Last year, "Cornelius" and "Zira" were back in the 1970s. Now we scoot forward a few millennia and find that the Simian flu has robbed humankind of it's pets. Always in need of something to feed, comb and to take for walks, we have decided to domesticate chimps. The thing is, though, that this plan has started to spiral out of control. The animals have had just about enough of being the substitutes for our erstwhile four legged friends and are beginning to smell freedom. The governor "Brock" (Don Murray) is determined to beat down any rebellion, but hasn't factored in the appearance of "Caesar" (Roddy McDowall playing his own son!) who is the one who could make all the difference - he can talk, after all. Pursued, tortured and enslaved he must escape and rally his kind in their pursuit of freedom. This is quite a decent story because we have plenty of action and we have a baddie to focus on. For that, Murray is quite efficient at garnering our loathing as a typically megalomaniac politician. Ricardo Montalban carries through his role as circus owner "Armando" but frankly adds little to the theme that bubbles along nicely towards a denouement that shows that these former slaves are quite adept with a blow torch - who knew? It's all familiar now, and that allows us to just get on with this latest episode in a perfectly watchable season of movies.
