Tuesday 22 November 2011

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

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Year:1970
Country of origin:USA
Director:Ted Post
Genre:Monkey sequel
Starring:James Franciscus , Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison
Rating:5/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065462/
Tagline:The bizarre world you met in 'Planet of the Apes' was only the beginning... What lies beneath may be the end!
Favourite line:"They will dissect you! And they will kill you! In that order!"

First of the 'Ape' sequels, this sees a new loincloth clad all American hero, Brent, wandering around the Monkey Planet that used to be called Earth after being caught up in the same space / time flux thingamijig as Charlton 'cold, dead hands' Heston in the original.
Brent awakens next to his derelict, burnt out spacecraft, confused, but it's not long before Nova, Taylor's squeeze from the first movie shows up, and leads him to the Ape City, where he is captured. After a fairly tedious sequence where the friendly monkey scientist Dr. Zira explains the situation (for those who missed Apes 1) Brent escapes captivity and follows a bizarre, auditory signal which leads him underground, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, kids, where he encounters a fresh horror: a race of mutants, almost human, who perform acts of worship to their deity, a still operational nuclear missile capable of bringing an end to all life on the planet, whilst singing a truly sac-tighteningly eerie rendition of All Things Bright and Beautiful.
Seriously, this is freaky stuff.
Unfortunately for Brent, these mutants, though almost as he, are no more friendly than the simians above ground....

More action oriented than the original, I actually enjoyed this one more, as the pace it sets keeps things ticking over rather nicely.
With fine performances all round, yet more visually impressive set designs - the New York subway station, the derelict New York Library - using a combination of physical constructs and matte paintings to produce backdrops far more evocative than anything CGI is capable of, and staggeringly good make up work once more, as well as a nice line in social commentary, this is way above your average sci-fi fodder.
A very, very good sequel.

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