Project X (1987)

Willie, the chimpanzee actor, is really great. Young Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt are also dynamic as sensitive human beings. This is only barely comedy, as the war of machines and their human servants against Mother Nature and her children is still being waged and taking victims.

Fmovies: There are a lot of great ape films. King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Congo, Planet of the Apes, and Gorillas in the Mist are all great ape films. However I feel that Project X is not also a great ape films, but one of the greatest and most under rated films that I have ever seen.

A young chimpanzee named Virgil is raised by a lady named Terri at a university. THere she teaches him how to use sign language. After a few years she loses custody of Virgil and he is to be sent to a zoo. However instead of going to a zoo Virgil is sent to a U.S. Air Force base where they use Chimps to simulate flight to help the Air Force understand some war tendencies better. At the base a young man named Jimmy starts to work closely with Virgil and develops a friendship with Virgil that will change both of their lives.

A big reason why this film is awesome is that it has awesome acting. Matthew Broderick is awesome in this film. He is a great actor but this is his best film in my opinion. Broderick shows great emotion at various points in the film. ALso he has a great presence with all of the chimps in this film and is truly a "Lord of the Apes".

Helen Hunt is pretty good too. I do not think that this is her best film the way I do with Broderick but she is pretty good. I think she plays the trainer who is sad to see her animal student leave great.

However as good as Broderick and Hunt are, there are other actors in this film just as awesome. Those whom I am speaking of are all of the chimpanzee actors in this film. VIrgil is awesome as the main chimp in the film who learns sign language and has a deep understanding. I also liked Goliath, the circus chimp who likes to smoke and does not like to listen to people more than he has too. The chimps do a great job of adding humor and understanding to the film. A lot of what they are doing is funny at times but by watching them and what they go through you gain an understanding of why it is important for animals to not be used as lab rats.

The message in this film is a great one. Many animals are used in tests that are not unusual to the ones done in this film. So by showing this on screen it helps people to realize that it is important to be ethical to animals and not just use them as lab rats.

I should warn viewers that there are some very touching parts that get emotional in this film. A lot of parts in this film touched me greatly and made me nearly get choked up. But I think that this helps to get the films message across.

A great film. Really under rated. Great acting by humans and apes. Highly recommended.

Air Force trainee (Matthew Broderick) is caught with a girl in a plane and is punished by being sent to a research facility where they train chimpanzees to fly with flight simulators. He becomes attached to one chimp in particular named Virgil, who was trained to speak sign language by Helen Hunt. Eventually he learns that the chimps are subjected to deadly experiments. So he seeks out Virgil's trainer so they can try to save the chimps.

Obviously this is an easy movie to deride. With its animal rights and anti-military themes, it's going to lose some audience members at the door. I'm not saying that the movie is completely fair on these issues. It's a pretty clear black & white/good vs bad kind of story that tugs at the heartstrings more than it engages the mind. But it does it very well. I enjoyed the movie a lot despite not agreeing with its oversimplified viewpoints 100%. Broderick and Hunt were great but the chimps really steal the show. It's hard not to feel sympathetic towards their plight. I also liked the ending, which many seem to think is silly. It was Disneyesque but appropriately hopeful. It's a good film. Check it out if you're not overly cynical.

Project X fmovies. I really enjoyed this movie, despite what cynics, bigots and critics say, who can't appreciate a drama that stands on it's own two feet.

It may be regarded as a "chick flick," but it's designed for those who have a heart, who have feelings. I saw this movie as a kid and recently bought it on DVD; I enjoy it now, just as much as I did when I was younger.

I realize that what was done in this movie has been done already in real life years ago, by the US Air Force, but this is a movie--it should be taken lightly as one.

The soundtrack is important in most movies and does great justice to this one. You'd have to appreciate composers of classical music, such as Horner, to appreciate this one. The acting was good and the chimps steal about half of the scenes because it's mostly about them.

I wonder how PETA felt about this movie. I just don't want to hear or read about them whining about anyone harming the chimps...

Jimmy Garrett wants to be an air force pilot but taking his girlfriend up in a jet while drinking champagne was not a move that seems likely to aid that career goal. That little stunt sees him bust down to helping in a special pilots project (Project X) which he hopes will see him trained up to be a pilot but really sees him looking after chimps who are being trained as pilots for some reason. Jimmy takes to the job once he befriends chimp Virgil, who appears to have been taught sign language. Things are good and Jimmy's technique benefits the programme until, that is, the painfully naïve chap learns the aim of project x.

Very much aimed at a young teen audience, this film is a solid family drama with a conscience and a message about animal testing. The basic plot is pretty obvious but it is effective in drawing the audience in with humour and of course the fact that monkeys are legally very cool and cute. I doubt anyone watching is as naïve as Jimmy and most viewers will see the obvious plot development long before it is revealed and from there it continues along a fairly predictable path. It is to its credit though that it is still quite engaging, exciting and touching despite this simplicity and older children will eat it up. It does have a message about animal testing but don't expect it to be balanced or weigh up pros and cons or anything like that because this very much has its Disney agenda. It is still sweet family fare though but it does take a lot of swallowing in both the simplicity of the message and the high-concept of the plot.

Broderick takes billing after all the monkeys which I suppose is only right. He is solid and works well with the chimps but the film is not his by any means. No, the film belongs to Willie (Virgil), Okko (Goofy) and the others. Virgil in particular is expressive and very well trained – in fact trained to the point that he does convince as the character he plays. Support is basic by comparison but still does the job. Sadler does his usual bad guy shtick while McGee, Stark and Hunt are all solid for what they have to do.

Overall then a basic but enjoyable family film that is simplistic on all levels but is cute, sentimental and quite dramatic. Probably not anywhere near good enough to stand up to viewings by discerning adults but it will make for a good family film if you have older children.

Yes, I agree with all the other positive comments posted on this film; it is a remarkable triumph that not only redeems our emotional sensibilities but makes us again realise that the unquestioning acceptance of `intellectualism' as the yardstick by which everything must be measured, has made us damn and paralyze one of the best parts of our being. With the rise of contemporary secularism, (and, so no one should misunderstand me, I write as an atheist), we have allowed science to become our replacement religion; seems like mankind just has to have something to `worship', but in doing this, we have, (just as we did before with religion), sanctioned diabolical cruelties against sentient beings, whether human or animal, in its name.

As Bernard Shaw, (and, by default, this movie) reminded us, the arguments used to justify vivisection are those which can be used to justify ANY atrocity, and PROJECT X rekindles that spark of humane compassion that materialism and self-regard have almost eradicated from our consciousness with their constant bombardment of `rational', dictatorial, and authoritarian notions. `We mustn't be emotional about these things' the `intellectual' and the `scientist' will retort, but why not?! Why not give animal beings the benefit of the doubt, if for one second there actually were any?

PROJECT X is a modern parable in both ethics and attitude; a powerful indictment of our misuse of animal beings. Mankind can't have it both ways; if, as the scientist argues, evolution is the means, then it is wrong to deny the opportunities this process bestows, (and which have so benefited us), to other species. If it is not the means, as the religionist argues, then it's simply a question of blasphemy, because these people assume rights which are actually denied them in Genesis.

A most worthy film which is well worth watching more than once, and a reminder that love and compassion can also be powerful agents of subversion!