Over Christmas I watched all of the Planet of the Apes movies again. To be clear it was the new movies and not the originals.
They are amazing films, and, as you progress through the trilogy, they just get better and better. With ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ being a true masterpiece.
I’m just hopeful that it doesn’t end there. There’s so much potential to take the series further and explore what happens next. Of course the original films start at a different point and move over a very long period of time.
In effect any new series could pick up where the original series started. That is of course just one possibility. The big question is what will happen with the astronauts who left the earth in the first of the new trilogy. That question was left open throughout the series.
However you look at it, there are countless ways the series could continue. I just hope that it does.
A couple of weeks before Christmas I picked up the entire Carry On movies collection for just £5. That’s 30 movies on DVD. Not a bad deal I thought. I bought it at a bric-a-brac stall at a local Christmas Tree Festival, so I felt I’d done a little for the community and got a bargain into the bag.
I’ve always like a few of the Carry On movies, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them all. However, I decided that now was the time to watch the entire collection in order.
It’s been fun and difficult at the same time. The early movies are much more like Ealing comedies, and it took a while for signature Carry On style to emerge. Some of those early movies are my favourites, especially “Carry On Cabby”, which has to be my all time favourite. It wasn’t originally supposed to be called “Carry On Cabby”, in fact its original title was “Call me a cab”, which you can clearly hear in the title music. For me it is by far the best.
As you progress through the movies chronologically the style develops and, sadly, the quality drops off. I knew this when I started, but, for £5 it seemed like an interesting experiment.
But there are a few greats in my opinion. “Carry on up the Khyber” for instance. That is still one of my favourites. There are others too, but that one, along with Cabby really stand out for me.
The box set doesn’t include the reboot “Carry on Columbus”, which was pretty poor in my opinion. There was a plan to restart around 10 years ago, but this never came to anything, and I think that’s probably a blessing too.
Disney’s film “The Black Hole” was their response to “Star Wars”. I can remember going to the cinema to see it, and the memory of it has always stayed with me. So much so that I found a copy of the film on eBay a few years ago and watched it again.
More recently I thought I’d get hold of a copy of the book, or rather, the novelisation of the film and try that. I finished reading it just the other day, and, on the whole, it is a fairly true reflection of the film itself. However, just as in the film, the ending, leaves quite a lot to be desired.
But the most confusing thing was the ending. The end sequence of the film seems to suggest that there is somewhere inside the black hole, and that’s where Dr Reinhardt and his evil robot Maximilian appear to be merged. It pretty much looks like hell though. The ending also seems to suggest that the crew of the Palomino make it through the black hole (can you go through a black hole?) and come out the other side.
One of the things that was a bit odd about the story were several references to how much things cost. This was in the film and the book. On a series of occasions characters referred to how much the Cygnus (the huge spaceship in the picture above) cost the tax payer. I felt that this was a bit strange and kind of out of place.
Although the book suggests that they have some kind of merged consciousness by the time they come through it.
All parts of this ending are pretty much unsatisfactory though. Even as a kid I wasn’t happy with this, and I’m still not happy with it. I felt like it required something more in terms of an outcome that could be comprehended. Of course, there will never be a remake now, or at least that’s very unlikely I would think. Depending on which source you check the remake was being considered in 2006 or 2009, but by 2016 was ruled out.
It’s a shame, it’s a missed opportunity I think, but never mind. The music was awesome.
I’ve been wanting to see this film for ages now so when it came up at the Tate Modern I was really pleased. But when I got there the added bonus was she was there too. Which was amazing. She gave a little talk at the beginning and then answered questions at the end. It was fantastic.
I didn’t know anything about this film until it got suggested on Amazon. It’s a spin off obviously, but I’d never heard of it before. I don’t have high hopes that it’s some kind of forgotten classic, but I will watch it at some point and see what it’s like. Although I am a bit nervous about watching it.
Now I’ve seen both, and within only a few weeks of each other, so I think it’s not a bad time to make a comparison.
I have to start with the fact that my preference is unchanged. I think that the original is the best of the two. In fact it is the best by far. Having said that, the remake has some very good qualities in its favour. First off, it is a very true remake. Very little is changed, with the exception of the ending, which, I believe, is much closer to the book. However, I’ve not read the book as yet. When I have there’ll be another comparison of all three.
Where I think the remake went wrong is in three key areas. I’ll explain them shortly. However, for now …
IF YOU HAVE ANY INTENTION OF WATCHING THESE FILMS, PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS FOLLOWING!
John Wayne can’t really be bettered. Bridges did a good job but I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do with his accent really. That seemed a bit strange to me.
The (for me) quintessential line “Fill you hands you son of a bitch” is delivered properly in the original. Not so much in the remake.
The ending. I won’t say why I don’t like the ending in the remake, but the original’s ending is upbeat and excellent, and I love it.
I’m glad I’ve seen both and I’m glad I’ve got both. In my opinion they’re both worth watching, but the original will always be the best.
I have seen this before. I didn’t like it though. I never felt it worked very well and I wasn’t sure of Jeff Bridges’ performance at all. But after seeing the original I wanted to see it again, just to be sure of what I’d made of it originally. I found this copy on eBay for £0.50 so I thought it probably wasn’t too much of a cost to see the film again.
I’ll get to watch it in the next few weeks, and when I do I’ll post some thoughts and comparison type stuff.
Well at last I went to see the new Star Wars film. I went to the iMax at the Science Museum, which is a brilliant place to see the film and a lovely venue all in all.
In some ways I was quite nervous. The original films were a big part of my growing up. The three ‘newer’, or ‘rubbish’ films were such a disappointment that I don’t really count them as Star Wars films at all. So I was worried that it wouldn’t meet expectations. However, it did. I really enjoyed it.
I won’t mention anything about the plot here or give anything away. I think that’s quite an unpleasant thing to do, especially to fans. But it really is a great reboot of the franchise, and a good signal that it’s back on the right track now. I’m glad it’s back.
I am Ashley Elsdon 