THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2001

''Planet of the Apes'' spins atop U.S. box office

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - ``Planet of the Apes'' emerged as the 800-pound gorilla at the weekend box office in North America, breaking several records in the process.

The simian saga, billed by director Tim Burton as a ''re-imagination'' of the 1968 sci-fi classic, opened at No. 1 with a three-day sum of $69.6 million since its Friday bow, according to studio estimates issued Sunday.

Reviews for the Twentieth Century Fox release were mixed, but moviegoers were attracted by a combination of the ``Planet'' franchise, Burton's edgy reputation and the burgeoning star power of headliner Mark Wahlberg, said Bruce Snyder, the studio's president of distribution.

Last weekend's box office champ, ``Jurassic Park III,'' slipped to No. 2 with $22.5 million, followed by the Julia Roberts romantic comedy ``America's Sweethearts'' with $15.7 million.

If figures hold when final data are released Monday, the three-day tally for ``Planet of the Apes'' will rank as the biggest non-holiday opener ever, Snyder said. The old mark was $68.1 million, set last May by ``The Mummy Returns.'' The overall three-day record is held by ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' with $72.1 million.

Snyder said his film's $25 million Friday take was the third best for a single day, after the $28 million Wednesday opening by ``Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace'' in 1999 and the $26 million Sunday haul during the first weekend of ''The Lost World'' in 1997.

BURTON'S BEST

Additionally, ``Planet'' sets a new record for Burton, surpassing the $46 million opening for the 42-year-old director's ``Batman Returns'' in 1992. The opening is also good news for Fox, which has not had a big hit since ``Cast Away'' last December. Fox is a unit of Rupert Murdoch's Fox Entertainment Group Inc.

Wahlberg plays a U.S. Air Force astronaut who crash lands on a bizarro, futuristic world where sophisticated monkeys have the upper hand over base humans. Helena Bonham-Carter co-stars as an enlightened ape, and Tim Roth as their hairy nemesis.

``Jurassic Park III'' (Universal) passed the century mark last Thursday, its ninth day of release. Its 12-day total now stands at $124.8 million. The film, which suffered a 56 percent drop in viewership thanks in part to the arrival of ``Apes,'' should end up in the $175 million-$200 million area, said Nikki Rocco, Universal's distribution president.

Universal Pictures is a unit of Vivendi Universal.

``Dr. Dolittle 2,'' at No. 7, was expected to pass the $100 million mark Sunday, its 38th day of release. Fox's Eddie Murphy comedy pulled in an estimated $4.2 million over the weekend, taking its total to $100.8 million.

Overall ticket sales jumped for the second consecutive weekend. The top 12 movies grossed $143.4 million, up six percent from last weekend, and up 18 percent from the year-ago period when Murphy's ``Nutty Professor II: The Klumps'' opened at No. 1 with $42.5 million.

``Planet of the Apes'' was this weekend's sole new wide release. New releases next weekend include the steamy Antonio Banderas/Angelina Jolie romance ``Original Sin,'' the family comedy ``The Princess Diaries'' and the Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker cop comedy ``Rush Hour 2.''

``America's Sweethearts'' (Columbia), which dropped 48 percent in its second weekend, has pulled in $59.4 million after 10 days, and has an ``excellent chance'' of reaching $100 million, said Jeff Blake, the studio's president of marketing and distribution. With the marketplace dominated by action films, Blake said ``Sweethearts'' would stand out as a romantic comedy alternative. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp.

Rounding out the top five were the Reese Witherspoon comedy ''Legally Blonde'' (MGM) with $9.0 million, and the Robert De Niro heist thriller ``The Score'' (Paramount) with $7.1 million, both down one spot in their third weekends. Their respective 17-day totals are $59.8 million and $49.2 million.

MGM's full name is Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc.

REUTERS

The top movies in North America -- July 27-29

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the July 27-29 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

Title Gross Gross

1. Planet of the Apes .......... $68,532,960

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $68,532,960

2. Jurassic Park III .......... $22,542,645

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $124,824,290

3. America's Sweethearts .......... $15,402,622

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $59,105,830

4. Legally Blonde .......... $9,005,364

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $59,843,094

5. The Score .......... $7,035,201

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $49,139,109

6. Dr. Dolittle 2 .......... $4,633,601

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $101,223,343

7. Cats & Dogs .......... $4,617,236

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $81,626,437

8. The Fast and the Furious .......... $4,090,275

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $132,482,600

9. Scary Movie 2 .......... $2,717,900

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $67,201,319

10. Shrek .......... $1,792,718

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $255,526,280

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

John L.:  It's a maaaaadddhousee!  Planet of the Apes was the only wide release this week, and it shook up the whole nation.  POTA2K1 opened huge and exceeded expectations.  Word of mouth is getting harder to spread since this re-imagination of the 1968 classic has many faults and may possibly be one of the bigger disappointments of the summer.  Before I get into my review of the current Monkey Planet adaption, let's go back and look at what caused Hollywood to not do another original film and go with a remake.  I have reviews of all 5 Planet of the Apes movies from the 1968 one, Beneath, Escape, Conquest, and Battle.  Some are better than others, and others are better than you think.  A whole lot to talk about, so let's go back in time to 1968:

PLANET OF THE APES (1968) - CAPSULE REVIEW

This movie is one of the great sci fi epics of its time.  What would happen if Darwin's evolution theory was reversed and the apes ruled man.  Charlton Heston stars as Colonel George Taylor, the last surviving member of an astronaut crew who crash lands on a hostile planet run by apes, monkeys, chimps, orangutans, and gorillas.  The humans life in the jungle as savages and cannot speak, or just  decide not to.  Taylor then has to try to survive this insane place and figure out a way to get home.  Back in 1968, this movie was revolutionary for its concept and execution.  It was not a simple space sci fi adventure. It was a way to look at our own society with the way we treat the underclasses and races and even the way we relate to  animals.  The chimp society has its caste system with the orangautans being the upper class, the chimps being the middle class, and the gorillas being the warrior or somewhat lower class.  It also seemed that the darker the ape, the more menial the job, and the lighter the ape the higher they were in society.  Very similar to how things work in our world to some extent.  The makeup on the actors as apes was astounding.  Roddy McDowall as Corneilus and Kim Hunter as Zira are unrecognizable as the main apes who try to help and understand this strange human who can communicate.  Other than the makeup, the most famous image from the movie is its ending when we learn that this planet of the apes is actually our Earth where after a nuclear war, everything changed and apes evolved into the superior species.  This twist was a warning to us to be careful, or as Pogo once said, "we have seen the enemy and it is us." Rod Serling wrote the movie based on the book by Pierre Boulle and you can see the Twilight Zone overtones throughout the film.  Boulle's book ended with a similar twist, but the visual was much different.  If you have never seen this movie, see it.  It is very well written and throws in a lot of sci fi mumbo jumbo in the beginning about traveling through time and scientific theories about space travel.  The characters that hang out with Heston in the beginning are don't survive long, but the movie takes the time to get the audience to get to know them.  The main problem with the movie is that the apes act too much like regular humans. They do very little in the form of simian mannerisms.  It becomes a Halloween costume contest.  The acting, however, helps overcome this errror.  Time is taken to tell the story and establish the culture of the apes with their politics and religion.  After seeing this movie you may not want to go to a zoo again.  Final Review: 4 stars out of 5; 9 out of 10; A; thumbs up.  A classic that should not have been remade.

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES - CAPSULE REVIEW

The first Planet of the Apes was a box office hit, so that means a sequel must be made.  However, Charlton Heston did not really want to do this movie beyond a cameo appearance where he also killed off so he won't be asked to do another one.  Well, Heston does show up in the beginning and the end, but his role is just as pivotal.  Since Heston decided to sit much of this movie out, we get James Franciscus as John Brent who has gone through the same time tunnel that stuck Heston on this planet.  This movie is not as good as the first since it tries to repeat the same formula as the first, but the thrill is gone.  We know what the monkey makeup looks like so the feeling of wow is gone. It is now up to the story to give us a reason to come back to the planet of the apes.  It takes less than 15 minutes for Heston to end up missing and the rest of the time is Franciscus searching for answers.  The answer he finds is more controversial than the ending of the first film.  There are more than just wild humans running around.  There are misshapen humans worshiping a nuclear bomb.  This plot twist by itself makes the movie somewhat annoying and hard to watch.  But, as it turns out, Beneath the Planet of the Apes is a very important movie in the lineage of the film.  The movie ends with there being no possibility of a sequel which is what upset people who probably wanted to see more movies like this.  Roddy McDowall who has become the centerpiece of the Apes movies was unable to participate in this one and his loss was another reason this movie failed to garner much fan reaction.  Beneath the Planet of the Apes is not the worst of the 5, but it did fall short as a sequel.  The next one made up big time for the shortcomings of this one.  Final Review:  3 stars out of 5; 6 1/2 out of 10; B-; thumbs up.

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANETS OF THE APES - CAPSULE REVIEW

Of the five Apes movies, this is my personal favorite.  I have seen this one more than any of the others and it set up the rest of the series.  Beneath the Planet of the Apes seemingly killed off the entire cast, but 3 of the apes, Cornelius, Zira, and the red shirt like Dr. Milo played by Sal Mineo managed to escape the the destruction of their planet and go  back in time to modern day (1971) Los Angeles, CA.  Escape starts a story arc that is carried through the rest of the series. This time the apes are the strangers in a strange land and the humans try to deal with the fact that there are talking monkeys in their mists. Soon, three apes become 2, and Cornelius and Zira become the most popular couple in the world. But things do not turn out to be all hunky dory when Zira ends up pregnant starting a chain of events that change the entire scope of the Plane of the Apes series. For some reason I never get tired of seing this movie for its simple but dramatic story, its nostalgic early seventies look, and the fact that it has Ricardo Montalban as Aramando in his third greatest role. The budget of EFTOOTA must have been about a $1000 since they could barely afford to take the time to have simian makeup for 3 actors in this movie. But this movie takes the series in the direction it needed to go. We had just seen the planet full of monkeys run roughshod on homo sapiens, and the perfect story is to see how humans in our modern times would react to talking animals. Cornelius and Zira are now both Taylors. Much like the apes in the previous movies, the humans have difficulty accepting them as equals are as even existing. Roddy McDowall coming back to the apes saga helps lend a level of importance that Beneath lacked, and Kim Hunter finishes up her run as Zira and pretty much stole the film. Her scenes where they test her IQ and getting new clothes are great. The ending of the film continues the shock tradition with the survival of Cornelius and Zira's son, Caesar. Giving away the ending now is not that big a deal since everyone knows there is a sequel that included that character. How it comes to that revelation at the end of Escape is quite the journey. This was the best sequel to the first movie, and is my personal favorite. Final Review: 4 stars out of 5; 9 out of 10; A; thumbs up. I get choked up every time I see Roddy McDowall's last moment in the film. Great work here.

Of all the Apes movies, this is the one that gets overlooked and is not played on television a whole lot. This is the story of Cornelius and Zira's son, Caesar, who leads an uprising of the apes against man which will eventually lead us back to what Charlton Heston encountered in the first movie. This is a great movie and has my favorite ending of the quintet. Roddy McDowall plays Caesar, the savior of the ape race. As the movie begins, Armando, played by Ricardo Montalban is taking care of Caesar, but soon is permanently separated from him. Caesar is now put in the ape work/slave program where he is able to lead the aggressive uprising. This is a very dark and violent film that had a lot of trouble getting by the censors when it was made. Conquest tries to show how the apes were able to evolve into the human like simians from the other movies. The script and acting are pretty good, but you could tell that even though the movie studio wanted to keep the franchise alive, they were unwilling to give the director a proper budget to make the movie look presentable. It is a very bland futuristic (1991, ha) society and the ape makeup is very amateurish. They look more like masks out of the local Halloween shop than ever before. When there are any scenes with several chimps running wild, if you look closely, you can see how fake they look. I will say that of all the movies, the apes actually try to move and act like monkeys and not humans with fur. It looks silly, but no one really knows how an ape would move if it thought like a person. Caesar's final speech at the end is the most powerful moment since Lady Liberty washed up on shore in Planet of the Apes. . Conquest is very similar to the Civil Rights Movement riots of the 1960s which causes the viewer to be somewhat sympathetic for the chimps and their struggle even though the metaphor is pretty heavy handed. With the apes seemingly in control of the world at the end of the movie, it was a toss up of whether the story could continue in a sequel. Would the apes completely rule and enslave all of mankind? Will the history shown at the end of the first movie come to pass or is that future a fixed occurrence? If there was no sequel, then it would be safe to say that humanity is doomed. There was a sequel that answered all of the remaining questions. As for Conquest, it is an excellent film storywise, with some poor special effects. I personally bought the whole thing. Final Review: 4 stars out of 5; 8 out of 10; A-; thumbs up.

It all began when a crew of astronauts went through a time warp and ended up nearly 3000 years in the future on a planet controlled by apes that could talk. Humans were treated like wild animals in the zoo and stuffed for museums. Colonel Taylor, the sole survivor of his merry band tired to convince the simians that humans have more going for them mentally than the they think. But to Taylor's horror, it was the arrogance of humans that caused his Earth to devolve to that primitive state. Underground lived a tribe of mutant humans who worshipped the ultimate evil, a nuclear device capable of destroying the world. Eventually, this device was activated and the planet Earth was destroyed. Before its destruction, three of the apes escaped and landed on Earth in the year 1971. Soon they would all be dead save for their young child hidden away in the circus crying for his "mama mama mama." This simian child grew up and led the revolt that would lead to a planet of the apes. We now come to the last tale in this saga where the humans try to get their planet back in one last battle. It is the destiny for the apes to rule the humans on Earth. But, with some knowledge of the future due to the time traveling of Zira and Cornelius, humans have knowledge that the previous timestream may not have had. Could the apes be stopped, controlled, or destroyed? At this point, Earth has had its nuclear war and has been devastated, but it still stands. Humans and apes however, are not complete enemies as some have befriended the monkeys. However, enemies are around on all sides. Roddy McDowall returns as Caesar to battle humans and gorillas who want to take over. John Huston makes a cameo as the Lawgiver who introduces and finishes the tale of the apes. He is in the movie briefly, but what he says effects everything you knew and thought you knew about all that has transpired. The makeup is better than in the previous Apes movie, but it still lacks the punch of the earlier ones. The climatic battle scene is well directed, but you can tell you are being fooled into thinking there are more enemies than there actually were when things were being shot. I like the "ape does not kill ape" mantra that Caesar yells and how the movie ties up every loose end. I just wish there was some way to have Kim Hunter show up in some capacity. Battle for the Planet of the Apes may be the weakest of the 5, but it is still an enjoyable movie. Final Review:  3 stars out of 5; 7 1/2 out of 10; B; thumbs up.  I love the entire run of Planet of the Apes movies, and they do hold up pretty well with today's modern special effects.  Back in 1968, they were unbelievable and revolutionary.  As the series went on, the unique effect of seeing chimps talk wore off.  The writing kept the movies alive and the acting of the likes of McDowall, Hunter, and even Montalban.  Each movie, except for the last ends in a cliffhanger that made sequels a necessity.  The Statue of Liberty, the destruction of Earth, the chimp asking for its mama, the birth of the planet of the apes, and the final fate of the planet are all amazing moments in cinematic history.  These movies entertain, and make you think about our own society and prejudices against animals and humans.  If you have never seen these movies, see them.  They are a must and put together, it is one huge epic adventure that cannot really ever be recreated with the same impact.  

PLANET OF THE APES (2001) - FULL REVIEW

Tim Burton was given the task to remake the 1968 Planet of the Apes movie.  Fans of the original were skeptical that a modern re-telling would live up to the high mark of the original.  It was feared that a new version would be a CGI clusterfreak that would have cheapend the hard hand made work of the past.  Fortunately, Rick Baker was assigned to create the monkey make up.  He has been creating apes and gorillas in movies for years and the original inspired him to get into the business.  He would, and did bring a new realism to this new version that the Heston/McDowall one lacked to a certain degree.  Burton is a good choice because he has specialized in re-imagining other people's work like "Batman" and "Sleepy Hollow."  His quirky style could make this movie something interesting to watch.  The cast for the movie is not as strong as the original, but is made up of some of the better ones out there.  Before I critique the performances, let me get into why this movie is not too well received by the general public even though it is making tons of money.  POTA2K1 has one of the more exciting previews of the Summer.  I was looking forward to it quite a bit.  When I walked out of the theater I wanted to say I saw a good film, but after a few seconds of thought I realized that the movie fell short of being anything all that special.  The only thing that is tolerable here is the make-up on the male apes.  The females all look the same with that weird cross between chimp and those doctors at the end of that Twilight Zone "Eye of the Beholder" without the pig noses.  The gorilla and chimpanzees look good, but the orangutans are somewhat off kilter especially Sandar, played by David Warner.  He looks like an albino burn victim.  Since the female simians are so hard to look at, you don't feel for the their characters. It helps that only one of them, Ari, played by Helena Bonham Carter, is focused on, but her look does not match up to the Zira character it is based on.  The look of the humans is also too "Waterworld" like.  It is the same post apocalyptic look that has been running around for the last 20 years in movies and it is becoming tired.  The problem here with it is that some of the starving hunted wild humans look like they just went to the beauty shop.  Did someone punch Estella Warren in the mouth, or are her lips that naturally red and puffy?  On the surface, however, the look is alright and is acceptable in the context of the film.  It is just nothing extraordinary.  The main problem with this and many other films this year is a weak script that is all surface and never tries to be anything deeper.  The plot is very different from the original.  It is the year 2029 and we have space stations orbiting Saturn where we are training chimps to fly little space pods to go to areas that may not be that safe for a human being.  That sort of sucks for the chimps.  One of the chimps gets lost in a space storm and Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) goes through it to get the little guy back.  Unfortunately, the storm transports him to the planet of the apes!  He is immediately captured and made a house servant.  The rest  of the movie is him running away from the ape army led by General Thade (Tim Roth).  Davidson gets help from Ari who is sympathetic to the plight of the humans and believes they can be integrated into everyday society.  There is no real reason for her unique ideas, it just happens because the movie needs a sub plot.  There is a dinner table scene that is supposed to be the big debate about human rights, but it falls flat and is quickly forgotten as the film goes on.  Wahlberg never acts like he is in any real danger.  When he arrives on the planet and sees these armor clad chimps and gorillas throwing him around, he may say ouch every once in a while, but he never just says "wow, this is odd."  He sees that the apes are in control but he still treats them like low lifes.  There is never a sense of fear that would have been a natural reaction to his situation.  It is like when Captain Kirk would land on a new planet on "Star Trek."  He expects new lifeforms and is prepared to adapt while he plans his escape.  Aliens are not that big of a deal.  However, aliens have not made contact with Earthlings in Davidson's world so going through a space storm and ending up on a planet that is nothing like the Saturn you have been staring at for months would tend to cause a guy to pause for a moment and figure out what the hell is going on.  His lack of concern causes the audience watching the film not to be concerned about what is happening. Wahlberg is a pretty good actor who walks through this role.  It is not his fault since he is not given anything to do but run and get thrown around.  There was an attempt a couple of times to build a romantic relationship between him and Carter or Warren, but when it happens near the end you sit there and wonder what was the point of that?  A couple of scenes to establish that something could happen would have been nice, especially with Estella Warren.   Tim Roth does his best to overact as Thade the main villain of the movie.  He is completely one note and his motives for his evil are just because he is supposed to be a bad guy.  His father is played by the returning Charlton Heston in full ape make-up.  Heston looks ragged as an ape and he even gets to say one of his famous lines from the original.  It is sort of funny, but as a fan, I did not need to hear the new version.  There is another scene that lifts a classic POTA line that comes off even more blatantly.  Nice try, but it just reminds the audience that there have been better days.  Roth's Thade is fine as a bad guy and he gets to do lots of evil, but he is somewhat boring.  The Thade character has a friendship with Attar, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, the leader of the gorilla army that could have been dramatic, but it is left unexplored.  Duncan looks the best in the makeup since he is such a big guy in real life.  He is actually given the most character development in the movie since they show him praying to his Ape God and such.  Attar has a rivalry with another gorilla named Krull played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa which was supposed to set up an epic confrontation during the climatic battle, but it is over so quick it was a waste of time to have it in the film.  When that fight fell flat, that was when the movie lost me for good.  I accepted the effort made by Burton to put the actors through ape school to make them walk more monkey like.  It was a bit over exaggerated, but it showed some thought and effort that I can respect.  Bonham Carter moved the best with a special mention of Paul Giamatti as Limbo the slave trader who has natural ape like qualities.  Giamatti tries to steal the picture with his humorous one liners and he is successful. He is one of the best character actors out there and he seemed to have fun with the role.  The most controversial thing about this Planet of the Apes is the twist ending that Burton felt obligated to add at the last minute to be like the original.  I won't get too specific, but the ending is just a tool to set up a sequel.  You can debate all you want what it means, but it does not matter.  Was Wahlberg on an alternate Earth, a completely different planet, a parallel universe, the past, the future, or a lost episode of "Sliders?"  The movie purposely leaves it up to your own interpretation until they decide to make another one.  My personal take is that it is the same planet he was on, whether it is Earth or not is irrelevant if you pay attention to what happened in the film.  It could be either one.  The ending is a fairly interesting mix of the original movie and the Pierre Boulle novel.  The best homage in POTA2K1 is a crashed spacecraft that suspiciously looks like the crown of the Statue of Liberty.  I liked that.  If you see Planet of the Apes 2001, just watch it for what it is, an action adventure story.  It is not supposed to make you think about animal/human relations or be a good metaphor for the problems we have in our own society.  The movie does not take the time to delve into those issues.  If you are critical of plot holes, missed opportunities, and endings that really don't make sense in the current context of the plot, then you will hate this movie.  I accepted it as being okay, with a weak story and pretty good, not great special effects.  See it if you are a fan of the originals or just want to kill a couple of hours.  Final Review:  2 stars out of 5; 5 out of 10; C; thumbs down.  Not good enough to actually recommend, but even though it brought back the memories, it is not as bad as "Battlefield Earth."

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.     Jurassic Park III is not going to do as the last 2, but it should make enough to give us a fourth one.

2.    Hopefully the T-Rex will represent a little better in the sequel than he did in his Spinosaurus throwdown.

3.    America's Sweethearts shows you can lead a person to a Juila Roberts movie, but you can't make them spread good word of mouth.

4.    Legally Blonde would have been closer to making a $100 million by now if it was not stuck in the middle of Summer against dinos and apes.

5.    The Score shows that it doesn't matter if you have some of the best actors of all time, you still have to have a plot with a good hook that gets people talking, and this movie was just too simple to inspire much business.

6.    Eddie Murphy is the biggest star of the season since his movies, Shrek and Dr. Doolittle have grossed over $350 million combined.

7.    Cats and Dogs continue their endless battle for world supremacy.

8.    Fast and the Furious is the sleeper hit of the year with making about a $100 million more than anyone thought it would.

9.    I am still mad that Scary Movie 2 sucked so bad.

10.    Dreamworks' Shrek has out grossed every other Disney cartoon except "The Lion King."

The next week should be huge as we get three new movies being wide released.  There is Angelina Jolie win Original Sin faking her identity.  There is Anne Hathaway looking hella-hot in The Princess Diaries trying to learn a new identity.  And then there is Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan together again trying to find the identity of Asian counterfeiters in Rush Hour 2.  My girl, Zhang Ziyi, is one of the villains in that, and I will definitely be posting new pics of her.  Full review of Rush Hour 2 next week.  Bye for now.