Beneath the Planet of the Apes [Blu-ray]

Planet Of The Apes, Sci-Fi,

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Beneath the Planet of the Apes is the second movie in the series and my personal favorite. Probably the darkest of all five movies, the story begins with Taylor and Nova riding through the Forbidden Zone where the first one left off. Taylor mysteriously disappears, but Nova is able to find Brent, the only survivor of the crew sent to rescue Taylor. After seeing Ape City, Brent and Nova go into the Forbidden Zone where they find an underground city of mutants who worship an atomic bomb as their god. Meanwhile, the Apes are planning an attack on the Forbidden City. The story is very good and also examines the prejudices of the Apes that are so similar to the ones of the humans they so despise. This is not the happiest movie, especially the ending, but it is still a great movie and the ending does fit.
James Franciscus plays Brent, the astronaut who survives the crash, and plays it very well. His

performance is similar to that of Charlton Heston's in the first one, and at some points they even look alike. Charlton Heston does make a brief cameo in the beginning before disappearing and then comes back in the last twenty minutes to help Brent. Kim Hunter reprises her role of Zira while David Watson takes the role of Cornelius instead of Roddy McDowall who was busy working on a different project at the time. Maurice Evans is great again as Dr. Zaius with James Gregory giving an excellent role as General Ursus, the leader of the armies bent on destroying anything they come across in the Forbidden Zone. Linda Harrison is gorgeous as Nova, and she even gets to say something in this one. Fans of the series will love this movie even if the budget was less than the first one, which is very obvious in some scenes. The Planet of the Apes is offered on DVD but each individual film is not offered seperately. Too bad, because these are great films. For fans of the Ape series, check out Beneath the Planet of the Apes!