The Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Or better titled Escape of the Apes

 Mark's Review:

The Escape of the Apes: The Prison Heist Movie Goes Sci-Fi

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a clever film that understands that underneath all of its CGI wonder and Rod Serling heritage it is a prison heist film and a good one. Director Ruprett Wyatt, previously noted for the wonderful Brit prison heist film “the Escapist”, must have seen what the dozens of other Hollywood A-list directors missed when they passed on this project: it’s a great thriller. Like the original Planet of the Apes the allegory merely gilds the lily of a crackling good yarn.  However, this isn’t suggested that the film shortchanges ape film fans by forgoing shout outs to the series cinematic history: its chock full of them. It’s that just like the excellent CGI and nicely understated performances you may not notice while rooting for Caesar and his ape friends to flee for the redwoods before the greedy humans stumble their way into a global apocalypse.

These include:

The leader of the ape rebellion, Caesar (Andy Serkis) shares his name with the similar character, played by Roddy McDowell, from "Conquest of" and "Battle for the Planet of the Apes."

Charlton Heston makes a brief cameo, on a television screen at the ape sanctuary.

Caesar strikes up a friendship with an orangutan named Maurice -- an homage to actor Maurice Evans, who played the evil orangutan Dr. Zaius in the first "Planet of the Apes."

James Franco's Will Rodman takes his name from "Twilight Zone" creator and "Planet of the Apes" co-screenwriter Rod Serling, whose full first name was Rodman.

The media makes several background references to a spaceship named Icarus. A news report announces "Icarus Entering Mars Atmosphere" and a few scenes later, a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the same vessel was "Lost in Space." In the '68 "Apes," the Icarus is the ship that Taylor, Landon, and Dodge take to the year 3978; two movies later it's also the ship Cornelius, Zira (Kim Hunter), and Milo (Sal Mineo) take back to 1973.

Definitely not to be missed, I urge everyone to see this before we are all replaced by orangutans.

Review by our roving reporter Mark Tygart