The original Planet of the Apes is that rarity of the genre: a science fiction film that has dated not one bit: its intelligent script, frightening costuming, and savagely effective conclusion (which needs no big-budget special effects to augment its impact) remain both potent and relevant. When Colonel George Taylor (the fabulous Charlton Heston) crash lands his spacecraft on what seems to be an unfamiliar planet, he is captured and held prisoner by a dominant race of rational, articulate apes. However, the ape community is riven with internal dissension, centred in no small part on its policy toward humans, who, on this planet, are treated as mindless animals. Befriended and ultimately assisted by the more liberal simians, Taylor escapes--only to find a more terrifying obstacle confronting his return home. Heavy-handed object lessons abound--the ubiquity of generational warfare, the inflexibility of dogma, the cruelty of prejudice--and the didactic finger prints of The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling are very much in evidence here. But director Franklin Schaffner has a dark, pop-apocalyptic sci-fi vision all of his own, helped along by Jerry Goldsmith's terrifyingly avant-garde score. And time has not dulled the monumental emotional imp act of the film's climactic payoff shot. --Miles Bethany, Amazon.com
This fourth film in the ""Planet of the Apes"" series picks up the action a few years after ""Escape from the Planet of the Apes"" left off. At the end of the third movie the ape Cornelius and his wife Zira were murdered by humans when they traveled back in time. However their son Caesar remained behind with kind-hearted circus owner Armando who kept the ape's existence a secret. ""Conquest of the Planet of the Apes"" opens in 1991 after an epidemic has wiped out the dog population
Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist... Winner of an Honorary Academy Award for Outstanding Make-up Achievement and nominated for two Oscars (1968 Best Costume Design and Best Original Score) Planet of the Apes is grand entertainment from its visually arresting beginning to the chilli
This collectible DVD set is out of this world! This intergalactic family saga is a one-of-a-kind sci-fi classic that earned an enormous following of devoted fans. Created by legendary film producer Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure Towering Inferno) and set in the space age ""future"" of 1997 this exciting adventure series followed a typical American family their trusty robot and a stowaway villain named Dr. Zachary Smith. In the year 1997 Earth is suffering from massive overpop
A genuine genre classic whose impact remains undimmed either by time, increasingly dire sequels, or Tim Burton's lacklustre 2001 "reimagining", the original Planet of the Apes richly deserves this 35th Anniversary special edition. Here you'll find a glorious anamorphic presentation of Franklin J Schaffner's painterly CinemaScope framing, accompanied by a new DTS 5.1 soundtrack that makes the movie seem even more vibrant and immediate than ever before. On disc one the film is accompanied by two audio commentaries: one from composer Jerry Goldsmith, and another with Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Natalie Trundy and make-up artist John Chambers. These are reasonably interesting, though with a few too many gaps. Better is Eric Greene's exhaustive text commentary. Better still are the features on the second disc. Disc two contains the exhaustive two-hour Behind the Planet of the Apes documentary (also to be found in the six-disc box set) as well as a host of other behind-the-scenes nuggets for die-hard fans: dailies and outtakes, make-up tests and Roddy McDowall's home movies. There's some overlap between a 1967 NATO presentation of the movie hosted by Charlton Heston and other featurettes from 1968 and 1972. Sequel directors Don Taylor and J Lee Thompson are seen in action, and there are trailers, film reviews from 1968 and picture galleries. --Mark Walker
There's a new teacha in da hood! Jon Lovitz and Tia Carrere are dedicated educators facing some dangerously strange minds in this outrageous comedy from the creators of The Naked Gun! With wicked aim High School High skewers feel-good movies like Dangerous Minds and Stand And Deliver to create a wild new brand of urban comedy that's laced with slapstick and the hilarious spoofs of True Lies and The De
The bizarre world you met in 'Planet of the Apes' was only the beginning... What lies beneath may be the end! The second installment in the Planet Of The Apes series. Here an earthling sent to find the astronauts of the original film discovers not only a world of intelligent talking apes but an underground cult of grotesque ""humans"" who are the survivors of a nuclear blast years ago. Unfortunately these mutants worship a nuclear bomb a weapon which not only is the
The American Wild West provides a rugged backdrop for this hilarious story of one community's struggle to keep its land and with it a quiet simple life. A comic tribute to all those classic westerns where a mysterious stranger arrives to save the day the tale is rich with intrigue and ripe with passion. Capturing the strength of the pioneer spirit the story takes us to the frontiers of insanity with some of the most dim-witted characters imaginable. The citizens of Marble Hat Co
""Danger Will Robinson! Danger!"" In the year 1997 Earth is suffering from massive overpopulation. Professor John Robinson his wife Maureen their children (Judy Penny and Will) and Major Don West are selected to go to the third planet in the Alpha Centauri star system to establish a colony so that other Earth people can settle there. However Doctor Zachary Smith an agent for an enemy government is sent to sabotage the mission. He is successful in reprogramming the ship's robot
Set in 1910 this Brazilian drama tells of a young man who begins to question an age-old family feud over the ownership of his family's land, a feud that has already cost his brother his life.
A century is a long time to wait for your dreams to come true. In this whimsical thought-provoking fantasy Vincent Van Gogh returns to life in modern day Los Angeles a century after his death. Having sold only one painting in his lifetime Vincent is awestruck to learn that he is now considered one of the world's greatest artists and that his paintings command millions. But no one believes that he's Vincent Van Gogh least of all his own lawyer the media and a skeptical art detective who is out to prove that he's an imposter. He devises a plan to give the proceeds from his masterworks to struggling young artists -- however the only way he can profit from his own work is to steal it back from the greedy and rich collectors who hoard it. Vincent soon falls in love with a talented art students who inspires him to paint new masterpieces in this award-winning film about art love and second chances.
The Cult Action Extravaganza three-disc set offers three very different movies that have nothing in common bar residency in Siren's film archive. They are: The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and Get Christie Love! (1974). The Most Dangerous Game is a classic, one of the first talkies to get pictures moving after five very static years following the birth of sound. The plot finds resourceful hero Joel McCrea and heroine Fay Wray being hunted on the island of the insane Zaroff (Leslie Banks). One of the grandfathers of the summer blockbuster, the film's setup has been reworked many times since, notably in John Woo's Hard Target (1993). By modern standards it's technically primitive, though still gripping stuff, complete with the jungle set built as a test run for King Kong (1933) and graced by Max Steiner's prototype of all Hollywood action scores. Beneath the 12-Mile Reef is another landmark or rather watermark. The third-ever CinemaScope production, this was a prestige release with Technicolor location filming at Key West, Florida of never-before-achieved underwater cinematography and four-channel stereo recording of a superlative Bernard Herrmann score. Even a still-impressive underwater battle with an octopus pre-dates the more famous giant squid of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The humans aren't bad either, with a young Robert Wagner making a charismatic if ethnically unconvincing Greek lead as sponge fisherman Tony and Terry Moore playing Juliet to his Romeo with real vivacity. Starring Theresa Graves, Get Christie Love! is a tame TV movie imitation of early 1970s female blaxploitation films such Pam Grier's Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Running a standard TVM 73 minutes and with a low budget and content sanitised to US network standards, this is lightweight stuff about an undercover cop determined to smash a drugs ring. Nevertheless the movie was popular enough to spawn a short-lived TV show and is significant for being the first time a black woman took the title role in any American network production. Tarantino completists may be interested, as before he paid homage to Christie Love in the dialogue of Reservoir Dogs (1991). On the DVD: Cult Action Extravaganza presents the films in their original aspect ratio and sound format; The Most Dangerous Game and Get Christie Love! are 4:3, mono. The former is faded b/w with reasonably sturdy sound, though the transfer suffers from compression artefacting. No one would expect great quality from a 1974 TV movie, but Get Christie Love! suffers from both a poor print and a mediocre DVD transfer. Beneath the 12-Mile Reef is presented in the extra wide 2.55:1 of early CinemaScope and though sadly not anamorphic both the seascapes and underwater cinematography are still impressive. The four-channel stereo sound is revelatory, clear, detailed and years ahead of what we have come to expect early 1950s films to sound like. --Gary S Dalkin
Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall star in this legendary science fiction masterpiece. Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist. Winner of an Honorary Academy Award for Outstanding Make-up Achievement and nominated for two Oscars (1968 Best Costume Design and Best Original Score) Planet of th
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