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Behind the Planet of the Apes | Year: 1998 Directed: - David Comtois Priceless A magnificent documentary that originally aired in AMC in 1998, that acomplishes being an interesting and complete retrospective on the whole "Planet of the Apes" phenomenon. An excellent opportunity to update your "ape-knowledge" just prior to the upcoming Tim Burton "re-visit" (not re-make as he has often underlined) to the Pierre Boulle world. This film is hosted by late Roddy McDowall and includes very interesting and exciting behind the scenes material, such as a first "ape make-up" test. Go Ape! As a fan of the 1968 film starring Charlton Heston, a film school graduate, and a fan of the VHS documentary from '98 I was very anxious to see this new version. The 2 disc set has the original 127 minute documentary, hosted by the late Roddy Mcdowell as well as host of extras. For the most part, it serves fans of the films very well. There is a wealth of rare footage showing a lot of behind the scenes stuff not seen in the documentary. The best of that stuff is the full make-up test with Edward G. Robinson James Brolin and Heston. There are all 5 "apes" trailers, a National Association of Theater Owners "preview, outtakes, and dailies. Also included is an unedited or "raw" interview with McDowell that offers some nice tidbits and a unique perspective After watching all of this it reaffirmed my belief that Tim Burton's take on the PLANET OF THE APES is visually stunning. But it doesn't hold a dozen banannas to the original.film in terms of story or impact Anyone who sees the documentary will gain a new respect for all involved with the original film and its sequels More apes than before As stated before, the main feature (Behind the Planet of the Apes) is the same as that in the 30th Anniversary VHS and DVD sets, so nothing new here. But included are great extras, such as featurettes and previews (one even containing deleted footage) and the entire screen test as seen in the 'Behind ...' feature. There are also outtakes and dailies from the first film, though they contain no soundtrack so the score is played instead. All in all, some pretty darn good extras. The real treat is the full unedited Roddy McDowall interview which is almost 2 hours. The only problem with the set is that the feature which is the basis for the set was included with both the out of print and upcoming re-release of the dvd sets and by mail order from the vhs set. Thus, all the new features could have been put out on a single dvd. If the dvd set had been done right, all the extras (except maybe the full interview) could easily have been included earlier and it would have been even better. As it stands there's a great interview and over an hours worth of extras avaible nowhere else. The only reason I gave it four stars was I had to pay twice for something I already had just to get some great new stuff. Buy Behind The Planet Of The Apes at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Behind The Planet Of The Apes Search with the Priority Search Engine on Behind The Planet Of The Apes This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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