Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

hannatuka After being surprised by James Franco's comic chops in Pineapple Express, I went back to watch any and all comedies he's ever done. The Ape is certainly a different brand of humor than Apatow's Freaks & Geeks. There is a very dark element throughout, which recalls Kafka more than Dostoevsky (who is the literary muse on screen). The film is an unmistakable stageplay-- founded on dialogue, helping itself to more absurdity than cinema generally allows. Not that these are necessarily bad things. The quasi-philosophical exchanges between Harry and the Ape are by far the strongest sections of this movie (the SMAD practice presentation scene sent a roomful of us into fits). It's a bit problematic when the same level of expository philosophy seeps into the dialogue outside of Harry's apartment, however (as in the scene where Harry's coworkers discuss the merits of "boredom"). As an actor, Franco looks like he's having fun, and makes a wise choice to punctuate the dialogue-heavy script with a lot of physical slapstick. As a director, there are glaring problems with filming angles, especially in the early scenes where the unsteady camera is downright distracting. Only in the final scene does the cinematography finally come into its own. Despite some obvious flaws, the film felt like an enjoyable outing to a small local theater.

m_strupeck What I expected of this after seeing the trailer, I'm not sure. I guess I was hoping that James Franco would somehow have created a movie with a purpose. I thought, at worse, this movie would be so bad, it would be good. But this movie was so bad it 360'd back to bad. Why? Well, in most movies there's a suspension of disbelief, a relation to a character that makes you feel something, and a plot. This movie has maybe 1 of those 3. I really tried to get myself to believe that the character Harry was seriously living with an ape, but for many many reasons (one being that in 50% of the shots you could see straight through the ape mask) I was struck with the notion that James Franco just didn't know he was even in this movie. I'm pretty sure there were only 2 enjoyable moments in this movie. One was because I can't remember being able to use the phrase "apesh*t" and mean it in the most literal sense. The second was when the film inspired my friend to say "He literally **bleeped** Dostoevsky in the face". In the end, there was no "a-ha" moment that made me realize all the inaneness was worth it. But because this movie inspired me to bake both banana cookies and banana bread, I will give it three stars.

gavin6942 James Franco plays Harry, a struggling writer who leaves his wife and child to pursue his novel-writing career. But he finds the apartment comes with a surprise: he must take care of the previous owner's ape. Soon, his marriage, job and mental stability begin to crumble and he has nothing left but the ape.This film screams "independent film channel" by the way it was filmed. I don't know what it is specifically, other than it being independent, but it has that college feel that will only really make certain people happy. It made me happy, though it's far from the best indie film I've ever seen.James Franco, who everyone except me knows from "Spider-Man", is amazing: writing, directing and acting in this little piece. I think the writing was exceptional, with lots of good dialog, some unusual Dostoevsky references (which never get explained) and some good jokes, too. I really couldn't stop laughing about the whole "RedezJew" website. I don't think it was supposed to be so funny, but it was.I also really liked the SMAD personality test (Social, Martyr, Ambitious, Dependable). The conversation about who is a "social" and who is "ambitious" really has connotations beyond this film. Dependable and martyr are never explored, which is too bad -- I would love to know what they consider a martyr to be.The obvious complaint would be the horrible gorilla costume. It's not even a very good costume. But, it also becomes clear that the creators (Franco?) didn't care. You can see through the eye holes, and sometimes it's very amusing. And you know what? It works. If a movie tries to be serious and gives you this, they don't deserve any respect. But to be so blunt about their cheapness makes it alright. (Compare this to Teen Ape from "Filthy McNasty" -- that costume is even worse, but makes sense for the film.) The ending was a little abrupt. Just as we begin to explore Franco's mind, it comes crashing down. I can't say exactly how (because that would be a spoiler), but so many questions went unanswered and they simply cannot be figured out with multiple viewings. In this respect, the writing was not so good -- unless the point was to keep us wondering, but I doubt that.If you can find this film (it's hard, I've tried) you should check it out. May not be your cup of tea, but it's probably different from everything else you've ever seen. It's a good parable of what happens when ambitions swell up inside a man with no capabilities of pulling off his dreams. It's a pessimism piece, and we need more of those -- this world's just too happy sometimes.

Julia Sorry for the corny title... but I couldn't think of anything better! Being a James Franco fan, I naturally wanted to rent The Ape, even though it didn't look like a promising film from what people said. My friends and I settled in to watch it having NO idea what to expect. In the beginning, the movie made us laugh. James Franco's response to the ape was hilarious; the ape itself is just amusing to look at.As the movie progressed, I began to tire of the film though. The ape was incredibly foul-mouthed and I hated to watch the main character, Harry Walker, slowly ruin his life thanks to the influences of the crass primate. There were still scenes that made me laugh, but Franco's acting weakened a bit, especially when he was upset with his wife and boss.Yet the ending of this movie redeemed it for the most part. I was expecting a campy ending in which the ape removes his clearly obvious mask and he and Harry Walker go their separate ways. Instead the ending was dramatic and poignant, really making me reevaluate the movie on the whole. The entire movie was symbolic of a typical man's downfall.Despite the bad language and, at some points, weak acting, I enjoyed this absurd and surreal movie on many levels.