Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Planet of the Apes

EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Planet of the Apes reviews
50
5.3 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 88 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Sci-fi

Written by: Pierre Boulle (novel)
William Broyles Jr.
Lawrence Konner
Mark Rosenthal

Directed by: Tim Burton

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 27, 2001
DVD: November 20, 2001

Running Time: 120 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for some sequences of action/violence

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren, and Paul Giamatti

Burton's Planet of the Apes begins with the famed original's premise - a pilot finds himself in a world turned upside down after landing on a strange planet - with the celebrated filmmaker's unique personal vision and style breaking new ground in story, design, makeup, and visual effects. (20th Century Fox)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

The new Planet of the Apes is not a remake, and it's not a sequel. It is an amazing display of imagination.

Read Full Review >
88

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

The marvelous Burtonic gothic/nightmare production design -- scenery, weaponry, costumes, etc. constantly pleases the eye without ever distracting you from the plot.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

This century's Planet of the Apes is a rouser, a screaming-banshee fun house.

Read Full Review >
80

Newsweek Jeff Giles

Has its flaws, but at its best it’s a fleet, fun action movie -- and certainly one of the cooler blockbusters that Hollywood will cough up this godforsaken summer.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Forget the heavy stuff. This monkey shines.

Read Full Review >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It has its flaws, and traditionalists are likely to think it falls well short of its inspiration, but it works on its own terms, it fills the screen with Burtonesque excitement and it strikes me as one of this tepid movie summer's better offerings.

Read Full Review >
75

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

There's one reason to see Tim Burton's flawed, somewhat declawed but often amusing do-over of Planet of the Apes. The apes. What else?

Read Full Review >
75

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Stuff yourself with popcorn, let the gray matter rest and enjoy what may be the best two hours of nonsense you'll see this year.

Read Full Review >
70

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

Perfectly acceptable, deliriously charming...a goofy Bmovie dolled up like a square-jawed A-list blockbuster.

Read Full Review >
70

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Past the first third, Planet of the Apes is entertaining enough, but it stops far too short of being completely seductive.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Simply put, Burton's film lacks the social and political gravitas of the original, a film that was wholly of its time.

Read Full Review >
63

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Offers a primal vision of the primate order turned topsy-turvy. It is provocative. It is frightening. It is a mess.

Read Full Review >
63

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Burton's made a film that's respectful to the original, and respectable in itself, but that's not enough. Ten years from now, it will be the 1968 version that people are still renting.

Read Full Review >
63

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

If only the director, or his deus, could have delivered us from the inevitable shock ending, which blends Darwin and Einstein with purest P.T. Barnum.

63

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

As a story, Burton's Planet of the Apes is more of a comic-book creation than either of his "Batman" movies.

Read Full Review >
58

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Are there surprises? A couple of big money ones, notably the ludicrous would-be jaw-dropper of a finale.

Read Full Review >
58

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Good, but, sadly, not good enough. Well-acted, beautifully shot and splendidly costumed, it's superior to the original in its looks, but not as potent or meaningful in its story line.

Read Full Review >
50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Planet of the Apes is never quite boring -- the movie is constantly giving you something new to look at -- but it's still a disappointingly dull and underplotted ride.

Read Full Review >
50

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Overly familiar industrial product, a big-budgeted entertainment defined by its putatively big concept (apes rule), an underwritten script and a few flashes of Burton's visual genius and gently askew worldview.

Read Full Review >
50

Time Richard Schickel

Mostly, the new film reminds us that swell production design is no substitute for a fresh, simple and startling idea.

50

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

With the exception of a battle scene with apes on all fours charging the humans, the film is monumentally silly.

Read Full Review >
50

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This film is pure, empty (if gorgeous) spectacle, and the decision to loose the tongues of the ape planet's humans (they were mute in the original) undermines the contrast that lies at the heart of the story's power.

Read Full Review >
50

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's too psychically flat and dramatically inert. Instead of reinvigorating a Hollywood classic, Burton only takes it to camp.

50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Burton is an imaginative director with a distinctive artistic vision, but his originality is nowhere to be seen in this by-the-numbers retread.

Read Full Review >
40

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Outside of a hyper-energetic, irresistibly evil portrayal by Tim Roth as General Thade, the baddest ape in town, the sad truth about Planet of the Apes is that, disappointingly, it's just not very much fun to watch.

Read Full Review >
40

The New York Times A.O. Scott

When Mr. Burton's "Planet" fixes on being entertaining...it succeeds. But the picture states its social points so bluntly that it becomes slow-witted and condescending; it treats the audience as pets.

Read Full Review >
40

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The longer I take to review this movie, the more the absurdities loom. So let me finish before I think about the story's stupidly plotted structure or recall how tiring it was to watch apes perpetually pushing humans to the ground or sending them pirouetting into the air.

Read Full Review >
40

New York Magazine John Simon

Devoured by its own mechanical ostentation, generates no emotional involvement, and has a smart-ass, infinitely less powerful ending than the original.

Read Full Review >
40

Variety Todd McCarthy

Largely listless and witless, this extensive reworking of the 1968 sci-fi favorite simply isn't very exciting or imaginative; most surprisingly, given the material, it's also Burton's most conventional and literal-minded film, the one most lacking in his trademark poetic weirdness and bracing flights of fancy.

Read Full Review >
40

Slate David Edelstein

Planet of the Apes has been designed and photographed (by Phillipe Rousselot) with real artistry, but in all the ways that matter it's hack work.

Read Full Review >
40

Mr. Showbiz Larry Terenzi

The most disappointing aspect of Planet of the Apes is that, despite its presentation, the film is so very ordinary, without urgency or revelation.

30

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

It's a campy, juiced-up ker-splat, busy with clumsy pyrotechnics and never nearing the vicinity of satire.

Read Full Review >
30

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

As satire it's toothless and at times close to incoherent; its predictable swipes are aimed equally at conservative racists and bleeding-heart liberals.

Read Full Review >
10

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

My Homo sapiens brain was boggled by the movie's clumsiness, while my heart was chilled by the chance that otherwise mature members of my species might mistake this disjointed botch for summer entertainment.

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.3 (out of 10) based on 88 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dan B. gave it a10:
For someone like me who hasn't seen the original, a type of person I think most reviews failed to consider, I think this is a more than competent, and very thought provoking, fitting modern sci-fi great, genuinly any fan of sci-fi, anyone who cares about animals, anyone who has questions about human nature and whats its all about, with get a lot out of this movie, without it even necessarily needing to be directly related to the viewer, and thats the beauty of it...Enjoy.

R. Lopez gave it a10:
Exceptional!! Planet of the Apes is perhaps one of the brainiest and most visually stunning film I've ever seen. Planet of the Apes stars Mark Whalberg as Captain Leo Davidson a 22 century astronaut who while his genetically altered Ape is investigating an electro-magnetic storm suddenly disappears into thin air, Davidson defies orders and takes a pod out into the cloud to look for his chimp. But as soon as he enters he losses all control of his ships and is sent into an alternate reality where Apes rule and humans are there slaves. Now Davidson has one shot of getting home, he has to tread across uncharted territory to find a sacred temple which could hold the shocking secrets to mankind's past- and the last hope for it's salvation. Planet of the apes is an amazing Si-Fi epic that will have you cheering for the little guy and will have you on the edge of your seat through out. I give Planet of the apes a 4 out of 5.

B R gave it a3:
I can't understand anyone giving this movie even a mediocre scroe. It was terrible. bad acting, predicatable plot. Just plain dumb.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
It's not outright BAD, but not very good. Has cool effects and all, but the story feels kinda cliched. Heard the old one was better (haven't seen it). Not a bad movie, just another piece of sci-fi stuff. Worth ONE watch, but maybe not more than that.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
How can people grip so much. This film is what a scifi movie should be. All the costumes are really cool. There is nothing to dislike about the movie. A lot of hard work went into the creation of this futuristic appeal. More than worthwhile viewing experience for everyone. The makeup, props, special effects, settings, choreography, and sheer attention to detail are all first class. The music by Danny Elfman is great. It really would have been nice for more positive comments to be added to this film to help develop a sequel. Planet of the apes rule. The female apes seem pretty. Plus it would be nice to be more ape like anyway since this movie points out how much stronger they are than puny humans.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
Tim Burton does another great job. This movie was good all the way through. Enjoy the movie for itself; try not to compare it to the original. Remaking such an icon is a big task at the best of times, and Burton does his best, using his original dark style to the film.

Rob M. gave it a 10:
This remake was well done and the plot cannot be any better than the first. Very good job on the makeup. The funnest part of the movie was when the human slave trader stated that the worse thing to be in the house is a teen-aged human.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use