Planet of the Apes

Unlike a lot of DVDs, Planet of the Apes is still pretty enjoyable even if you didn’t care for the movie all that much. No one can deny the technical achievement of Rick Baker’s make-up (except for people who really don’t like Rick Baker. But can you really trust them?), and this disc does all of the F/X stuff justice. In several of the documentaries, you get a look inside the “simian academy” the actors spoke so much about during the promotion of the movie. But the best part is the Enhanced Viewing Mode; what this is, basically, is a cooler running commentary. Instead of just having a droning voice-over (fans of this, take heart, there’s one of those too), this mode has pop-up windows in which the crew discuss the scene your watching, or else it shows clips of them actually filming the scene you’re watching. And when the pitchfork thing appears onscreen, hit “Enter” and you’ll get taken out of the movie and into yet another behind-the-scenes doc. There’s a lot here to like.