A*P*E 3D Blu-ray (1976) [Region A Locked]

[Robert Furmanek]

[Zivouhr]

Cool, thanks for all of the information on Ape 3D's intentions with the credits.

Originally Posted by 3Dfan

The only time I didn't see the opening credits on my passive 3d tv was when looking through only the side that didn't have them

Yes, when looking in one eye only, it will vary. Glad you enjoyed the 3D in the film. Definitely one of my favorite 3D examples.

[Interdimensional]

So. I finally managed to see A*P*E.
(The shipping company Amazon contracts with over here had returned to sender without contacting me first, without so much as leaving a delivery note - I ended up having to reorder it... I wish they'd just sent it through regular post).

Well, this one totally exceeded my expectations. I thought it was a lot of fun and has aged beautifully.

I suppose it helped that expectations were unusually low to begin with. Skimming through some of the reviews on IMDB and elsewhere, I now feel anyone who watched this flat just totally missed the point and wasted their time, and sometimes fault it erroneously.

One of these reviews claims A*P*E uses military stock footage from a previous movie, Yongary. All the military footage I remember was in perfect 3D, so I'm not sure how they'd manage to pull that from a 2d film.

Originally Posted by Joe D.

Just watched it. Obviously not a great movie for its genre but not a ridiculously bad film. I expected to be laughing throughout the film but instead found myself more entertained by it, admittedly because it was saved by the 3D.

The story line wasn't all that bad. Not having high expectations made me admire the good points of the screenplay and overlook the periodic poor ones and mediocre moments of acting (people running away wasn't that convincing).

Thought went into the overall screenplay. Having the wind blow the gas away from the ape was clever. I think some of the lines that came out funny were meant to be, unlike Plan Nine and other Ed Wood classics. The closing line was corney, however.

There were three real bad production goofs. One was hearing the director yell "cut" at the end of the scene and another was the American Colonel's hair sticking up toward the back. But I wonder how a single, stationary camera can follow action blocked by two walls with its stars running down steps and further out of sight?

This was an inexpensive production and must be taken in consideration as to why, outside of the 3D (which unfortunately did have its share of terrible ghosting), the special effects were mostly poor even though admirable in concept. That of course was when the hillarity came in. The ape costume itself was bad. But one thing, this ape had better animation by the man inside the suit than Rick Baker was able to achieve with the delaurentis production.

I find myself largely in agreement with Joe D's review. Obviously there's a certain amount of incompetence and an element of not having a whole lot of money to work with. No one's going to confuse this for a slick Hollywood production. I thought they did just fine for the most part, and a lot of the humor works as intended. Colonel Davis was played almost like a character from Airplane! The actors all did about as good as anyone could've expected, given the material, although they were often let down by poor sound quality. It's clear that most of the locals are amateurs.

I just kept wanting it to be that small bit better. The thing that lets down the whole production is the apesuit, but even there, I was surprised to see the mask was better than expected, even exhibiting some personality in close-ups. The problem in general is the suit is too loose fitting. If they had padded it out a bit more and better disguised the human form I could've been a lot happier with it. Although, to read some reviews, the sloppiness of the effects it part of the appeal. I just don't look at movies like that.

Where I have to respectfully disagree with Joe is in terms of the A*P*E's suit performance relative to that of Rick Baker. The performer in A*P*E's suit didn't have the slightest notion of how an ape should move. That was the one area where it became almost surreal in comedic badness at times. Even there a lot of that's intentional, like sitting crosslegged with a straw in his mouth, or the strange dancing. But when he was stumbling around bent over, I just wanted a better performer and a creature with real presence.

I thought the editing in these scenes wasn't bad at all. At least in terms of cutting from apesuit to humans, back to apesuit, to full size ape hand reaching for human actor. Given the quality of the models, no one will be fooled for a second, but if you can suspend disbelief, it basically works. Better than in some kaiju movies I've seen with better production values. There was only one scene where I thought the interaxial gave away the scale of the miniature work. Most of the time, I think the low POV, and the slow motion were enough to get the point across. I think they also may have pushed the convergence back. ...Of course I'd rather have strong 3D than diminished 3D for the sake of realism any day of the week.

I enjoyed a lot of the so-called padding. I questioned their judgement in the nature of the movie Marilyn seemed to be making, although as Movieman66 points out earlier in this thread, this may have been a reference to Lipstick, a Di Laurentiis production of the same year. But the worst stuff was at the very beginning. Very badly lit, and I had to look away during the scene with the shark corpse. A grotesque spectacle, purely for the sake of living up to the poster.

At the time this was made, South Korea looks to have been very different to the advanced nation we know today. It's great to see so much location footage, and all of it in very satisfying 3D. None of the little subplots were of much substance on their own, but I just feel how much sense does it need to make? The one time I found it tested my patience was towards the end when I start to wonder how many phone calls the Colonel has to take and if he'll ever get away from his office.

Overall I thought it was cheap and cheerful fun. The budget I see thrown about for this picture was $25,000, which is nothing compared to the approximately $25 million of the De Laurentiis King Kong. In one sense I'm almost amazed they were able to deliver as much of a film as they did. I found it highly entertaining.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by Interdimensional

So. I finally managed to see A*P*E.
(The shipping company Amazon contracts with over here had returned to sender without contacting me first, without so much as leaving a delivery note - I ended up having to reorder it... I wish they'd just sent it through regular post).

Well, this one totally exceeded my expectations. I thought it was a lot of fun and has aged beautifully.

I suppose it helped that expectations were unusually low to begin with. Skimming through some of the reviews on IMDB and elsewhere, I now feel anyone who watched this flat just totally missed the point and wasted their time, and sometimes fault it erroneously.

One of these reviews claims A*P*E uses military stock footage from a previous movie, Yongary. All the military footage I remember was in perfect 3D, so I'm not sure how they'd manage to pull that from a 2d film.



I find myself largely in agreement with Joe D's review. Obviously there's a certain amount of incompetence and an element of not having a whole lot of money to work with. No one's going to confuse this for a slick Hollywood production. I thought they did just fine for the most part, and a lot of the humor works as intended. Colonel Davis was played almost like a character from Airplane! The actors all did about as good as anyone could've expected, given the material, although they were often let down by poor sound quality. It's clear that most of the locals are amateurs.

I just kept wanting it to be that small bit better. The thing that lets down the whole production is the apesuit, but even there, I was surprised to see the mask was better than expected, even exhibiting some personality in close-ups. The problem in general is the suit is too loose fitting. If they had padded it out a bit more and better disguised the human form I could've been a lot happier with it. Although, to read some reviews, the sloppiness of the effects it part of the appeal. I just don't look at movies like that.

Where I have to respectfully disagree with Joe is in terms of the A*P*E's suit performance relative to that of Rick Baker. The performer in A*P*E's suit didn't have the slightest notion of how an ape should move. That was the one area where it became almost surreal in comedic badness at times. Even there a lot of that's intentional, like sitting crosslegged with a straw in his mouth, or the strange dancing. But when he was stumbling around bent over, I just wanted a better performer and a creature with real presence.

I thought the editing in these scenes wasn't bad at all. At least in terms of cutting from apesuit to humans, back to apesuit, to full size ape hand reaching for human actor. Given the quality of the models, no one will be fooled for a second, but if you can suspend disbelief, it basically works. Better than in some kaiju movies I've seen with better production values. There was only one scene where I thought the interaxial gave away the scale of the miniature work. Most of the time, I think the low POV, and the slow motion were enough to get the point across. I think they also may have pushed the convergence back. ...Of course I'd rather have strong 3D than diminished 3D for the sake of realism any day of the week.

I enjoyed a lot of the so-called padding. I questioned their judgement in the nature of the movie Marilyn seemed to be making, although as Movieman66 points out earlier in this thread, this may have been a reference to Lipstick, a Di Laurentiis production of the same year. But the worst stuff was at the very beginning. Very badly lit, and I had to look away during the scene with the shark corpse. A grotesque spectacle, purely for the sake of living up to the poster.

At the time this was made, South Korea looks to have been very different to the advanced nation we know today. It's great to see so much location footage, and all of it in very satisfying 3D. None of the little subplots were of much substance on their own, but I just feel how much sense does it need to make? The one time I found it tested my patience was towards the end when I start to wonder how many phone calls the Colonel has to take and if he'll ever get away from his office.

Overall I thought it was cheap and cheerful fun. The budget I see thrown about for this picture was $25,000, which is nothing compared to the approximately $25 million of the De Laurentiis King Kong. In one sense I'm almost amazed they were able to deliver as much of a film as they did. I found it highly entertaining.

Nice, detailed review, thanks Interdimensional.
Yes, Ape 3D is a must see in 3D. In the case of this fun, entertaining low budget B movie, I definitely agree with what you said, and also prefer the shots of the Ape were filmed in strong 3D and not diminished for realism's sake, as Ape appears often throughout.

[xplorar]

Finally saw APE last night!

I expected horrible production values and that's what I got. However 3D in it was excellent. Sweet pop-outs that deserve a special mention - fiery arrows and poking guns! Pierced my eyeballs.
Depths & layering were great too. Way better than expectations!

I didn't expect the movie to be so "Korean". It turned out to be "The Great Wall" of its time. It was heart warming to see Americans & Koreans working together. There should have been more co-productions like this.

Restoration work is superb!

I can recommend the film only if you are 3-D completionist like me. Otherwise it will seem like a waste of time. I, for one, am glad that I saw this all alone and didn't make my friends/family sit through it.

[Interdimensional]

Originally Posted by xplorar

Finally saw APE last night!

I expected horrible production values and that's what I got. However 3D in it was excellent. Sweet pop-outs that deserve a special mention - fiery arrows and poking guns! Pierced my eyeballs.
Depths & layering were great too. Way better than expectations!

I didn't expect the movie to be so "Korean". It turned out to be "The Great Wall" of its time. It was heart warming to see Americans & Koreans working together. There should have been more co-productions like this.

Restoration work is superb!

I can recommend the film only if you are 3-D completionist like me. Otherwise it will seem like a waste of time. I, for one, am glad that I saw this all alone and didn't make my friends/family sit through it.

yes, as much as I had a good time with it, I definitely wouldn't inflict A*P*E on an unsuspecting audience that hasn't already acquired a taste for such things.

Not for them that don't appreciate the joys of wire-assisted projectiles on wobbly trajectories out of the screen!

[Zivouhr]

Ape 3D was entertaining with strong, filmed 3D, agreed. I would like Gorilla at Large to join Ape 3D on blu ray 3D in the future.

[T. Warren Scollan]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

Ape 3D was entertaining with strong, filmed 3D, agreed. I would like Gorilla at Large to join Ape 3D on blu ray 3D in the future.

"Gorilla at Large" ain't gonna happen until Fox and TT can get their sh*t together and decide who's gonna pay for a 3d master.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by T. Warren Scollan

"Gorilla at Large" ain't gonna happen until Fox and TT can get their sh*t together and decide who's gonna pay for a 3d master.

Thanks T. Warren. Yeah, that is disappointing to hear. I would like to see Gorilla At Large just to picture what the 3D might look like. I will have to watch Ape 3D again soon. Glad to have this one on blu ray 3D.

[Interdimensional]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

Ape 3D was entertaining with strong, filmed 3D, agreed. I would like Gorilla at Large to join Ape 3D on blu ray 3D in the future.

you and me both.

... There's really no competition in terms of which movie has the better apesuit, although A*P*E's gorilla was even more at large!

[Zivouhr]

Yes, the Gorilla at Large suit looks realistic, very cool, thanks.

[UFAlien]

Finally bought/saw this. As a lifelong fan of kaiju films I'd been hearing about this as one of the great stinkers of all time since I was a kid, and boy were they right. I enjoyed myself for the most part but there were times when it was a tough sit because it got so repetitive and obviously padded.

The 3D restoration work is unsurprisingly excellent and the few issues I noticed were obviously results of the original photography. Definitely some fun pop-outs here and there, though when throwing stuff at the camera the cast and crew seemed to miss their mark at least as often as they hit it.

I was quite bemused to find out Mimi Leder - who directed Deep Impact, one of my favorite films - was an AD on this project as her father was the director.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

Finally bought/saw this. As a lifelong fan of kaiju films I'd been hearing about this as one of the great stinkers of all time since I was a kid, and boy were they right. I enjoyed myself for the most part but there were times when it was a tough sit because it got so repetitive and obviously padded.

The 3D restoration work is unsurprisingly excellent and the few issues I noticed were obviously results of the original photography. Definitely some fun pop-outs here and there, though when throwing stuff at the camera the cast and crew seemed to miss their mark at least as often as they hit it.

I was quite bemused to find out Mimi Leder - who directed Deep Impact, one of my favorite films - was an AD on this project as her father was the director.

Cool, glad you got to see Ape 3D. That's true that some of the pop outs were heading towards the screen anyway, and then kind of missed the mark; usually the ones on strings. Still fun though and a nice number of pop outs.

[hasslein]

OK they resolved the problem of A*P*E, I was more concerned about the giant rattlesnake he threw out of the tree, and the damage it could do!

[Joe D.]

Actually, for a low budget film, A*P*E wasn't all that bad. Had its amateur moments but also clever ones and even though the ape costume seemed like it came from the old E.J.Korvettes, it was still fun and entertaining, and not a Plan 9 by any stretch.

[skiizim]

I don't normally post like this but since I'm sure most would overlook this there is a listing on ebay for $10.19 shipped.

[jimqk]

Finally got around to buying this. My only comment - Oh my God.

[MercurySeven]

Originally Posted by jimqk

Finally got around to buying this. My only comment - Oh my God.

Jim, is that a Kong-style chest thump of celebration, or is it more like ...



I only ask because this is the last 3DFA blu I've yet to purchase.

[Smaugone]

Originally Posted by jimqk

Finally got around to buying this. My only comment - Oh my God.

Another positive review!

[jimqk]

Originally Posted by MercurySeven

Jim, is that a Kong-style chest thump of celebration, or is it more like ...



I only ask because this is the last 3DFA blu I've yet to purchase.

Remember in The Poseidon Adventure when Jack Albertson kept pressing Ernest Borgnine about the condition of Shelley Winters after she just saved Gene Hackman's life? All Ernest would says is, "She made it through!"

All I'm saying is, "The 3-D effects are good."