Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Get your stinkin paws on a copy of this movie!

Dr. Will Rodman is attempting to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. One of the chimpanzees who is exposed to the drug shows an incredible amount of human - like intelligence and emotion, so Will raises him like he was his own child. He is named Cesar and he lives peacefully with Will until he is taken from him and sent to an ape sanctuary. It is there that he is exposed to the inhumane treatment his fellow primates receive, so he formulates a plan to not only help them all escape, but rise up against their human captors.

Prequels are never easy to make (just ask George Lucas). A prequel not only has to acknowledge and pay homage to the original film, but also present its own compelling story to fall in line with that of the original. The original Planet of the Apes (not the 2001 remake by Tim Burton, which was a mistake on a number of levels) carved out a niche for itself as a sci-fi classic, as well as creating a loyal fan base, due to its imaginative story - telling, an extremely quotable leading man in Charlton Heston (even if you have not seen the movie, you are no doubt aware of lines such as "take your stinking paws off me you damn, dirty ape") and ground-breaking makeup effects which made the talking apes believable. This meant that director Rupert Wyatt, James Franco and the rest of the cast and crew of "Rise" had quite a task in front of them but thankfully, for fans and regular film - goers, they were more than ready and created a film that not only does right by the original Planet of the Apes but holds its own.

The story revolved around how Will was trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's (a disease that was afflicting his father Charles). To that end, he experimented on chimpanzees, one of which (with a name that fans of the series will recognize) has a child that Will adopts and raises as his own after she dies. If handled incorrectly, this story could have devolved into a cliched summer action film which would have concentrated more on the destruction and chaos caused by the primates as opposed to the intelligent and thought - provoking film it was. Wyatt took the time to build the story, as well as the characters, allowing the audience the chance to get to know Cesar and empathize with him as he faced emotionally situations. It also helped that the gentleman playing Cesar (Andy Serkis) was able to provide so much emotion in his performance. Serkis is the same guy who breathed life into Gollum and King Kong but this performance has to be considered his finest. Add to that the spectacular finale, which featured the primates ripping up downtown San Francisco as well as the Golden Gate Bridge, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes turned out to be one of those rare prequels that came close to topping the original.

Grade: B+

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Don't be afraid of this movie!

Sally moves into a new house with her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim. Shortly thereafter, she begins to hear noises and learns that they are not the only ones in the house. But are these other inhabitants friendly or evil?

For a film that was supposed to be thrilling and/or suspenseful, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark certainly failed to be either. The story, which was based upon a 1973 made for television movie of the same name that apparently haunted Producer and Screenwriter Guillermo del Toro so much that he had to help remake it, focused on a family dealing with a group of bizarre creatures (fairies perhaps as the film was never too clear on the origin of the nasty little things) that threatened to destroy them. But the members of the family were so bland or annoying that the audience could not get involved in their stories. Katie Holmes was somewhat believable and likable as Kim, the new girlfriend who was trying to win over Sally, but her performance was not enough to lift the whole film beyond dismal. And then there were the creatures, who did not strike fear into the audience and seemed more silly than vicious. Plus Kim, Alex and Sally never took, what would have been, the easiest action in order to defeat the creatures (kick the damn things, they're smaller than you are!)

You should be afraid of this film for if you watch it, you will have wasted an hour and forty minutes of your life.

Grade: D

Cowboys and Aliens

Amnesiac gunslinger Jake Lonergan stumbles into the town of Absolution where he not only runs afoul of the man who runs the town, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde, but also a group of invading aliens who are intent upon destroying everyone. Jake must rally together the people of Absolution in order to save them from destruction.

Strangely enough a film about cowboys and aliens featured a story line similar to the alien invasion action film Independence Day. In both, different groups of people (for this film gunslingers, criminals, Native Americans, regular folks, etc.) must learn to overcome their differences and fight together to defeat an invading extraterrestrial force whose purpose for trying to conquer earth was vague at best (in this film the aliens were mining the earth for a precious metal, who knew gold was in such demand throughout the universe). Both films also featured enough action to keep the audience mildly interested and engaged. Where Cowboys differed was in the big names that led its cast. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford should have been able to provide stellar enough performances as Jake and Woodrow (respectively) to make the film something beyond a prototypical summer popcorn flick full of sound and fury but representing nothing. Ford certainly delivered, his Dolarhyde was an atypical anti-heroic turn that showed he could play a character unlike those people are accustomed to seeing him play. Craig's Jake however was hampered by a script overwrought with explosions and missing chances for him to emotionally stretch in any direction. In the end, he was all grunts or hard looks and never became someone the audience could connect with. The rest of the cast did not add much value (although Olivia Wilde was stunning as the mysterious Ella), the story stammered and stuttered as it tried to combine multiple subplots and never hit its stride and the aforementioned ending where the different groups of people banded together to fight the aliens felt hokey and forced.

Dig a little beyond the big name stars and overwhelming action and you'll find that Cowboys and Aliens was nothing more than an average comic book to film adaptation.

Grade: C