iTunes Exclusive Episode Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner.
Greetings, Empire member or members.
If you are hearing my voice currently, that means a couple of things.
Number one, it means you subscribe to the Clubhouse podcast on iTunes, which we greatly
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I'm sure you know by now, our normal live show is every Sunday, 9th, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific
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Is that simple?
It also means it's time for another.
My name is Rob, but I am the executive producer and basic ringmaster of this circus.
Whenever we do end, it means that we're here to review something, and this is no exception,
but let's first of all meet the players in the room.
First of all, joining me across the desk as he tends to do when we do these shows regardless
of their nature is a man who's loved for a film franchise as reborn this week.
He is the executive of the co-producer of this show.
He is also my co-host, he is Jack, welcome sir.
Thank you my friend.
Also joining us for this particular.
Is a man who has a blue tooth in his car.
It's a very random fact about him.
He is also the official fact checker of this show.
You may know him as fun, don, go.
But his mom and even don port, I'm going to call him, Don, for the welcome sir.
Thank you, blue tooth in my car.
Hey, don't you have the wireless, the lens free in your car?
Oh yeah, I'm happy for you when you first got it, because you called me in your
car.
I'm doing this in my car and there I'm a radio.
Oh yeah, okay.
I'm hungry.
I want some chunky monkey ice cream.
Okay.
Fair enough.
I'm not here to judge you outwardly.
Today, we are reviewing Don of the Planet of the Apes.
It is the second in the latest reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise.
Do we want to count the Tim Burton film?
No, but you have to, his for historical purposes.
Not really.
Directed by Matt Reeves.
You would know him from the American version of Let The Right One, called Let Me, and he
also did some episodes of Felicity.
The Yards.
It also was the writer of underseed to Dark Territory.
I'm not sure if he's willing to admit that publicly, but there's that.
Well, and you're admitting one of his more recent, more famous efforts too.
Cloverfield.
Oh yeah, that's right.
Basically, this takes place 10 years after rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I think
we can all agree that the naming convention here is backwards.
I would think you'd have Dawn before you'd have rise, but we're splitting here at
this point.
10 years after the end of the first film, humans have become more and more scarce because
of the virus that may be a spoiler for the end of the first one, but if you didn't see
the first one, I would just see the second one.
Let's just be honest here.
So Apes are now what we know to be the dominant species on the Planet, Caesar.
The main ape from the first one has become the leader of this tribe of Apes that lives
out in the redwoods outside of San Francisco.
He now has a family.
He now has a very, very loyal following, including the reemergence of the Apes that he
set free in the first film, Maurice Kova, Rocket, all of them.
One day, his son, known as Bright Eyes in this film, is a blue eyes.
Well, blue eyes, I may be I have totally close to the heart of my brain.
No, because in that what they called his mother in the first one, wouldn't her name
Bright Eyes?
Could have been.
I think that's why he named his son, blue eyes, fair enough.
They run into some humans.
Humans that are existing in San Francisco, who are trying to find a damn to power
the city because they're running out of fuel to do so.
There's some tension there.
And as the film progresses, we set up, which will probably be the third film as I was
really, I mean, that's really as deep as I want to go into the plot of this film, because
I really don't want to give very much a way.
No, we try to remain as spoiler free as we possibly can.
But included in the humans, we have Carrie Russell.
You're welcome internet.
I think it is much, I wasn't going to request it, I just figured it would happen organic.
From zero dark 30 lawless and public enemies, actor Jason Clark plays Malcolm, the
basically the main human.
Gary Oldman plays one of the people back at the city.
Cody Smith McFee, who's a kid you've seen a bunch of different stuff.
He plays Malcolm's son, Alexander, a parent Norman, Norman, if you can believe that.
Kirk Asovato, who's another one of those guys, he's been in everything you've ever
seen.
He's a regular one of Oz for a while, plays Carver, basically there's a lot of stars in
this thing, especially somewhere you, oh yeah, I know that guy.
So now that we've set this up, let's start with the direction of the film and Donald
will start with you.
How did you feel about Matt Reeves directing Donald at the point of the apes?
I overall was happy with it.
I liked the direction that this film took.
I went in thinking this film would go in one direction.
And the film, the storyline, is totally different from what I thought it would be.
What were you expecting going in?
I thought it'd be more of the old plan of the apes where we see Donald plan of the apes
where the apes are basically taking over and control all the humans.
So you're expecting, it's a man out, exactly.
Something like that.
Glad we didn't get that in where they're just taking control of everything, blah, blah, blah.
The film, they're not going now with direction, which I've really surprised me, but they
helped build the third one.
That's going to be coming out in roughly two years, but yeah, July 29th apparently.
It surprised me, but I liked the direction of the film.
I like to look at the film, the costume was incredible.
The special effects were incredible, I don't know how many people were in the apes and
how many people were CGI didn't that film on the making?
There were none.
There were no costumes at all.
But how they were able to act and walk like apes and everything like that?
All the surprise, chat, I was floored, I was absolutely floored.
I liked Don, was not sure what we were getting because of the change in directors, because
this is not the original director, but they're going to keep this guy for the next one.
Which we know will be out in 2016, but does not have a title yet, yeah, it's just got
a placeholder of the placeholder title of Planet of the A and even though we think we know
what the title will be, I am happy that he's staying on.
Yeah, this as good as the first one was.
Why is the name of that director escaping me right now?
This one of the last one.
The last one.
Oh, shoot.
Oh, I got you.
Just keep talking.
I'm trying to find a new one.
I'm trying to find a new one.
I'm trying to find a new one.
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
I'm also directed to the escapeist.
Yeah, not a lot.
I mean, it wouldn't anything that really jumped out at you and he did a rock solid job.
Because let's all, you know, let's let's address the, well, the 500 pound gorilla in the
room of, of how horrific the, yeah, very nice, uh, Rob in the background.
There we go.
Why did I welcome it?
Why did I not think of that one last night?
The Burton film was direct.
It was absolute.
It was horror garbage.
We really started to see the, the, the M non, sh, shamalan, the M not shamalan, men and
more emphasis of Tim Burton to where everything just kind of started to take a nose dive.
He's had a couple of ups here and there, but for the most part, it's just been in a downward
spiral.
And I have been in love with this film series since I was born.
I mean, the first one came out the year before I was born.
And I told you guys last night when I went in to get my cons elected me when I was five,
I was clutching a doctor's zeus figure on the way into the, you did tell that story.
I was just so I, you know, I'm, I've definitely have an emotional investment in this series.
And I was absolutely awestruck by by what they did with this film.
I didn't know that it could get that good for me.
I was impressed by the vision of the director that he wanted you to know how bleak it
was, but he wanted you to see that there was still a glimmer of hope.
I never thought that the, the grandness of it got away from him, as we've seen in some films recently,
where the, where a film's kind of gotten away from the director.
All spectacle and no substance.
Yeah, all silo resubtance.
I think he told a wonderful story where you understood, for, for an odd sample,
you understood both sides of the argument.
Yeah, you, you, you know, you could see a very firmly drawn battle line,
which I found with the newest version of Battle Star Galactica, you, you watched that
and you're like, well, I can see how neither one of these sides see themselves as the bad guys,
but really they both are.
And you kind of see that in this film.
It's like, you, you see that underswelling with the humans of, we don't have any beef with you,
but we'd be okay if you were gone from the planet.
Because we blame you for all the best of the, and where the apes are saying, we want to
exist peacefully with you, but we're willing to rumble if you need us.
Yeah, I thought this going to be the eight, more taking control in this film, but it was
shown how both sides tried to work together, but of course, you got idiot, some bad apples
and some terrible sides, you know, just want to ruin it for everything.
So I, I, I've really surprised me on the storyline in the direction.
And I, I thought Reeves did a great job.
I didn't really so much get the fact that the ace for the dominant species so much,
because you kind of got to get the right, you got to get the impression that the humans
didn't even realize that that's where they were, that they were even still up there.
But that's from both sides, because remember in the film, Caesar says, I don't know how many of them
there are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the, and the humans didn't even realize that they were still around either.
But, and there was a one point where they said, you know, they did not, well done,
sir.
You're welcome.
There's a one point where the, the, the apes said that we haven't seen a human in two
years.
And the two winters, two winters, or basically two years, two winners.
Oh, that's right.
It's been out there for 10.
Right.
And they said, yeah, it's been two winters since they've seen one.
But the performance is alone.
I mean, just like you said, you had no costumes.
And you see the film you'll understand, they couldn't have.
I'm so glad that I live in an age where visual effects have gotten this good where it
does it where you, it, it's there's barely, and because if we go back, as much as we love
the original pen and the apes series, you go back and it's, it don't age well.
It doesn't, because it, it said, I'm wearing a mask and the mouth doesn't move well
enough for me.
And it still looks cool.
Yeah.
So it's so good moving.
It's so enjoyable.
But it doesn't hold up to, you know, to what we're doing today.
The facial expression.
Good.
Lord.
I mean, and we got to see this in 3D.
Thanks to our friends at Allied Integrated Marketing.
Oh, God.
Thank those guys.
And in the Dolby Atmos.
Boy, there was one scene, particularly where the Dolby Atmos really wanted one.
It was more than one.
It was quite a few.
I want to really stuck out for me.
It was right at the end.
Where you just hear the monkey's crying.
All around.
You're just like, oh, my God.
The rain.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Visually.
It just, you look at a guy like Andy Circus with, if you don't know who he is by now, then
you're not nearly entrenched in geek culture as much as you should be.
No.
This is the guy that played Gollum in Lord of the Rings.
And he plays Caesar again, because he says, this is the second time playing the character.
And spot on incredible even though you know that's not him and that's that's CGI
in top of him.
They had to use his facial features for the motion capture.
And you can see the emotion on all of the apes.
I mean, there wasn't a time even on the big, the gorillas that were supposed to be
emotionless in the strong ones and basically the work courses.
You could see the anger when this thing finally comes to a head and, you know, and for
me really a standout performance is going to be Nick Thurston is blue eyes as the son
who is torn between wanting to fight and wanting to be loyal to his family.
It's, you know, this is a guy that you probably wouldn't have known in this country because
he was in, you know, he's been in some stuff over season to two episodes of bones, a couple
episodes of Castle, a couple episodes of Grim.
He's just a desk shot here and there, but keep an eye out for this kid.
He's great in this film.
Jason Clarkton incredible, I thought, you know, he has Malcolm, he has exactly as basically
the main human character in this film, he really, he really grounded the whole thing.
Exactly, he showed how he's trying to, he's like Caesar, they both have the same goal
in mind, but how do you make a work between two species when you, when you know you've
got somebody in your group that just wants to go ballistic on the other, on the other
group.
And both sides have that.
Yeah.
More than one.
And what I really loved visually from the performance standpoint is, you go in worrying
that you're not going to be able to differentiate the different characters and it's not
an issue.
From a body language standpoint, from an expression standpoint, you really, you really know
who's who.
You know, when Cobra rolls up, you know who he is, you know, when Maurice is there,
I mean, Maurice is kind of hard to differentiate.
Played by a woman.
Correct.
Second time.
Maurice is, you know, Maurice is one of a kind, you can't, you can't mistake Maurice
or anybody else.
Right.
Because he's the big orange or anotan, orangutan, I apologize.
Performance wise, I mean, I would have liked to have seen more of Gary Olman's character,
so I could truly understand the motivations a little bit more.
I was worried I was going to be in carry, Russell overload, but I really wasn't.
I thought she was very good.
Everybody served the purpose.
There wasn't anybody that I was like, why are you in this movie?
You know, where we've seen movies recently, where like you could cut this character
out and this character out, this character out, all of the character served the purpose.
And so because of that, it made this movie easier for me to watch.
In versus the first part, the original plan of the apes in this new series, especially
this film, you actually feel for the apes.
Well, they're not portrayed at neither side is portrayed as the villain.
And that's what I was saying earlier is, you see it from both sides.
Whereas in the original, you had to root for the humans.
Yeah.
And in this, you're kind of like, you know what, I see it from both sides.
Well, it's just like you always rooted for Cornelius and, uh, and, uh, and,
no, no, no, no.
Cornelius.
I just want to do that.
And the original, because, you know, he had nothing but the best of intentions.
You know, all he got, all he wanted to do was to, was to try to co-exist, but, you know,
you're, you're in a constant case of a power struggle.
Some great, um, omages to the original score.
If you listen closely during the film, you'll hear a lot of the, the Xiamalophone stuff
that was used in the original films, which I thought was, especially in the scenes
where the apes are running all over the city, very cool, uh, really an enjoyable film.
It truly is, and that's going to bring us to our final analysis.
On this show, if you're joining us for the first time, we don't give stars or grades or
numbers, because we believe that the empire, our audience is better than that and deserves
more.
So here's how we rate films.
The first question, because it's a two-prong question, is, would you see this film again?
If the answer is no, well, then we're done here.
But if the answer is yes, we go to the follow-up question.
The follow-up question becomes, how would you see this film again?
Would you pay full price?
Would you go 3D full price?
Because 3D is an option.
Would you go at a twilight show, which is that five o'clock hour?
Would you pay during a matinee?
Would you go early morning?
Would you watch it in second run?
Would you wait for it on DVD?
Would you wait for it on cable?
So down we start with you a four, so chat we're going to start with you on this one.
Would you see this film again?
God, yes.
Fair enough.
What would you be?
Well, either by, to see this film again.
Whatever I had to.
So you would go full 3D full evening price.
Don't be admissed, I would, I take out a, I take out a mortgage on my house.
Take out, see this movie again.
This is my favorite film with a year so far.
Really?
Absolutely.
That's a bold statement.
Absolutely.
That is a bold bold statement.
Don't we go to you?
Would you see this film again?
Definitely.
Okay, and how about, what's with that?
Actually, me personally, I would do twilight, but I'm going to recommend to the
Empire, because they deserve a third prong sometimes, a full price 3D.
This is worth the 3D.
I agree.
And it's another one of those films where it's not, ooh, look, we're in 3D, you know.
It's the 3D kind of enhances what's going on.
When you have an environment that lush 3D lends itself really well, the pulling you into
the environment.
You feel like you're in the forest.
Yeah, you feel like you're part of it.
You can spell it all the time.
You can spell it all the time.
The bigger the screen, the better I think for this.
I would see that this definitely, again, I would say pay for the 3D.
I wouldn't have a problem paying full price, but I think you might be better served at
a twilight, and maybe hit dinner afterwards, but I wouldn't hurt me to have to pay full
price for this film.
One of the things I overall, which I really enjoyed was the humanity, the caring for all
the characters on both sides, plus the action.
You've got a good amount of action too.
Absolutely.
It was a good balance.
It's very well done.
It's very well done.
It's very well done.
Absolutely.
Great point there.
Good.
We have to thank everybody that allied.
Our best friends in the whole wide world who give us the opportunity so that we can review
these films for you.
So you'll get these reviews when the films release you don't have to wait for us to go
see it first.
We've already done the work for you.
Go see this film.
Very, very enjoyable.
But do yourself a solid.
If you haven't seen the first one, see it first.
You don't have to, but it helps you understand a lot of the
subtle references in the second one.
And there is, there is a couple of callbacks.
There's one in particular that absolutely really need to have seen the first one to have
the emotional impact really hit you.
Alright, gentlemen, let's do the plugs.
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You can find our written reviews, especially for this film there and a whole bunch of other
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You want?
So, for Don, for Chad, for the Empire.
I am Rob, the clubhouse is closed and you know what?
As much as I like Carrie Russell, you've put Britney Palmer in that role, whole different
level.
I'm just sayin'.
The preceding was a sooner orgator production.
Get a hold, get a hold!
Why?
Because I have to.