July 26–August 2, 2001

movie shorts

Planet of the Apes

The most depressing part of Tim Burton’s 2001 update of Planet of the Apes is that the basic theme remains as relevant today as back in 1968, when Charlton Heston called out those "damn dirty apes" for being ignorant slavers. (This is clear throughout the film, and slammed home with the "twist" finale.) Here Mark Wahlberg crash-lands on the planet alone, then finds himself leading a band of hardy humans and "human-lovers" — Canadian synchronized swimming champ Estella Warren, human rights activist chimp Helena Bonham Carter and her loyal gorilla general buddy, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa — in revolt against the big bad talking monkeys. Among them: Tim Roth is head chimp, Heston’s his wise old dad and Michael Clarke Duncan is the most ferocious gorilla. There are some changes from the first film, of course. This is a Tim Burton movie (other directors have been associated with the project over the last 10 years, including Cameron, Stone and (!) Chris Columbus); the jungle is darker, the desert bleaker, the city recalls Tina Turner’s Barter Town. And the monkeys are fabulous: they leap, lisp and break necks with flair. But the simian spectacular-ness is a drag on the weird Tim Burtony relationship part of the film. There are more than a few indications of an interspecies romance between Marky Mark and Bonham Carter, with attendant jealousy from Warren. Easily the most interesting vexation here is that the object of her affection is not completely fixed.

—Cindy Fuchs