The Ape

A comic gem, tongue-in-cheek, dark, humorously constructed. I don't even like James Franco but this film changes everything. He's high in half of the scenes (you think I'm kidding? he is literally stoned in at least 2 i distinctly remember...you know red swollen eyes and all that) not every movie is the Godfather, not every movie needs to be. not every comedy needs to be Annie Hall, i'd watch this 1000 times before i'd ever watch Date Movie, Scary Movie, Epic Movie, Buddy Comedy Movie, Adventure Movie, Porn Spoof Movie, any of those Wayans brothers or Rob Schneider or David Spade vehicles...it's legitimately hilarious and it doesn't retard its audience (okay so there is a feces-throwing scene, but it's about an ape, that's inevitable) also the whole thing with him being an "ARTISTE!" it's brilliant...James Franco: A+ friend Bravo.

I just recently saw The Ape in Austin, and I absolutely loved it. To any who might doubt James Franco's ability behind the camera, this film will completely change you perspective. It was expertly filmed. The use of music to create almost a dance with the camera takes was wonderfully done each time. Perhaps my favorite part of this movie, however, is the actual script. Written by Franco himself, as well as Merriwether Williams, the writer of Sponge Bob Squarepants, it was originally a play, but it transferred well to the screen. Labeled a comedy/drama, each scene, no matter the situation, seems realistic and understandable. It is difficult to create a film that can make you both laugh while feeling complete pity, but this one does it effortlessly. Naturally, Franco's portrayal of the down and confused Harry is nothing short of awesome. The ending was a bit predictable, but this takes little from the impressiveness of the film. I give it a 9.

Okay, a movie for James Franco, also directed and written by Franco. It's about a working man who dreams to be a writer, so he rents an apartment to write his novel in peace, only to find that the apartment is occupied by a big foul-mouthed gorilla.

The presentation itself is good, interesting idea. However, through an hour and a half, all I gained from watching it is time wasting. It seemed that the film was done by amateurs; bad shooting, bad story, dialog is done poorly, and most of all bad acting, in fact Mr. Franco adds to the agony in this film by being a bad actor himself.

What chance did that film had to make it? By what it has now, none. Its only chance if it was done in different time (like in the forties and fifties, with remodeled storyline of course), or a cartoon film with family oriented dialog.

For me, zero stars are more like it, but I gave it two because the only thing that helped me through is that I managed to turn on my childish imagination and imagine that the ape is real.

This is a pretty funny movie. James Franco is quite a comedian, which you wouldn't know from seeing some of his darker, brooding roles. Go into it keeping in mind it is a dark comedy, mostly conversational piece, indie, odd story. Harry (Franco) rents an apartment so he can get a break from his distracting family life and finally put pen to paper. The big catch is that a gorilla is already living at the apartment. The gorilla is an actor in a suit, not a real live gorilla, which I guess I would've realized was the case if I'd looked more closely at the cover art. At first I was disappointed, because I expected there would be a real monkey in the movie. I quickly got over that because the actor in the gorilla suit was quite funny and crude.

It does get a bit repetitive and there are very few locations, so I did begin getting bored mid-way through after my initial reaction to the uniqueness of the story began to wear off. I imagine it was a hilarious stage play (which it was adapted from), but I do think it probably loses some of its charm in translation to the screen. I believe it was a one-act play, so they had to "pad" the story a bit to make it long enough to be a movie. It probably would be strongest in one-act length (45 minutes or so).

Overall, it is unique and I laughed out loud many times. You can watch it and analyze some "deeper" meaning because there are definitely layers of metaphor throughout the story…or you can just watch it and laugh.

As a film school graduate, I've seen my share of terrible films. Being a fan of James Franco's, I felt that The Ape would at least be interesting. Instead, I was tricked into watching a pretentious James Franco ego-trip. The only good part of the film was its music, which wasn't featured enough. Otherwise, this film was slowly paced, overly perverse, wordy, misdirected, miscast and wildly unclever. I hate bashing somebody's hard work, but if I were to sugar-coat my feelings, somebody might make the same mistake that I made by watching The Ape.

The next time James Franco has this much time on his hands, I suggest he take up treasure hunting, or anything else that doesn't involve writing or directing.