I am considering going to see "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" today, but I think it may have to wait until another day. The star of the movie, James Franco, appeared on Conan's show last night to promote it, and Conan once again proved himself to be my perfect celebrity stand-in. He and I are the same age, and have similar off-beat senses of humor. He confessed that as a child he was heavily into the "Planet of the Apes" films.
"So you were a nerd," Franco said.
"I was a nerd," admitted Conan.
So was I. I owned the action figures. I wore a geeky ape mask for Halloween. (Okay, not just for Halloween. I wore it a lot.) I lived for "Ape Week" on ABC's 4:30 Movie, and would rush home from school each day. Monday: "Planet of the Apes," with Charlton Heston as Taylor, the misanthrope turned Human Freedom Fighter. Tuesday: "Beneath the Planet of the Apes," the cautionary, Cold War tale of humankind's propensity for self-annihilation. Wednesday: "Escape from the Planet of the Apes," the campiest of these campy flicks, which had Cornelius and Zira landing Taylor's repaired spacecraft in 1973 New York. Thursday: "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes," the revolutionary ape movie, in which racial politics of the time are mirrored by, and play themselves out via three species of apes: chimps, gorillas and orangutans. On Friday it capped off with "Battle for the Planet of the Apes," in which Caesar and the apes must hold back a human uprising, all the while resisting their own corruption and their growing inter-species "racism."
Tim Burton's 2001 re-boot was fun, and the makeup was an improvement on the 70's series. It was also a return to camp, in a sense; like most Tim Burton films, it never took itself too seriously. This new one employs the use of motion-capture technology and tells a brand new story.
Wow, I just re-read this post. Turns out I'm still an ape nerd. Who knew?
(I did.)
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