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Dom Robinson reviews
Special Edition 
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 22080 DVD
- Running time: 119 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 2, 4, PAL
- Chapters: 36 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: 14 languages
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Enhanced viewing mode, 6 documentaries, 5 extended scenes, HBO special, Multi-angle scene studies, Music video, Concept art gallery, Posters and Press Kit, Music Promo, Cast and Crew profiles, Two Audio commentaries (composer and director), DVD-ROM features
Director:
- Tim Burton
(Batman, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Planet of the Apes, Sleep Hollow)
Producer:
- Richard D. Zanuck
Screenplay:
- William Broyles Jr, Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
Music:
- Danny Elfman
Cast:
- Captain Leo Davidson: Mark Wahlberg
General Thade: Tim Roth
Ari: Helena Bonham Carter
Colonel Attar: Michael Clarke Duncan
Limbo: Paul Giarnatti
Daena: Estella Warren
Krull: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Senator Sandar: David Warner
Karubi: Kris Kristofferson
Nova: Lisa Marie
Woman in cart: Linda Harrison
Zaius (Thade’s father): Charlton Heston
The first thing to notice about the DVD release of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes update/remake is that there are THIRTEEN HOURS of extras, since film-makers are starting to think about the forthcoming DVD releases when making the actual movie itself. But about that movie…
First up, I never did see the original release with Charlton Heston as the astronaut who crash-lands on an alien planet, only for it to turn out to be Earth after all. Anyone who hasn’t seen that one will still know about its ending, even if it’s in the stage musical with Troy McClure in The Simpsons.
Why would such a babe hang out with Bud Bundy… The usually-reliable Mark Wahlberg, since his time in the excellent Boogie Nights, just seems to sleepwalk through this picture as genetic monkey expert-cum-astronaut Captain Leo Davidson, scowling as he goes and telling gorgeous captive Daena (model Estella Warren) that he wants to return to the US Air Force when she asks him which tribe he comes from.
Of the primate cast, Tim Roth is very watchable as the chief baddie and back-stabbing General Thade, while Helena Bonham Carter as human-rights campaigner Ari – thus turning elements of our life on their head – gets a fair bit of dialogue but is still rather limp in the acting stakes. Roth’s make-up is first rate while Helena’s makes her seem less hairy than usual and looking more like Michael Jackson after yet more surgery. The costumes on some of those further down the class ladder aren’t half as realistic though.
There’s always time for totty. So, why re-make Planet of the Apes at all, given that it’s just a bog-standard road movie as Wahlberg and co. try to get from A to B when attempting to escape? Because they can.
Give a project a big-name director, a big budget and a big-name cast, including two of the original line-up in cameo roles (Linda Harrison as “Woman in cart” and Charlton Heston as Zaius, Thade’s father) and you’ll take the horse to water AND make them drink, but it’s like hoping for fresh, cold spring water and getting dull, luke-warm of the tap variety in return. You’ll make do with it for a time but won’t go back to it and will always choose something better in its place next time round.
It’s so predictable, pointless and, most of all, boring.
Ape attack. Like the original films this too was shot at a cinematic ratio of 2.35:1 and is presented in the same way here. It looks nothing short of excellent. It’s not a film that revels in being exceedingly colourful, often going for a dark and medieval look in the jungle. No complaints whatsoever with this anamorphic widescreen picture.
Similarly, the sound is fine too. However, the speakers aren’t tested all the time – though Wahlberg’s crash-landing is well worth a run on anyone’s system – and the atmosphere is created out of Danny Elfman‘s rather predictable score. Since most of the extras are on disc 2, this leaves plenty of room on the first one for both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. I listened to the latter.
Mr. Orange – back from the dead. The extras are as follows:
- Enhanced viewing mode: On the first disc, these are picture-in-picture vingettes on various filmmaking topics presented in conjunction with the film.
- The Making of The Apes: Six featurettes plus screentests, totalling almost two hours of footage, containing plenty of behind-the-scenes material, different types of screentests, recording the score and on-location B-roll footage.
- Multi-angle scene studies: Four scenes from the film (Limbo’s Quadrangle, Sandar’s House, Escape from Ape City, In the Forest) shown as B-roll footage from the point of view of the film-makers. Between these four, there are eight separate multi-angle moments which show three screens of action and can be viewed singularly or all at once. Production Art, the script and the scene as it appears in the film can also be viewed.
- Deleted scenes (5 mins): Five scenes, at around a minute apiece, all in non-anamorphic 2.35:1 and time-coded. The quality isn’t that hot, but I’m surprised there isn’t more to them.
- HBO Special: A 27-minute “making of” piece shown on TV.
- Music Video: Paul Oakenfold’s “Rule the Planet” remix.
- Trailers and TV Spots: Two 1.85:1 theatrical trailers for the film (60 seconds and 2½ minutes, six TV spots and promo trailers for the original “Apes” collection, Moulin Rouge and Dr Dolittle 2.
- Posters and Press Kit material
- Cast and Crew profiles
- Music Promo: A 30-second advert for the soundtrack album.
- Concept Art Gallery: More pictures than you can shake a stick at taking in major scenes and the props as well as storyboards.
- DVD-ROM features: Put it in your PC’s DVD-ROM drive for features such as a screenplay-to-film comparison and a look at Leo’s log book.
- 2 Audio Commentaries: One from director Tim Burton and one from composer Danny Elfman, both of them on disc one, obviously.
The film has a great 36 chapters to the 2hr running time and subtitles come in 14 flavours: English for the hearing-impaired, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish.
The menus are mostly animated with sound and have great screenwipes inbetween that are in keeping with the theme of the film.
Full marks to Fox for keeping the price low on this. Such a boxset would normally be £24.99 if not a bit higher for the amount of supplemental material. Perhaps this marks a new trend?
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.