Escape from the Planet of the Apes

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES is a tale set in the madness of a paranoid 1970's in which zira and cornelius must fight for their lives and the life of their unborn baby. Using taylors ship zira and cornelius time warp to 1970's earth and are embraced by mankind. They soon become the target of a government think tank who fears their unborn child. In a era that listened to HAL LINDSEY scream the anti christ is coming this film taps into that paranoid vein with the "john birchish" character of Hessline who fears ziras baby. The film deals with the two apes dealing with 20th century earth and attempting to survive the scrutiny of the government. One of the best and most original films in the series the story told in this film makes it stand out. A fine film.

The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society, but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race. The "Apes" series gets more strange as it goes on, and the messages it uses are a bit blunt. We get environmental issues and political topics, sometimes with a discussion of race that is pretty blunt (the whole slavery thing is not subtle at all). This one even has religious themes, though they do actually hide those somewhat well. It may be blasphemous to compare the president to Herod the Great and Cornelius to Joseph (father of Jesus), but this film goes there. And it is actually pretty clever.

'Escape' is my favorite of the Apes series. What can I say about it? It's just heartbreaking! These movies.. the endings are incredible! And especially in this one. You NEVER see these kind of endings now! I actually found myself crying! Though, the movie at the beginning, is just FUN! Ricardo Montalban was great in this, as was Roddy and Kim. What more to say? EXCELLENT WONDERFUL movie!

No, this film is not as awe-inspiring as the original but it still maintains the viewer's interest despite the scaled down approach which was due to budget constraints. For much of the film the there is a humorous tone. Good performances were turned in by familiar faces (Braeden, Montalban, Mineo). The story, despite some holes, was quite riveting. I'm looking forward to the fourth installment. The sense of adventure and exploration (this time by the apes) and the continued presentation of parallels between this fictional world and our world still make for worthwhile viewing. 7/10.