Beneath the Planet of the Apes: Streaming review
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Now civilization's final battle between man and ape is about to begin. We review Beneath of the Planet of the Apes, 1970
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Summary: Astronaut Brent is sent to rescue Taylor but crash lands on the Planet of the Apes, just like Taylor did in the original film. Taylor has disappeared into the Forbidden Zone so Brent and Nova try to follow and find him. He discovers a cult of humans that fear the Apes' latest military movements and finds himself in the middle. Tension mounts to a climactic battle between ape and man deep in the bowels of the planet. Sequel to "Planet of the Apes."
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SHADOWS: Michaela Urban, jay snigler, Kristin Hitron, Doug Sparks, Matthew Wolforth, Maurice Terenzio, Hal Remorse, Brian B, Dan D Doty, Paul Keating, Johnny Compton, Adi Wood, Rodney J Kelly, Chris Hewson, Andreas Buckley, Shaun Turcott, Todd Y., Symon O'Hagan, Allan Liska, Walter Durham, Rick Walz, Kristiyan Butev, Al Champagne, Dragonfyree, Robert Hedges, E. P. Haury, Spooky Robot, Mark Osborn, Dave Church, Travis Stephenson, Ossie Nelson, Mark Welsh, Michael Clark, Rachemus, Lightning Round, Ian Lewis, Cecelie, Jonathan Harrison, Colleen Crouch, Darren Le Noble, Melanie Atherton Allen, Gappasaurus, Chris Weakley, Joe Porter, Scott Nesmith, John L., Normand Richardson, Richard Sadler, Ken Smiley, John Hepp, Chantelle Corey, Joe Niedbala, Joseph Hines, Stephen Crane, Kali, Anthony Strocks, Sikander, Joseph Dougherty, Jasmine Shafer, goddessoftransitory, Michael and Heather Bailes, steve scibelli, Connor Brennan, Raven House Mystery, ChaosOverlordZ,
ACOLYTES: Robert Ornelas, Thomas Thaler, Richard R. Adams, Alan, Scott Johnson, Kenneth, Kholek92, Chris Spaseff, NelsonR, Kyle Olson, don H Andrews, Brian Gillen, Terrance Odette, Goosefoot, Brian Kidd, Christopher Nam, TomPiller, Coogrfan, TheZodMaker, Bryan White, C, Hester Grayson, Craig, Timothy Gonyea, Sean Manogue, Steve Dessent, Lou Faulhaber, IrritableBadger, Sean in Florida, Jim Kallaugher, Lisa Kuta, Walt Marsters, James Miers, Geoffrey of Clan Gunn, Peter Sondheim, Chris Anastasio, Tarami Bedona, Mark J. Matthews, Ariana Thompson, Andrew Hughes, Chris Baglin, Angelina Licchelli, Karl Bernhard, Picatea, Mary Whitcher, Rhea Fleming, Mason Highreich, David Gattis, Mark, Heather L., Larry Cloud, Rick Winters, Lloyd, Roger Edwards, Ann Knight, James J Kelly, David work, The Craven Fop, Brian T., Ch'aska Huayhuaca, Jenny Swindells, Arbie A, Ivo, Jon, Brett Hopkins, Joost, Tman, Fritz Rutz, Robert ALAN Bryan, Chris McGarel, Scott Underwood, Larry Willoughby, Mark Curtis, KwaidanFan, Daniel Adams, David Nevarrez, Dave Smith, Barbara Mosley, Mark Maillet, John Wick, Kenneth Carlson, Ron Klym,
James Vance, Joe Goes Over, Tom Lanckman, Nancy A. Collins, Alex B, Gary Mercer, Janna Nicole, Clarence Pitre, james Steadman, Simon Ash, Thomas Brown, Chris Fischer, D R Wellington, Richard D'Ambrosia, Milton Knight, Michael Schmidt, Michael Dean Jackson, Dark_Roast, Gemma Crowley, Andrew Weber, Jim Rockford, Johnathan Henning, James Robertson, Nils Muninsheim, Albertus Magnus, Janne Wass, Robert Freeborn, David Conner, Ford, Amber Wesley, Karl Bunker, Tony Belmonte, Jim Smith, Mark Buckley, Uwe Marquardt, Terry LeCroix, Russ Chandler, Melissa Hayes,
Written and presented by Robin Bailes @robinbailes
Directed and Edited by Graham Trelfer
Lockdown Review S1E181
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"you guys worship an unexploded atomic bomb?"
"yeah, but it's really only an easter/christmas thing."
I love all the early Planet of the Apes movies.
All of THEM.
Strange emphasis.
@@HeavyMetalSonicRM maybe she has nieces?
Saw this one as a kid, with no context (hadn't seen the first one yet). The underground cult gave me nightmares for weeks after.
The first time I saw the original five films, I was suffering from severe insomnia and they were being shown back to back to back to back on TV from something like 10 PM to dawn the next day. Trying to take them all in without reprieve while heavily sleep deprived was a surreal, almost dream-like experience that I wouldn't recommend to anyone but don't regret in the slightest.
I've cured my insomnia. Probably oversomnescent, at this point. But do kind of long for the experience of wrapping in a blanket warmed by the glow of a CRT, just zoning out and absorbing whatever they show me. Did this with a tales from the darkside marathon once. There was a show called Insomniac with Dave Atell. That was a good one. But anyways. Time for bed.
This is what I got to watch at the bowling alley on Friday nights. Parents bowled, I watched cool movies in the bar with only black man who lived in my city. He was the bartender. Too cool!
Saw the original in the theatrical release by myself when I was 11 years old and it was pretty intense for me. I told my parents that it was the greatest movie ever
Beneath The Planet Of The Apes isn’t the greatest movie in this franchise (in fact I put this squarely somewhere in the middle) but the ending is shocking and surprising that it makes it worth watching
This was actually the worst movie in the franchise, just barely beating Battle for the Planet of the Apes. My personal favorite is actually Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
I'm working my way through the PotA films and I have to give them praise for being able to end on a downer.
@@TheMightyPALADIN Conquest had zero reason to be made. Then again, neither did any of the sequels. The ending to Beneath was a great statement in and of itself; too bad there isn't a way to edit it onto the end of the original.
The first was the best but this has a very interesting ending. Almost as interesting as the beginning of the next one. I prefer watching Franciscus battle "the Last Shark"
For me the ending was the worst thing in the movie they ruined it
Definitely one of the strangest sequels of all time lol
The original film can't be beat but Beneath the Planet of the Apes really effected me as child. That bleak and shocking ending really left a mark on me. As a 9yo, it made me face mortality and I ended up having a late night, in-depth discussion about life and death. So I have a soft spot for it. I've just picked up a Planet of the Apes boxset so I am going to give this film a reevaluation as it's been 30yrs since I saw it.
Heston not wanting to be in the sequel was a huge blow. But credit to the writers for making what was arguably the best script they could come up with under the circumstances. Along with one heck of an ending (to put it extremely mildly) in all of cinema history. Not as good as the Original's. But still up there. And, I don't just mean Taylor's final act. That last scene was shocking on multiple levels. Yes, it piggy-backed off of the Original. But so do most sequels. And it was hampered by Heston's decision not to be fully in it. But it was still magnificent.
The ending makes it like... the most violent G rated movie ever.
I absolutely adore the second half of the movie. It haunted me more than the original ending. I remember losing sleep over it.
In the original Taylor hates the Human Condition , so much that leaves to the Earth to try find something better in the Universe. But he ends up defending the Human Race to the Apes. The ending to the original came from a script written by Rod Serling. A couple of side notes. In the 70's DC Comics wanted to do a Planet Of The Apes comic book series, but Fox wouldn't give permission. So Jack Kirby created Kamandi ( The Las Boy On Earth ), and all the animals could speak and have their own nation.
It is worth noting the rights had been given to Marvel, hence DC not getting them,
@@ColasTeam I remember they came out in large size B&W magazines.
@@ColasTeam I think Gold Key had the rights to do this film too.
Good to know.
Mad Magazine spoofed this movie, of course. The punchline to the subway scene was how well preserved it was.
One of the original script ideas of this film was called Planet of the Men. Taylor and Nova would have a son named Sirius and join a colony of human survivors.
Years later, an adult Sirius would lead the humans in a revolt against the apes and actually win. The final scene would've shown Dr. Zaius reduced to being a circus orangutan doing tricks.
This sequel is a love-hate affair for me. It's frustrating not seeing more of Taylor, but I love the story arc with the apes as their civilization lowers their standards to the point where General Ursus is able to roam the Forbidden Zone freely and conquer. And the final scene is somehow fitting for this universe.
I see this as a "necessary evil" that got us to what you could call The Ceasar Trilogy. Had to prove there was an audience .
Yeah, fixing the ship is difficult to believe and they completely gut the subplot of Zaius protecting the information about man being the first civilization (suddenly according to Cornelius humans being able to talk was being
taught in church when in the first movie that doll shocked the hell out of him).
But I like the story those three films tell.
And we get to spend quality time with Cornelius and Zira.
The ending is so cool. I accidentally saw it on TV before ever actually seeing the whole movie.
Beneath is a brilliant film! Terribly underrated. Yeah it has its flaws but Franciscus does an admirable job pulling it off in spite of being Discount Taylor. Over the years I tend to watch this one the most. It has a ballsy ending. Absolutely love it!
Have you guys ever thought of doing an Apes retrospective? Pretty rich vein to mine! Great review, when I was a kid this movie blew my mind lol
This movie would have been better, If instead of creating a new character named Brent, they had simply recast Taylor.
James franciscus could have been a fine substitute for Charlton Heston.
And I definitely don't think it's the best of the sequels.
That title belongs to Escape and the alternate cut of Conquest
There was, apparently, a plan to just have Heston's character get non-fatally hit in the face in the first few minutes of the film, so another actor would just wear bandages and pretend to be him for the rest of the movie. It got scrapped pretty quickly, though; I don't know why but a few obvious and relevant possibilities come to mind.
I checked escape for the first time tonight, and my gf loved it too! I tough she'd gone mad as I myself found it quite boring and silly, but going online and seeing that it is generally regarded as the best sequel makes me feel like I'm the mad one for thinking that!
Nope.
@@ColasTeam it's absolutely brilliant. I suggest reading a bit about it, maybe watching/reading a few reviews and analysis videos/articles. Reevaluate your assessment of it. And give it another chance.
@@jameslacey5474 cool story bro
Also, the ending with Paul Frees is chilling.
Well, I'm certainly the idiot. I always thought that was Orson Welles. D'OH!!!
that's the journalist/narrator for George Pal's *War of the Worlds,* isn't it?
If so, he also did the voices of the aliens in *Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.*
Most enjoyable of the sequels?
Escape from the Planet of the Apes would like a word.
Escape is campy and makes absolutely no sense that they found the Icarus, pulled it out of the lake in the Forbidden Zone after it sunk and somehow they refueled it, then escaped right before Earth was destroyed and went back in time through the Hasslein Curve to just after Taylor et al left but the studio suits will come up with anything ridiculous just to keep squeezing money out of a franchise.
@@decadentdaveNo more ridiculous than this second guy ending up back on Earth a few weeks or a month or so later than when Taylor arrived and only a few miles from where Taylor landed. The fact that they're even on the same continent!!!!!! 😂
@@robotrix more plausible though they would have sent a second ship to search for the Icarus than Cornelius, Zira and Milo just happened to escape in it before Earth’s destruction was a real suspension of disbelief.
“Conquest” is my favorite sequel, especially the original cut, which was eventually issued on bluray.
@@videoplusdvd yeah Conquest was my favorite too for decades but over the years I find Beneath more and more to be the most brilliant sequel of the series. It’s surreal and nihilistic from start to finish. They’d never make a film like it in this day and age. I found the new films to be overall well made but mostly forgettable with their narrative storytelling and I can’t even recall specifics of what happened in each film or characters. The original films are so rich in allegory and subtext and visuals they are unforgettable.
I love all the Apes movies (except maybe the Tim Burton one but even that had brilliant Rick Baker make-up) and find stuff to enjoy in all of them. Obviously the original is a stone cold classic but it is a franchise I've always connected with and greatly enjoyed.
My favorite film from the original series.
Saw this without seeing the first one & remember being confused as hell as a little kid.
Thanks. Side note: the original author, boulle', explained why their society is divided as it is; at one time, humans kept apes as pets because dogs and cats died off. The military trained gorillas to carry weapons, supplies and ammo. Scientists and doctors began using chimps as assistants. Celebrities, politicians, and religious leaders had orangutans they trained to be humanized and elitist like them. The apes began imitating the humans, that's why their society is as it is. ❤❤❤
When did he do that?
@julietfischer5056 in his original book, the planet is NOT the future earth, but an identical type of planet, with similar evolution. The main character pieces the history together , That's the original book, NOT the novelization of the movie, to be clear.
@@Torgo-and-the-Lucifer-Cat- I read the book. I didn't see anything about pet apes or using them for the military. Hell, the apes themselves had forgotten that they had taken over from the humans. When applied phlebotinum revealed that, Ulysse Merou was regarded with suspicion. He escaped with the help of Cornelius and Zira. And found that apes had taken over Earth.
For some reason, I can't find versions that reveal Jinn and Phyllis are chimps.
@@Torgo-and-the-Lucifer-Cat- I wrote a reply that seems to have gone missing.
I read the book. The apes had forgotten that they took over from humans. They only find out thanks to some applied phlebotinum on captive wild humans. Unless my memory has failed, no mention of pet apes at all. There is mention of a mysterious ailment that made humans lethargic, and an attack by whip-wielding apes. Because of this Ulyssee Merou goes from being an object of curiosity to one of suspicion. Cornelius and Zira help him escape with Nova and he returns to an Earth taken over by apes.
I thought maybe you had come across an interview Boulle had done.
@@Torgo-and-the-Lucifer-Cat- Dang it, my reply disappeared _again!_
I read the book. None of that is in there. The apes forgot they had taken over from humans.
Saw both the original and the sequel at the drive in as a young boy, with my teenaged sister who loved science fiction. Both affected my world outlook deeply.
Also saw 2001 with her as well.❤
I love that the elaborate staircase from 'Hello Dolly!' got plastered over to make the undeground set for this film. I'd like to think they exist in the same universe - both technically take place in New York, after all...
my older brother went and saw the original and cinema had a parade of Apes pulling a Heston look alike in a cadged cart. It was in Burnt Oak north London of all places. The art of promotion is long dead
My favorite of the sequels is Conquest. I think it has the strongest theme. Beneath has some interesting world building, and ideas, but it doesn't do much with it.
When that giant statue bleeds! Had me going when I first saw it as a youngster 😮
Of the sequels, the one that has surprisingly aged incredibly well is CONQUEST. Still as powerful in its message as it ever was. ESCAPE is a close 2nd.
This was the first planet of the apes movie I've ever seen the weird way to start the franchise right.
I find the scenes in the Forbidden Zone and the limited exploration of mutant society the most interesting aspects of the film. The increased levels of violence were a surprise when I first saw the film in the late seventies on ITV. The bleakness of the ending is breath taking. I also have a soft spot for the third entry (Escape from Planet of the Apes), mainly due to the excellent performances from the Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter. That film is also similarly dour with infanticide and other dark themes. It also has a great Jerry Goldsmith score. The fourth instalment (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes) was re-edited upon release to soften its tone. The Blu-ray release does include both the theatrical and unrated version. The latter is incredibly dark and worth checking out to see Caesar live up to his name.
I hope you review the rest of the OG movies.
I think this one is really enjoyable and entertaining. Even it's flaws are very charming.
I adore all the original Planet of the Apes movies. Even the worse ones. I watched them as a kid, without knowing anything going in, and they left an indelible impression on me.
So many cool things in this movie, from Ursus's helmet to the crazy mutant choir to face removal to the praying to the bomb...I suckled off the teat of this franchise.
The best of the sequels in the original series IMO
this one was actually the first one i saw than the original than escape from the planet of the apes which was very interesting
Honorable mentions:the return of Dracula,the werewolf,the incredible shrinking man and It the terror from beyond space
I've never seen the sequels, but considering how similar in looks, build, and mannerisms...even voice, that the new lead actor was to Heston, it's weird that they just didn't cast him as the same character as they did with Rodney McDowell. It would've freed them from the need to recap.
While #2 by release date... it is chronologically the last!
while i did enjoy the later sequels which decided to go back in time and cover the ape civilization's rise, at the same time i've still always felt like it was a waste of all the potential to explore the ape world of the first 2 movies and continue its story
I loved this movie, better than the other three! It is second only to the original for me. I was brought up Catholic and watching the mutants reveal themselves then worship the bomb to the tune of a catholic mass was the freakiest thing to this guy, when he was 10 years old!
My appreciation of Beneath has grown over the years, but I don't agree it's the best of the sequels. For me that's Conquest, with Escape painfully close. (Painfully because the final scenes are unbelievably gut wrenching)
Now you have to do all the films, plus the animated series.
Love this film❤❤❤
I know I'm in a minority, but this is my favorite film in the series. The mutant civilization is such a great addition, and the unexpectedly bleak ending is gut-wrenching the first time you see it.
The Planet of the Apes did the twist ending so well that it affected every following Ape film in odd ways:
The following sequels tried to equal it, the modern series tries to UNtwist it but only the "remake" tried to outdo it.
All mistakes so this movie with the perfect moral ends up with a moral of its own: Whether choosing to equal it, beat it or ignore it, you can't top perfection. So just be entertaining.
Escape is the most enjoyable (to me).
I love all the movies though. With Escape you just have to roll with the idea of how the Apes got to 1973 Los Angeles and shut up and enjoy the movie.
My favourite is film in the series is "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes"; mainly because of the locations chosen for the human city, and the look of the apes wearing boiler suits.
The studio saved $ reusing some of the "Hello, Dolly" sets for the ruins of NYC (the church). For me it was tiresome waiting for Franciscus to finally realize what we already knew -- he was on Earth. In later years Heston was interviewed about his being in this sequel. His response was that he was hesitant, because he didn't want the impact of the original movie to be lessened by a series of inferior sequels "like the Andy Hardy movies" lol.
One of the "Making Of" books on this series said that Burt Reynolds had been approached to play Brent. Hmmmm. I've always loved this movie but wonder if Burt Reynolds would have changed the dynamic. Cockier? More arrogant/smart ass? Maybe even threatening? Reynolds turned it down flat so we'll never know. Still my favorite of the sequels.
I've seen a bunch of this movie, but I don't think I ever caught all of it. I have seen the ending, but if I saw the very beginning, I don't remember. I only saw these movies in broadcast television in the 1970's and early 1980's.
Anyway, when watching your review, I found myself wondering why they didn't just recast Taylor with the new guy. They do that in a lot of sequels. I've even seen that for an episode or two of Dark Shadows. Having him recast and bearded would have been fine, I would think. Then the movie could have proceeded from there.
I heard a long time ago that the ending was made because the creator didn't want to do this sequel. The story was done. So he made an ending that would definitely not be able to have a sequel. But, execs wanted one anyway. At least that put the back burnered apes to good use. Also, the third movie, one I've also never seen the very beginning of, had the best line ever. ("Because I loathe bananas.")
When actors (like, say, Harrison Ford in Star Wars: Force Awakens) grudgingly return for a franchise cameo in the PROMISE that their character will be finally killed off and they can get the hell away from the franchise for good, I still refer to that as the actor “doing a Charlton Heston”, for this very reason.
I'm not going to spoil anything, as you yourself deliberately didn't cover every detail (to prevent ruining the story for viewers who check out this classic for the first time). But I will say that there's a very specific scene near the end that legit traumatized me when I saw this with my dad during its original release. Nightmares, anxiety, the whole nine yards. But I probably shouldn't have seen the movie to begin with, only being in the first grade at the time, ha ha.
Out of all the sequels I do like this one the most. Funny I hated Ricardo Montalbán for years and didn't know why. Turns out I saw the third & fourth movies when I was three years old, and I blamed Montalban for the apes take over. Good times!
The best one has always been Scream Of The Curse Of The Revenge Battle Beneath The Planet Of The Apes.
I didn't see that one; just its sequel.
I still prefer the original ape makeup compared to the more real makeup that was used since the Tim Burton re-boot.🙈
Thank you
Anyone ever seen the movie "Heatseekers" from 1995? The title makes no sense, because its a movie like Bloodsport, with the twist that everyove is a cyborg, but they all look completely human (because a prothesis is expensive, yo).
Interesting. I always thought Escape was the best of the sequels.
I grew up with the original series of movies. Collected bubble gum cards during that time (unfortunately lost them) and today have the movies on DVD. As a kid a lot was not understood in the sense of the politics, but it was just as fascinating as Frankenstein or any other out-of-this-world story of it's time.
I unabashedly love this movie but there are two things that always bothered me about it. A: Franciscus did a fine job but looks too much like Heston. And 2: Nasa can send a spaceship on an interstellar journey but can't come up with a competent landing procedure.
I felt that the Time Warp threw the ships back at Earth, so it was all the computer controls could do to simply crash land as safely as possible.
The whole ending is spoiled when you know that a 2000 year old nuclear warhead would never explode. Its tritium would have long since decayed away to nothing, the batteries that power its electronics would be dead, the plastic explosives would break down, and the plutonium core would be too poisoned by decay products to sustain a chain reaction. Besides, encasing a nuclear warhead in cobalt isn't intended to enhance its explosive yield, it just massively increases the amount of radioactive fallout it produces. It might kill everything, but it wouldn't ignite the atmosphere.
it's science _FICTION!_ Stop ruining the depressing ending!
I always loved the scenes of a twisted melted new York, and the subway and cathedral sets. I did read or see somewhere that the budget was massively cut due that classic dr doolittle 😂
All those were, were painted cardboard photograph cut-outs of New York City that they used. Cheap but effective.
Lifelong fan of the original Ape movies INCLUDING this one! Having said that... Even as a kid (I saw the original Planet of the Apes during its first run) the mission of the astronauts never made sense to me. Also, where is Taylor hide his dog tags in the first movie so that he could give them to Nova...?
The astronauts were a scouting/colonizer party. I think they were supposed to get to Alpha Centari, which in the *Apes* films it was discovered that there was an Earth-like planet in orbit, hence the mission. They would establish a point of contact, whereupon if others followed Taylor and company would be there to help settle them in. If no one else showed up (due to time dilation or nuclear war), then there were 3 men and 1 woman to have biodiversty. Hope she's a superfreak!
And as far as where Taylor hid his dogtags... easy! The same place he hid his watch!
@@TheRealNormanBates , I have seen that, but I think it came much later. Also, as Taylor remarks to Nova about Stewart's role with their "Hot and heavy help,' The mission has the reverse of the crew it would need. 3 men and one woman? Bad maths!
Indeed! I suppose before he was shot he put them high and tight. LMAO!
@@TheRealNormanBates Nobody ever talks about Stewart's purpose on the mission ever.
The third and fourth were better ape movies after the original.
Conquest is by far my favorite sequel, the others are okay.
"Most enjoyable of the sequels" is certainly a take. I actually always thought it was the weakest of all the original Planet of the Apes movies, with an incredibly cynical ending. My favorite of the sequels was always "Escape".
I thought it was brilliant when I saw it as a child at the cinema. Obviously I'd never seen a film that ended quite like it! It put all sequels into a bit of a bind
Great 😊
My own personal ranking of the original films goes
Planet
Escape
Conquest
Beneath
Battle
and despite that list Battle is the only one I outright dislike.
Why did they make the new astronaut look so similar to Taylor? Why didn't they just have this guy play Taylor since they look so similar? (I'm not saying he's as good of an actor or anything, but why have two similar looking guys?)
While I do think the original and the first sequel should be lauded as cinematic accomplishments and that people should see them at least once, I've long gotten sick of the franchise and the endless releases of the past decade or so. Bart Simpson was right when he said Planet of the Apes was a tragedy because they keep making more of them.
I do wonder if the current film Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (or its sequel) will eventually work its way to Taylor and the astronauts landing on the planet. The space mission was mentioned in Rise, but nothing since. Could that be the series finale?
There is finale with this franchise. They just keep going and going and going...
That is what I am thinking. I think it would be very appropriate if the new *Apes* series ends where the original series begins, making the entire set of films a giant paradox.
Now if only they had Matt Smith and David Tennant guest star some place in the new *Apes* movies...
They should've just Doctor who or James bond the new actor into the same character role
Not as good as the original, though it did give us a great character: General Ursus! Nevertheless I prefer Escape and Conquest to Beneath. (I can do without Battle though.)
“Most enjoyable of the sequels” hard disagree. The next one where the apes go back to present day earth is my favorite. I almost like it better than the first one.
huge fan of the first will admit I've not had an urge to watch any of the sequels.
Actually they could have just put a band aid over it, and they had a perfect band aid available. Franciscus looked so much like Heston that if they simply cast him as Taylor the audience would've been fine with it. Then they wouldn't need Heston and they could write a much more coherent story. You're right that this was still an OK movie but it could've been better.
Unfortunately Hollywood still hasn't learned that movies are about characters NOT actors and their failure to learn that lesson has destroyed the Marvel movies. They retired all their best characters when the actors moved on.
LEARN FROM JAMES BOND!
unto myyyyyy Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooodddddd
you can disect any movie to death if you want to. It's an entertaining movie, leave it at that.
I loved it as a kid, but there are so many better movies why watch it again?
Despite it being inferior to the original, i still liked it.
You misspelled “better”.
Def not the best in the series, thats obviously the original, but this may well be my favourite of the sequels. Its very sample-worthy, has some great dialogue and sound.
"Blessed be The Bomb..."
Where did the mutants get their food from?
They probably grew it.
Of the entire original Ape series Beneath is my least favorite. I bought the blu-ray box set over a decade ago I still haven't watched the film in its entirety. I tried but got bored. Whereas the others have their own distinct theme, Beneath just feels like a carbon copy of the first film. Charlton Heston is by no means a great actor but he had a charismatic presence that his replacement lacks. The series is riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies but I don't get overly analytical in the lapses in logic and enjoy them for their imagination. But thankfully this film was successful enough to lead to my two favorite films of the series, Escape and Conquest. I will even defend Battle to my last breath, despite the snarky comments by John Landis in his segment on Trailers From Hell. Given that each film's budget was being cut I think they did an admirable job.
Silly that you never finished all of BENEATH. Sure, the first half is much like PLANET, but the second half is where it kicks in and is completely different.
A fun, entertaining film with a great cast and excellent production values. Even if it was terrible any film with James Franciscus running about half naked for most of the running time is automattically at least 4 out of 5 stars. No discussion.
Im not saying all humans are evil because their skin is white. - General Ape.
Me: Just wait until you meet the other colors! XD
There's a little good in all the sequels.
Why didn't you mention Paul Dehn, who actually wrote the movie?
Beneath was never my favorite of the franchise, and mostly for the same reasons you noted in the video. Because Charlton Heston refused to do the sequel except for a virtual extended cameo, they basically had to do the original movie all over again to introduce James Franciscus's Brent, and nothing extended the storyline until almost 45 minutes in. Brent is clearly a stand-in for Taylor (even to the scraggly beard), and the movie REALLY underuses Cornelius and Zira - almost certainly because Roddy McDowall wasn't in the film, and they didn't have the time or inclination to develop any kind of relationship with David Watson's Cornelius. Watson is fine, but he's no McDowall, and I had to be told this was Cornelius because he DID look and sound so very different.
I did kinda like the brief opportunity to see the apes in full-body makeup in the sauna scene (even if it did challenge credulity to imagine Maurice Evans "naked"), but they dropped the ball on OTHER scenes with the apes thanks to the reduced budget and the obvious masks in several sequences.
The revelation of the New York "underworld" was a clear attempt to outdo the shock of the first film, which failed miserably since we already knew the Forbidden Zone was New York so actually seeing it was no real surprise. And it didn't pay off at all since the mat paintings were lousy by any standards.
While the final act with the mutants and the Bomb was interesting, I don't think it worked any better than any other part of the film. Again, they basically wanted to outdo the ending of the original, but I never thought it was particularly well thought out. The mutants aren't much as characters and I don't think I was ever clear on their motivations.
One thing that irritated me after a while was this movie's implicit acknowledgement that Taylor and Brent's arrival in the era of the apes was due more to a time warp than by relativistic space travel (which was proven in Escape). It severely downplayed what Taylor's crew went through, and I just didn't like it. True, it did permit continuation of the franchise, without and despite the ending of THIS film. Heston admitted that he came up with the big boom ending because he was wary of yet another sequel. But, of course, in science fiction, there's always a way to continue a series.
And, let's face it, Heston's intransigence didn't matter much since once Escape came out, Roddy McDowall had pretty much become the heart and soul of the franchise, and we just didn't need Heston anymore. I always figured the only reason Tim Burton approached Heston for the cameo in his POTA film was because Roddy McDowall had died years earlier.
In the end, I still consider Conquest my favorite of the classic Apes films, with the original film and Escape being close behind in that order. I am still very ambivalent about the modern-day Apes films mostly because I remain unconvinced CGI is an improvement. And I haven't been in a movie theater for more than 3 years now. Ah well.
There is a lot of love for these films in these comments and that is fine with me. However, I have no reason to love or despise them.
They're all great films, other than escape which was just idiotic. Beneath was a solid sequel. Just a pity the TV series never took off.
Even as a child in the 70's, this movie was a let down, with Charlton Heston's greatly reduced presence. It was more like a glorified cameo.
The most enjoyable of the oringal sequels .... not, it's near the bottom, in order IMHO 1 > 3 > 4 >2 > 5 ... of the new Dawn > Rise > War > TB Remake, not seen Kindgom yet.
I find Escape to be the most enjoyable of the sequels, Beneath is the only one I find marginally unwatchable.
Still as good as the first movie, slowly went downhill from there.