Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

**James Franciscus versus the mutant lunatics!**
A great, dark sequel to the original classic that goes beyond the downbeat ending of the original and gives us an even more depressing one! No mean feat considering how bleak the ending to the first movie was.
I love this movie. The legendary James Franciscus _(The Valley Of Gwangi_) is astronaut Brent - sent to find the missing Taylor. He finds him, of course, deep _beneath_ the ruins of a post apocalyptic city - imprisoned by _psychotic mutants_ with the power of telepathy.
Meanwhile, those _pesky apes_ are marching on the city to find out just what the hell is going on and what all the kerfuffle is about regarding reports of _crucified apes and bleeding statues._
This all leads to a shocking climax _you wont forget in a long time._
It's all rather disturbing and that is precisely why it succeeds.
- Potential Kermode

Charlton Heston's "Taylor" returns to top and tail this otherwise pretty poor sequel that features James Franciscus as "Brent". He, too, is an astronaut who is fleeing the wrath of the apes when he meets up with "Nova" (Linda Harrison). That's lucky because he's looking for "Taylor" and she was his gal for a while. Might she be able to lead him to him before the pursuing militia string them up? Well, she does lead him to an underground city that's populated with human religious zealots who have remarkable telepathic powers and worship a (golden) nuclear missile as their god. Yep, it's all a bit weak around the knees this. It's over scripted, there is nowhere near enough action to sustain it and I have never really understood Hollywood's flirtation with the Heston-esque Franciscus who looked ok with his shirt off, but really offered very little when it came to characterisation. I quite liked the ending - I just wished it had maybe come half an hour earlier! More to come, no doubt - let's hope they are better.