MOVIE REVIEWS

**A few guys in rubber masks throwing some chairs around does not make a global conquest.** I understand the budgetary restraints but come on. Twenty guys running amok with a chair leg is way to weak. The poster exclaims _a spectacle like never before witnessed_ and what do we get? A small crowd of men in boiler suits wielding a cabbage at the authorities. _I swear one of the Apes even threw a comb at a policeman._ A shame the budget wasn't there as the cheapness really restricted the promise.

<em>'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'</em> is the weakest of the first four films. It's watchable, still. It shares similarities to <em>'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'</em> from the rebooted 2010s series, though it isn't quite as entertaining or convincing. Serviceable it is, however. Roddy McDowall stays in the franchise, but as a different character in Caesar. McDowall is the clear standout from the cast, the rest of whom are solid if forgettable. I found the real world parallels a bit too forced in this one, while the long speeches near the end feel over the top. For the early 1970s, though, the look of the film remains pleasant - I do like watching these films, after all this is - in my opinion - still a passable flick; if indeed the weakest so far.

Last year, "Cornelius" and "Zira" were back in the 1970s. Now we scoot forward a few millennia and find that the Simian flu has robbed humankind of it's pets. Always in need of something to feed, comb and to take for walks, we have decided to domesticate chimps. The thing is, though, that this plan has started to spiral out of control. The animals have had just about enough of being the substitutes for our erstwhile four legged friends and are beginning to smell freedom. The governor "Brock" (Don Murray) is determined to beat down any rebellion, but hasn't factored in the appearance of "Caesar" (Roddy McDowall playing his own son!) who is the one who could make all the difference - he can talk, after all. Pursued, tortured and enslaved he must escape and rally his kind in their pursuit of freedom. This is quite a decent story because we have plenty of action and we have a baddie to focus on. For that, Murray is quite efficient at garnering our loathing as a typically megalomaniac politician. Ricardo Montalban carries through his role as circus owner "Armando" but frankly adds little to the theme that bubbles along nicely towards a denouement that shows that these former slaves are quite adept with a blow torch - who knew? It's all familiar now, and that allows us to just get on with this latest episode in a perfectly watchable season of movies.