Review: "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is a revisionist take on earlier legend

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" PG 13
The plague that attacked the human race at the end credits of Rise of the Planet of the Apes has decimated humanity, leaving San Francisco a wasteland, but a police state has formed in a futuristic colony building tower somewhere in the city. (It does not exist now). The film is set around 2026 or so, so it's the future. The apes that got out in the last one have set up camp in the woodlands across the golden gate bridge, but in the movie this is made to look like a vast Canadian style wilderness. Ah, Hollywood. The story opens in the ape lands using sign and subtitles, but then we meet the humans, who stumble into tgh woods looking to restore the dam. (What dam? Did they build that later too)? Then they can get power to the colony.

This might seem a little like "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" but with new CGI motion capture and nifty special effects tricks.

The human colony leader decides that he wants to arm his colony with weapons from a cache at the Presidio, which is for some reason still stocked with such things, even after a global pandemic. The leader is kind of paranoid and nuts, and when the apes show up he goes off the deep end, but the other rational humans try to go to the apes and get their help.

The dam is eventually repaired, but factions in the human camp and factions in the ape camp are turned to their own ends, and want to destroy the fragile peace, leading to a possible all out war in the streets.

Some of the post Katrina New Orleans streets are used as San Francisco ones.

The Canadian wilderness becomes the park land.

Anyway, the story is engrossing and exciting on the big screen and must be seen there, although HD bluray rentals would also be nice, or to own it.

Review by Adam Browne

Review: "Earth to Echo" tries very hard to be ET and Super 8 but is an echo of them

"Earth to Echo" PG 
An adult group of mysterious workers is allegedly building a freeway while some friends in high school use found footage techniques to go on one last night quest, but they find an alien instead. An alien crash lands in a Nevada suburb, leading some teenage boys on an adventure to free him and send him home. It sounds like ET from 1982 and like Super 8 from just af ew years back, but it's not. Echo stars a little CGI owl alien thing that is found in the desert and begins to mimik the boys that find it. They soon learn that it is trying to get to as space ship hidden under the neighborhood, and that is why there is a plan to uproot the area and allegedly build a freeway.

It isn't a bad movie, it's just like a cross between Cloverfield, shaky cam stuff, and super 8, and a bit of Paranormal Activity is tossed in. Some of it harkens to ET but more than often, the Goonies is also there, as they attempt to rehash the 80sd boy's journey deal again. It's worth a rental.

The young cast is merely competent and not as charming as those in Goonies or in ET, but they manage.

Review by Adam Browne