Planet der Affen: Prevolution (2011)

Planet der Affen: Prevolution: Directed by Rupert Wyatt. With Andy Serkis, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Richard Ridings. A substance designed to help the brain repair itself gives advanced intelligence to a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.

“The Iceman Cometh is one great film to go out on for not one, but two of the best players ever. This turned out to be the last performances for both Fredric March and Robert Ryan. In the case of Ryan he knew he was terminal and his performance has real poignancy.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOf course you canu0026#39;t beat the material that was given to them and the rest of the cast. Itu0026#39;s been argued that The Iceman Cometh is the greatest work from the pen of Americau0026#39;s greatest playwright Eugene Ou0026#39;Neill and Iu0026#39;m not going to argue the point.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome would give the honor of Ou0026#39;Neillu0026#39;s greatest play to Long Dayu0026#39;s Journey Into Night. That particular play was Eugene Ou0026#39;Neillu0026#39;s remembrance of his childhood and family. The Iceman Cometh is also about a family of sorts, the community thatu0026#39;s been established around Harry Hopeu0026#39;s waterfront bar and SRO flophouse. Itu0026#39;s owner Harry Hope played by Fredric March, is a former Tammany politician whou0026#39;s not set foot outside his establishment because heu0026#39;s in mourning over his late wife Bessie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe whole usual crowd of boarder/drinkers is awaiting the arrival of one of the regulars who apparently likes to go slumming there. Itu0026#39;s Hickey, a gladhanding traveling salesman Lee Marvin who spends like a Diamond Jim Brady and is generally the life of the party. But itu0026#39;s a new and somber Hickey that comes to bar that day.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA stranger arrives that day also, Jeff Bridges a young anarchist is on the run he says from the Pacific Coast where his mother among others has been picked up. Heu0026#39;s looking for an older leader of the movement Larry Slade who is played by Robert Ryan. Ryan is a beaten and tired man and of all the people in the bar heu0026#39;s the one with the most realistic assessment. Itu0026#39;s the last stop for this crowd before the Grim Reaper.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut the somber Marvin, still full of salesmanu0026#39;s guile gets them all to reassess themselves and their u0026#39;pipe dreamsu0026#39; even for a little while. He also reveals a terrible secret about himself and Jeff Bridges has even bigger cross to bear and Bridges canu0026#39;t bear it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI was blown away by the performances of everyone in the cast. Marvin came in for some criticism at the time, attempting to serious a part and one that Jason Robards, Jr. was given acclaim for as his career role. But there was nothing wrong in Lee Marvinu0026#39;s performance that I could find. Young Jeff Bridges more than held his own with the veteran cast. My favorite among the supporting parts is Bradford Dillman who plays a lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law and for whatever reason, broke down and is now here.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne member of the cast in this production was in the original Broadway cast when The Iceman Cometh premiered on Broadway in 1946. That was Tom Pedi who played the bartender Rocky Pioggi who also doubled as a pimp for some prostitutes who hang out there. Next to Ryan, the women who we donu0026#39;t learn anything about really, seem to have the most realistic ideas about the patrons there. Pediu0026#39;s performance in a part he grew to own is pretty special also.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBridges is the outsider, he had a cause, a revolutionary cause and Ou0026#39;Neill in his youth hung around with that crowd as we learned in Warren Beattyu0026#39;s Reds. We also learned that while Ou0026#39;Neill liked the people he was less than optimistic about the beliefs they had. If Bridges is a failed John Reed, Ou0026#39;Neill in Ryanu0026#39;s character of Larry Slade is looking back over the years when he drank in such places as Harry Hopeu0026#39;s. The rest of the cast is no doubt modeled after people he knew back in the day.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn his own way, Ou0026#39;Neill loved these people a whole lot more than he did his own family. And itu0026#39;s to them and for them he wrote The Iceman Cometh. And itu0026#39;s for us to see a small part of New York in 1912, some folks who might have passed unnoticed by time, but for the fact that a literary genius passed among them.”