Get your stinking paws into a theater: Apes rules!

Wow, do you ever need to run out and catch Rise of the Planet of the Apes! A phenomenally crowd-pleasing entertainment, Rise just about does the impossible - it's a modern popcorn film with 21st Century sensibilities, but it's also a splendidly old fashioned revenge picture that delivers the goods and actually makes a lasting place for itself alongside all the previous Ape movies of the past.

There's been some talk about an Oscar nom for Andy Serkis as Caesar, and I'm more than happy to get on that train - er, cable car. In many ways, Rise is like a great silent movie. Sure, James Franco gets top billing, but the star of this show is Caesar. His feelings, his reactions, his indignation and ultimate rage - Serkis conveys so much emotion that it's almost overwhelming. Like those great Seventies revenge pulps where the protagonist endures endless amounts of indignity and suffering, all to justify the mighty can of whoop-ass he opens up in the finale, Caesar is like a simian Charles Bronson. You could watch Rise with the sound off and get completely caught up in Caesar's struggle.

Franco's father, John Lithgow, has Alzheimer's so he tests his genetic cure on Apes in the lab. Franco inherits young Caesar after early clinical trials go awry and as Caesar grows up, we experience the world through his profoundly soulful eyes. Freida Pinto is the girlfriend/veterinarian - and well, the less said about her character the better. When Caesar is forced to stay at a primate "rehabilitation" facility run by Brian Cox and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), the movie erupts into high gear. Just wait until you get a load of the other apes at Caesar's Shawshank. They are amazingly brought to life, truly characters in their own right and utterly compelling. As they - and Caesar - realize that he is not like the rest, things begin to escalate and you couldn't pay me to leave the theater at that point.

Rise is full of clever and affectionate nods to the original Apes films and leaves plenty of room for more sequels. Tom Felton's character is Dodge Landon -- named for two of the astronauts who accompany Heston on his space voyage in the original. Director Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) dares to continue the storytelling even into the end credits. I can't wait to see what they come up with for the next one.

Edited by Mark Goldblatt and Conrad Buff, James Cameron's Terminator cutters, Rise is relentless and emotional and satisfies like few modern blockbusters I can think of recently. Lithgow could really have toned it down a bit, as his Alzheimer's portrayal is a little too Blanche Dubois at times - there are also way too many shots of Apes exploding through plate glass windows. But these are minor carpings. If you have any fondness at all for the original Apes pictures, or if you ever wonder what evolution may have in store for us, you need to escape from your captors and get into the theater to see this right now! It's one of the best movies of the summer and easily finds its way onto the Sacred Scrolls alongside what's come before.