Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

I went to watch this film with anticipation and some trepidation it falls in to the double whammy category of remake, of a sorts from the Apes films and a prequel to the Mark Whalberg remake of the Charlton Heston classic Planet of the Apes. So I was not really sure what to expect from the film in general I knew that with James Franco and John Lithgow acting in the film and Andy Serkis doing the motion capture there were going to be some good acting and great special effects. The trailers which I have seen a few of and reviewed one here did not give as much away as I thought after seeing the film. The editing of them was quite deceptive and watching the trailer after seeing the film I have to say that they look like they are advertising a different type of film.
I have to say that overall I was fairly satisfied by the film as a whole, there was some good acting by John Lithgow as the Father with Alzheimers and a good performance from Tom Felton as a keeper in the Primate sanctuary with an interesting performance from Brian Cox as his father. The biggest disappointment to me was James Franco I thought he was totally miscast as the scientist I could not believe in him as a super intelligent character, which is a shame as I have really enjoyed a lot of his films recently. With Andy Serkis doing the motion capture for Ceaser I have to say that it was totally believable and the CGI which the film has to rely on heavily was awesome. The Apes which had to convey so much emotion without any words or communications you could see the intelligence and what they wanted from their movements and reactions.

Overall with worried expectations I have to say that I really enjoyed this film it is a strong 3 stars and I am interested what they are going to do with the series if this film is successful enough to spawn the probable sequel, I have to say that the nods to the original with Charlton Heston and the fact that it lossely linked back to the Mark Whalberg film were fantastic and I really enjoyed catching them. The one thing that bothereed me while watching was the sheer number of Apes in just the one city.

The Running Man (1987)

The Arnold Schwarzenegger film from 1987 based upon the book written by Richard Bachman who we all know is Stephen King, so you have a sci-fi film from the pen of Stephen King, I have never read the book but want to. This is another film that I have seen several times and I love it every time, it is the real height of Arnold's career where he gives all of his best one-liners including the I'll be back repeated from 1984's The Terminator.

I will see this many times again in the future and recommend that everybody gives it a go. You have a future where the corporations are running everything and the number one rated show on the network is The Running Man where criminals are sent in and killed by themed Stalkers, you have Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards who had been previously framed and escaped from jail and he is launched into the game zone. This film works so well as it puts the corporations with all the money as the bad guys and as liars.

This is a 4 star recommend for me, it suffers form being dated a bit and there are laws that some people will not get over but i think it is well worth seeing.