Popular reviews

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  Review by Griffin Newman 14

  Truly impossible to imagine a major studio allowing a movie to end this way today.

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★ 3

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  A very solid pick for the title of strangest sequel ever made. The first half is a hacky, shameless rehash of the first POTA. A Charlton Heston lookalike (James Franciscus) retraces Heston's steps (and I mean step by freaking step) through the Ape civilization. He crashes his spaceship, loses the rest of his crew, meets cavewoman hottie Nova, witnesses ape judicial hearings, provides shocked declarations about what he sees ("It's a bloody nightmare!"), gets shot by an ape, meets Zira and Cornelius, loses his astronaut clothes and winds up in a loincloth, gets captured by gorillas, dumped in Zira's clinic, escapes, and discovers that the Planet Of The Apes is actually Earth. If someone paid you to make the safest,…

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 6

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Starts as a bizarre beat-for-beat retread of the first film (including an a knockoff Heston actor who speedruns every plot twist he experiences) but just blatantly not as good in terms of mood and chase/escape setpiece construction. That is before letting the new series writer Paul Dehn (who took over for the next few sequels when Serling and Wilson were unavailable), well known for adapting pulpy commercial espionage films like Goldfinger and more serious politically dour ones like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, go absolutely hog wild and further develop the original film's human extinction anxieties and grim misanthropy into blatant Vietnam war, nuclear holocaust and reactionary religious fears.

  Introducing a "peaceful", subterranean cult of mutant irradiated…

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  Review by Karsten ★★

  monkey mondays #17 

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  Review by Colin the dude ★★½ 3

  Upside-down crucified apes, sacrilegious hallucinations, bloody stigmata statues, radioactive ritualizing, lingering death blows to the face and brain, mind control murder, nihilistic nuclear annihilation... all for the children in perhaps the most egregious excuse ever for a G-rated film. This description probably makes the film sound like a real demented trip worth taking, and the last 20 minutes or so are definitely that, but the first hour is one ginormous wet noodle of a retread. 20 Century Fox was in dire straits coming off some expensive, legendary bombs at the time and had to rush this slapdash and cheaply produced sequel that no one had any biting commitment and passion for and it shows. Even the ape makeup is slapped…

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  Review by CinemaJoe ★★★ 9

  Even if the first half is basically a rehash of the first movie, the ending of this one is so wild that I kind of have to respect the full send. Hollywood should just remake this one to mess with people instead of doing Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. 

  Anyways, I’m naturally very curious how there is a sequel to this???

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  Review by Jade talks too much🎁 ★★★½ 8

  What's more upsetting?:
  THAT ending🤯 or seeing Dr Zaius🦧 & his Gorilla friend🦍 take a steam in the sauna♨️. Eye bleach required🙈.

  This franchise is so bleak💀. The first half of this one is basically a sped up remake of the original with a Charlton Heston lookalike🧔🏼. It's pretty dull😑.

  But then it goes absolutely batshit crazy in the 2nd half🤪 and it was truly a sight to see. I couldn't believe it💣.

  I think I liked it🤷‍♀️. At least, I respect that it went real weird with it🙃. It's just really cynical so be warned💥.

  Planet of the Apes- ranked

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  Review by Sethsreviews ★★★ 1

  Such a strange sequel—the first half of the film is quite literally a lot less impressive beat-for-beat remake of the first film, with a less brilliant Charles Heston lookalike?? Nevertheless, the second half of this is significantly more interesting, particularly thanks to the conclusion that takes a massive swing. Odd film, but I still kinda enjoyed it.

  - Full Planet of the Apes breakdown coming soon on the Reeltok Podcast!

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  Review by George Carmi ★½ 6

  Essentially comes off as a parody of the first film with way less intruige and shallow commentary that never felt as impactful as it does in the 1968 film. Wierd that the first half hour is the exact same as the first film with a different leading man that looks way too similar to Charlton Heston.

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  Review by The Greek Geek ★★★ 2

  I legit thought James Franciscus was Charleston Heston

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  Review by 🎥K ★★★½

  Damn, that ending was dark haha. This was kind of a strange sequel but the good kind of strange in my opinion.

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  Review by Hatercles ★★★½ 6

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  I remember, when Dawn of the Planet of the Apes came out, an article bemoaning how Hollywood had made a fun, cheesy series into something dark and gritty. If you’ve seen the original Planet of the Apes movies, you know this was a journalistic lapse as big as the lead up to the Iraq War. Whatever you think of the recent Caesar trilogy, they are Sesame Street compared to the original series, made as America was in a pressure cooker of Vietnam and political assassinations and featuring racial strife, lobotomies, beloved characters brutally killed, and whose lightest entry still has a child murdered. And standing above them all is the second entry, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, possibly the…