Tim reviews the sci-fi thriller “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” with Bryan Piatt on KARE 11 TV (NBC) in Minneapolis. See the review of the film, starring Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell and Keri Russell, below. You can also read the print version of the review on BringMeTheNews.com.
Also, read Tim’s interview with director Matt Reeves HERE.
Also, listen to my review of the film with Steve and Dan on WOC Radio 1420.
Smack dab in the middle of a summer movie season where most of the films don’t require audiences to give their brains a workout, director Matt Reeves clearly has something different in mind for audiences of the sci-fi sequel “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”
Much like “Dawn’s” predecessor “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and the classic films in the “Apes” franchise, Reeves said he wants you to think about what you’re seeing.
“The intent behind ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ was to try and honor the tradition of where these films come from,” Reeves told me in an interview Thursday. “We wanted to do a movie that was going to entertain you, but that also had ideas and emotion behind it.”
Opening nationwide Friday in 2D and 3D theaters, and on large-format screens, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is set 10 years after the end of “Rise,” when the Earth’s human population has been decimated by the human-made Simian Flu virus.
A group of survivors find hope, though, in the redwoods outside of San Francisco, where the chance of restoring power rests in the same area where the highly intelligent ape Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his large band of evolved primates live. First viewing the humans as a threat, Caesar begins to regain trust and allows the humans do their work — at least until ape and human detractors each find a way to incite a war.
A fan of the original “Planet of the Apes” since he was a kid, Reeves said the 1968 film to him was what “Star Wars” was to others. Finding the original film terrifying, thrilling and intellectually challenging all at the same time, signing on to direct “Dawn” was a no-brainer for the filmmaker. The bonus, Reeves says, was the story and technology that helped jump-start the franchise again in 2011.
“Doing the film was a really special experience in many ways, especially to go back into the world of my childhood because of how big a fan I was of those movies,” Reeves explained. “Then as adult, one of the things that I loved about ‘Rise’ was how the technology and Andy Serkis’ performance actually allowed you to become an ape. It changed the perspectives in whole new way. In the original film it was about watching Charlton Heston trying to figure out what was going on and being fascinated by the apes, but in ‘Rise,’ you actually become Caesar.”
Unique new direction
While there are fewer homages to the 1968 “Apes” than there are in “Rise,” “Dawn” still refers to its original source material, including scenes of apes on horseback and the use of the iconic edict, “Ape shall not kill ape.”
Reeves said weaving the classic material into the “Apes” franchise is exciting because it gives him the opportunity to create fresh stories while laying the groundwork for where the franchise is headed — the story that propels the 1968 movie.
“For me, the big thing was to try and be aware of entering the ‘Apes’ universe, but at the same time try to do something we haven’t quite seen yet and go along the same trajectory toward the 1968 movie,” Reeves explained. “The world of ‘Rise’ and ‘Dawn’ is so different than the 1968 movie, so the fun of that is, is to try to imagine how our world becomes the world of the original.”
Unlike the reference at the end of “Rise,” “Dawn” doesn’t mention the manned rocket getting lost in orbit and losing contact with Earth. But Reeves, who is signed on to direct the next “Apes” film, said just because they’re didn’t talk about the Icarus in “Dawn,” doesn’t mean the idea of wayward spaceship is lost, well, in space. After all, the return of the spaceship to Earth is what sets the 1968 movie in motion.
“I still find it interesting that when I first got involved in ‘Dawn,’ somebody asked me if it was boring knowing what the end of the story was, as long as you know that it becomes the world of the 1968 film,” Reeves noted. “I said that knowing that world was the most exciting part.”
That’s because, Reeves explained, the stories being told through the “Rise” and “Dawn” movies “don’t tell you about what happened, but about how it happened.”
“The idea of exploring the how and the why through Caesar and future generations makes it like an epic, mythic and exciting generational ‘Apes’ story to me,” Reeves said. “I’m actually hoping that we don’t get to the 1968 story too soon because there’s a rich story to be told along the way, but I definitely want to get there. I think that’s the part of the fun of the story, knowing that the Icarus comes back down and the astronauts return not knowing where they are, only to discover the planet that Charlton Heston did in the original. That’s in our minds as we’re trying to figure out the trajectory and as we’re trying to figure out the next story.”
For now, though, Reeves is happy to focus mainly on Caesar, especially because of the conflicts he’s forced to confront in “Dawn.”
“Caesar is such a compelling and interesting hero to be because he’s got roots such strong roots in his human side and on his ape’s side,” Reeves observed. “The idea of having to reconcile that and engage in a war that he never wanted to be a part of, and how his son would react, is interesting. We were thinking, ‘Is this sort of the way to do ‘The Godfather’ with apes or something? Caesar is like Don Corleone, and as we know, ‘The Godfather, Part II’ was a father-son story with his son becoming the next leader. It’s not like we’re following that pattern with the ‘Apes’ films, but we certainly have the same sort of ambition to do character-based stories.”
Toying around
While “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” tackles some very serious themes, Reeves said he’s been able to have a bit of fun as a fan of the franchise, too, enjoying “Apes” merchandising like the new set of “Dawn” action figures made by the toy and collectibles company NECA.
“I was really excited to see them, and to be honest, my favorite is Maurice (the baboon),” Reeves enthused. “Toys were such a big part of my childhood and imagination growing up.”
Noting how a lot of kids grow out of the habit, Reeves said was glad to find company in this writer, as he learned we’re about the same age and grew up with the same interests — namely movies and action figures.
“A lot of times I think toys are just for collectors. It’s fun to think that the people who are most excited about it are the kind of people like you and me,” Reeves said, laughing.
In a way, Reeves said, the new “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” action figures are like a full-circle expression of what the Mego toy company’s “Planet of the Apes” figures meant to him as a child, when he filmed Super 8 movies that starred his favorite plastic playthings.
“I did a weird mash-up of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Planet of the Apes’ where I did a movie called ‘Galactic Battles,'” Reeves recalled. “It was a grand space opera, Saturday matinee kind of stuff. I used ‘Star Wars’ figures, and instead of aliens, there were gorillas.”
Tim reviews the new road comedy “Tammy” with Bryan Piatt on KARE 11 TV (NBC) in Minneapolis. See the review of the film, starring Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Allison Janney and Sandra Oh, below; and a review of the music dramedy “Begin Again,” starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine. You can also read the print version of the reviews on BringMeTheNews.com.
Also, read Tim’s interview with Kathy Bates HERE.
Oscar winner Kathy Bates has done it all over the past three-plus decades, from comedy, drama and family films, to adventure, mystery and horror — so you can about imagine how unique a film role has to be before she signs the dotted line. But when it came to the new comedy “Tammy,” it didn’t take her long to commit to the project, mainly because it presented her with a first.
“The main reason for doing it was Melissa McCarthy. I had seen her in ‘Bridesmaids,’ and I wish I could be as clever, wonderful and physical in comedy as she is,” Bates told me in a recent interview. “I wanted to get to know her — I really wanted to understand her secret. I wondered, ‘How can she stay so real yet push the envelope the way she does, physically and comedically?'”
Bates said she still doesn’t have the answer to the mystery, but she at least has a better understanding of who McCarthy’s gifts mirror.
“I can see a comparison in her and Lucille Ball in the way Melissa fearlessly goes places that a lot of actresses wouldn’t go,” Bates said. “She’s nimble, quick and fearless. ”
Bates added that being around McCarthy encouraged her to up her comedic game — or at least try to up it.
“It was wonderful to pretend for a while that you can be as funny as she is,” Bates said, laughing. “When we were all doing our improv scenes for the film, we were just shameless trying to be as good as Melissa because she raises the bar — but of course, we fell short.”
Opening in theaters nationwide on Wednesday, “Tammy” stars McCarthy as the title character, a down-on-her-luck fast-food worker whose day starts off with a deer-car collision and quickly spirals out of control from there. There appears to beacon of hope, though, when her hard-drinking, foul-mouthed and sexually liberated grandmother, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), bankrolls a well-intended road trip that quickly detours into disaster.
Bates stars as Lenore, Pearl’s cousin who provides safe harbor to Tammy and her grandmother when Tammy runs into trouble with the law.
Apart from working with McCarthy, another first for Bates working on “Tammy” came with throwing a Molotov cocktail, which is featured in a scene where she’s helping conceal some evidence connected to one of Tammy’s many misgivings.
As Bates discovered, tossing the flammable firebomb was fun — and a bit dangerous.
“That was really a blast, I have to say,” Bates said with a chuckle. “I held one a little too long and it exploded in my hand. It was sugar glass, so you really had to throw it quickly once the end of the cloth was lit.”
Fortunately, Bates wasn’t hurt in the incident (“It caused a tiny nick from a sharp corner of the sugar glass,” she said), making her Molotov cocktail-throwing endeavors all the more enjoyable.
“It was fun to blow up shit or pretend that you were blowing up shit — and not be arrested,” Bates enthused.
In addition to playing opposite McCarthy, Bates said she was also excited to work under the direction of Ben Falcone, McCarthy’s husband and co-writer on the film. Falcone, of course, has also worked often with McCarthy as an actor, too, in such films as “Bridesmaids,” “The Heat” and at the beginning of “Tammy” — and Bates believes his experience as an actor was not only beneficial to his creative partner, but to the whole cast.
“Ben had been with the script for six years and he knew how he wanted to shoot the film and the story he wanted to tell,” Bates said. “Being an actor is really a major plus in his makeup as a filmmaker, because a lot of younger writer-directors haven’t a clue how to talk to actors. But because Ben knows acting so well, he knows when to say something and when to shut up. He also knows when he’s got a shot. He doesn’t have to play it over and over from the beginning until the actors are exhausted and don’t know what the directors want.”
Bates, who stars with Sandra Oh as a lesbian couple in the film, also appreciates the way Falcone presented the healthy relationship of the couple, which is revealed in a pivotal scene where Lenore in a tough love sort of way explains the hardships of life.
“In the scene, I wanted Lenore to talk about the difficulties 20 years ago of being in love with a woman, starting a business , trying to get to know people in the community and have a normal relationship with them,” Bates, 66, recalled. “Straight people in those days were probably ill at ease, of course, and others more accepting. So in the case of this film, to have two gay women build up this business and have the healthiest relationship of all of them, was inspiring. There were no caricatures. There was tremendous love.”
Another relationship examined in the film is the family dynamic between Lenore and Pearl — and Bates said she couldn’t have been more excited than to play cousins opposite Sarandon.
“I was very gracious to have scenes with her. The film really gave me my first chance to do scenes with Susan, even though we were both in a film with James Spader called ‘White Palace’ where I played Jimmy’s boss,” the “Misery” Best Actress Oscar-winner said. “I was very green as a film actor back then and was very much in awe of Susan. Still to this day for me, ‘Thelma and Louise’ is right up there as one of the most wonderful movies ever made. Susan’s and Geena Davis’ performances in that movie really get to the heart of women’s rage.”
Apart from Sarandon’s screen work, Bates said she loves how Sarandon “puts her money where her mouth is, politically, when it’s not fashionable to do.”
“She’s very well-versed about what’s going on in the world with global issues, so I’ve always admired that trait in her,” Bates said.
