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Reviews
Planet of the Apes (2001)
BATMAN OF THE APES!!!
If you've seen one Tim Burton movie, you've seen them all, and once Mark Wahlberg lands on the monkey planet you know you're in a Tim Burton movie--dark, depressing, and with lots of offbeat humor.
And Tim Burton's PLANET OF THE APES is BATMAN, BEETLEJUICE, and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS all added to the original PLANET OF THE APES to make the latest of the Hollywood remakes, and it's still not as good as the original.
But Mark Wahlberg is sensational as Astronaut Leo Davidson, young enough to make you believe he's fighting for his life, and tough enough to make you think he can win. Estella Warren is as good as advertised as Daena--in the same science fiction sexpot role that Raquel Welch started in ONE MILLION YEARS, B.C., and that Linda Harrison improved upon in the original PLANET OF THE APES. Warren looks even better than her predecessors, can run better, and can actually act.
Unfortunately, this PLANET OF THE APES has no flow, no focus, and none of the sense of isolation that Charlton Heston--who has a terrific cameo in this version!--made you feel in the original--how could one man survive on the Planet of the Apes???
Wahlberg carries the movie, but when you get to the disappointing ending, instead of the feeling of awe at the end of the original, you have a feeling of "I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!"
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Zorro (1957)
Walt Disney's ZORRO!!!--STARRING GUY WILLIAMS!!!
What if an actor was tall, dark, and handsome? And what if the actor had learned to act in bit parts in movies with actors like Tyrone Power, Victor Mature, and Raymond Massey? And what if the actor could handle a sword???
It all adds up to Walt Disney's ZORRO!!!--STARRING GUY WILLIAMS!!! Guy Williams as both Zorro and alter ego Don Diego De La Vega is better than all the actors who played the role before and after him, taller than Tyrone Power, better looking than Douglas Fairbanks, and taller, better looking, and better with a sword than Antonio Banderas!
Walt Disney controlled every aspect of this 1950s black and white tv show--the black and white photography is the show's greatest weakness, and the new colorized versions on the Disney Channel are much better--and the result is an interesting departure from the standard 1950s westerns, with humor, adventure, and terrific sets and casting. Henry Calvin is sensational as Williams' chief foil, Sargent Garcia, and Gene Sheldon is very good as Williams' mute servant Bernardo. But it's Guy Williams, with his beautiful hair, his handsome face, his height, his well proportioned physique, and something about the way he walks, the way he talks, and some strange quality that he had--see Guy in CAPTAIN SINBAD!!!--some ability to convey to his audience, "Everything's going to be all right!!!"--that made Walt Disney's ZORRO the best ZORRO of all!
THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER GUY WILLIAMS!!!
Forbidden Planet (1956)
"It will remind us...after all...that we are not God..."
"It will remind us...after all...that we are not God..." --Leslie Nielsen as Commander J.J. Adams in the final scene of FORBIDDEN PLANET.
WHAT A SCREENPLAY!!! WHAT A SOUNDTRACK!!! WHAT A MOVIE!!! The producers of FORBIDDEN PLANET took Shakespeare's "The Tempest," transported the play to the year 2200 A.D. in outer space, added Freudian Psychology, futuristic music ("electronic tonalities") ray guns, a mad scientist(veteran of over 100 movies Walter Pidgeon), his beautiful daughter(sexy 21 year old blonde with a mole and the rumored model for the Barbie doll Anne Francis), a flying saucer--the C-57-D--a handsome LEADING MAN OF ACTION (a very young Leslie Nielsen), the best science fiction robot ever (Robby, butler, security guard, and master of "187 languages and a variety of subtongues"), and a classic "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl" love story, a murder mystery, and the result is nothing less than the greatest science fiction movie ever made!!!
The story's great, the acting is great, the costumes and sets are great, and FORBIDDEN PLANET IS THE ONLY MOVIE I NEVER GET TIRED OF WATCHING AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!! Or as Leslie Nielsen says in FORBIDDEN PLANET's final scene, "It will remind us...after all...that we are not God..."