that having been said it should be no surprise at all that these films range widely in quality and effort as they were before the VCR/DVD era. Below are my ratings for each film and in the correct order of their release (the disk order is NOT correct in the package):

***** Planet of the Apes: An absolute classic sci-fi film with good special effects and set designs (even by today's standards) and solid performances by all, most notably Roddy McDowell who was in all the films and the short-lived TV series, Kim Hunter, and Maurice Evans who had to portray emotions with their voice, eyes and hand gestures moreso than other actors because of the heavy make-up they wear which is outstanding.

*** Beneath the Planet of the Apes: The effects and make-up are still very good and so is the acting, but the storyline is rather bizarre, convoluted, and just doesn't seem to fit with the Apes series real well.

****Escape From the Planet of the Apes: I loved this sequel which reverses the storyline by having the intelligent talking apes back in our present day rather than in their future world. Naturally, this saved the producers lots of money by only having to put make up on only two actors rather than many. The performances are top-notch by McDowell and Hunter who continue their roles from the first two ape films.

Both the "The Conquest of" and final entry "The Battle for the Planet of the Apes" are cinematic disasters for which I give them both **. The make up had been reduced to laughable rubber masks and the special effects consisted of terrible paintings, obvious minatures, and flimsy cardboard sets. Roddy McDowell's performance had become somewhat pedestrian in the title role by these two final films, but his voice and delivery was always pleasant to the ear. These two films do, however, continue the storyline which ends up explaining how Earth eventually became The Planet of the Apes. To me, that's an important part of any sequel and why I gave these films two stars and not one or zero.

The bonus disk on looking over the "Apes" series is hosted by McDowell, who always looked great for his age, and sadly he died shortly thereafter from cancer. This special was done to re-introduce the "Ape" films to a new generation just prior to the release of the Ape films on tape/DVD and the planned release of the remake by Tim Burton (Planet of the Apes (Special Edition) which was surprisingly original and in many ways superior to the original film with Charlten Heston who has a cameo in the remake.

In any event and in spite of the wide ranging quality of these films the entire series is worth owning and the sequels do build on each other and tell a coherent story (not counting the silly second entry into the series even though the third film still builds upon it). I highly recommend this set and the remake by Burton as well.

The Greatest SC-FI Saga Before Star Wars.......2007-04-19

Planet of the Apes is a legendary SC-FI masterpiece, that made film history & was another smash hit for the legendary Charlton Heston and thats not all, it was followed by 4 sequels spanning across time of ape's place on the planet. Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes & Battle for the Planet of the Apes" all 5 classics boxed in one legacy collection to go ape over. The films star Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Linda Harrison, Ricardo Montalban, James Franciscus & Maurice Evans. If you're a SC-FI fan, this is must have collection.

An amazing collection at an even better price!.......2007-03-01

I can't believe you get all of the movies plus a behind-the-scenes documentary, all for only $25.00! The DVD quality is outstanding, and the movies are timeless. You will not be disappointed if you buy this collection.

All the movies plus a bonus.......2007-02-14

The Planet of the Apes movies were some of my favorites during the Vietnam war years; some I liked better than others, but all of them had a political statement (whether you agreed or not). Racism, the Bomb, mankind destroying itself, it was all there.

I was very happy to be able to find this set, not only for the movies, but for the sixth DVD on the background, from Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel, La planète des singes, through the making of the films, to the final movie; the last DVD is extremely informative and interesting.

I highly recommend this set.

Great Concepts, Great Characters, Classic Moments, Chilling Possibilities.......2007-01-28

I rank the original "Planet Of The Apes" series very high among the plentiful output of science fiction movies of their era. Although the special effects are not brilliant by today's standards (compensated for somewhat by the quality designs of what they were trying to capture, even if the execution seems somewhat hampered in retrospect) and the action sequences are occasionnally rather low-impact, the strengths of the series - a great, thought-provoking and memorable story that weaves through all five movies; solid and impressive characters among both human and ape; a nice job on the photography; and mind-blowing endings to most of the movies; make up for any shortcomings.

The endings have become legendary, especially the finale to the first movie (which I'm certainly not going to give away here, in case anyone reading this is among the 22 or so people on the planet who don't yet know it; they even used to have the final shot on the Cover of one of the editions of the boxed set, for crying out loud). The secrets of the conclusions to "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" and "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes", however, aren't nearly as well-known by people who haven't seen the movies yet, which is good, because it gives one a chance to have some of the surprises unhampered by foreknowledge. The end moments of "Escape", in particular, are haunting, the kind of thing that can give one chills just remembering it.

It's hard to talk to much about the latter movies in the saga without giving away far too much. The original, "Planet Of The Apes" has Earth astronauts making an emergency crash-landing on an unknown world, where it turns out that apes, not humans, are the dominant species. Captured, the humans - indigineous to the planet but very primitive, in addition to the more scientifically advanced spacefarers - find themselves imprisoned in wooden cages (rudimentary equivelents to the barren metal cages of old, pre-'simulated natural habitat' zoos?). The apes of the world are diverse - there are some who view the human population as mindless beasts without rights, while others are sympathetic to the humans's plight. There is also considerable friction between the three races of apes - gorillas, orangitans, and chimpanzees (notice quite a few real-world parralells yet?).

The series - which continues through "Beneath...", "Escape...", "Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes" and "Battle For The Planet Of The Apes" (disc 6 in the collection is a behind-the-scenes documentary) has some recurring characters, continues to introduce new ones, introduces new concepts and layers and twists to the concept. By the 4th and 5th entries, the series is admittedly losing some steam, but judged on their own each of those is still a good movie. Great price, too. Any fan of adventure movies, science fiction, or movies that offer volumes of fodder for thought and dream, should consider picking this set of classics up.

Average customer rating:

Cornelius and Xera barely save this from a 1-star review.
Paradox of the Apes
Poor Beginning but a good story nonetheless
The budget got smaller and it shows
Can You Tell Which Are More "Human"?

Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Starring: Roddy McDowall , Kim Hunter , Bradford Dillman , Natalie Trundy , and Eric Braeden
Director: Don Taylor
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000E6ESE4
Release Date: 2006-03-28

Description

Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter reprise their roles from the original Planet of the Apes in this third chapter of the Apes saga. Two intelligent simians from the future, Cornelius (McDowall) and Zire (Hunter) travel to present-day Earth. They become instant sensations, wined and dined and treated like celebrities - until a high-level plot forces them to run for their lives!

Customer Reviews:

Cornelius and Xera barely save this from a 1-star review........2006-11-11

To begin with, the budget on this film is SO LOW it looks like an episode of Barnaby Jones. But that's not the real problem. Much more is the totally unimaginative direction, the nonsensical sci-fi psychobabble, and a neverending procession of cardboard characters. Given its preposterously unbelievable premise, Escape squaeks by with some of the obvious Ape/Human caomparisons, but tht's about it. More or less you watch a bunch of guys in suits for two hours talking over bubblegum metaphysical garbage.

Beneath Planet of the Apes was not exceptionally good either, but at least you were still on the "Planet" and delved further into its mythos. I give that film credit for being so wacky -- but this one is just awful.

Paradox of the Apes.......2006-05-17

Following the cataclysmic finale of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, there was only one logical direction for the series to go---> back to the future. The result is an illogically conceived and satirical prequel that will amuse and delight and ultimately devastate with its bleak Shakesperean tragedy.

When Taylor's spacecraft unexpectedly splashes down in 1973 and is retrieved by a military envoy, the three astronauts that emerge from the capsule are not revealed to be Taylor, Landon and Dodge, but rather the astonishing simian ape-o-nauts Cornelius, Zira and Milo... the third of which is a completely disposeable character who is appropriately killed off very early by a caged zoo gorilla who was probably jealous that the talking simian chimpanzees were getting all of the attention. With Milo out of the picture, the story focuses on the relationship between Cornelius and Zira in ways that were not afforded the opportunity in the two previous films and is filled with tongue-in-cheek episodes inspired by Pierre Boulle's original novel as Cornelius and Zira go around "aping" 20th century human culture (a subtle and clever mockery of our own) in an attempt to make themselves fit in to our society.

While Cornelius and Zira make themselves at home as cultural "celebrities" they are being carefully monitored under the watchful auspices of the nefarious Dr. Otto Hasslein played by recognizable character actor Eric Braeden (of Young and the Restless fame) who listens with great interest to what the talking chimps have to say about where they came from during a Presidential Inquiry and how they managed to arrive in Taylor's spacecraft as Cornelius explains that it landed on their seaboard and was repaired by Milo -- an implausibility which is the film's glaring continuity error since Taylor's spacecraft immediately sunk into the depths of the Forbidden Zone it is a far fetched conclusion that they somehow managed to not only find, retrieve and repair it (even if they had repaired Astronaut Brent's crashed spacecraft from Beneath) with engineering far in advance of their own intellectual ape intelligence (which Milo only "half-understood" as Cornelius describes it) but managed to do so and escape within a very small window of time before the planet was obliterated by the shockwave of destruction catapulting them backwards in time and arriving at roughly the same destination and era as Taylor's original point of departure (it could be argued that these narrative discrepancies support the theory of "Hasslein's Observed Time Curve" which suggests that a predestination paradox created alternate intersecting timelines as illustrated by the incongruent timeline of events that occur between Conquest and Battle). Nevertheless, once you get past the narrative gaps and just go with it, Escape is a fun and dramatically intense film but is my least favorite second only to the weakest link in the evolutionary Apes chain; Battle For The Planet of the Apes.

When Zira announces that she is pregnant, the film takes a dark and conspiratorial turn when the government realizes the consequence a race of intelligent talking apes will have on the future of our human civilization. In an effort to protect their newborn (the ape who would become Caesar), Cornelius and Zira find refuge with Armando, a sideshow circus entertainer played by the extravagant Ricardo Montalban who gladly welcomes the simian family with open arms, but it isn't long before Dr. Hasslein picks up the fugitives' trail and hunts them down in a tragic and inevitable climax that sets up the paradox of the entire Planet of the Apes chronology.

Poor Beginning but a good story nonetheless.......2003-11-10

Once you get past the preposturous and serious flawed opening of the movie, you have a great story (in the first film we saw the damaged ship sink in the water. This film supposes that Cornelious and Zira somehow retrieved the ship and repaired it and were able to fly it back through time. All this was done in the short time from when Brent left their camp in the second film till he reached the mutant camp, which at most was a day). This was probably the best acting for Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter in the series. The movie makes us question the scientific use of animals in research.

The budget got smaller and it shows.......2003-10-27

The third film, "Escape..." was a complete joke. They must have made this on a shoe-string budget because there were no special effects and they probably used the masks from the first two films. The plot was idiotic and I weep at thought of this nonsense.

Can You Tell Which Are More "Human"?.......2003-10-21

This film in 1971, the third episode of Planet Of The Apes series, is very comic at first but it belies the ultimate catastrophe human beings will or will not be avoided in distant future. Previous two films are about 40th century Earth where apes with extraordinary intelligece rule the planet while men there are degraded into slave status despised by apes. It just reminds me of that of humans called "yahoo" similarly despised by horses in "The Gullver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift. Third of the series suddenly bring us back to present world to 1973. It might be the sort of Hollywood ploy we have seen in Jurassic Park II Lost World that made the bio-bred dinosaur to land in American soil.

Three ape scientists escaped from warring 40th century Earth landed somewhere off the American coast captured by the U.S. forces. They were first sent to the zoo but after Zira spoke "Because I loath bananas" they are suddenly welcomed as guests becoming sort of celebrity. The ape couple Zira and Cornelius are really comical and I can't help laughing at their witty remarks such as the ironical usage of "human" and "beastly". But after government committee finds out about gloomy future awaiting us mankind, they orders to have their new-born baby killed. The couple escapes with the aid of their kind animal behaviorist and circus owner who might have devised a remarkable trick we will find out at the end of the film.

Customer Reviews:

Cornelius and Xera barely save this from a 1-star review........2006-11-11

Paradox of the Apes.......2006-05-17

Poor Beginning but a good story nonetheless.......2003-11-10

The budget got smaller and it shows.......2003-10-27

Can You Tell Which Are More "Human"?.......2003-10-21

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