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.

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.

Sadly, quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen. How it got made is beyond me. Atrocious idea, Hideous execution... The acting is pretty awful. James Franco spends half the movie with his eyes closed, hopefully trying to erase the whole experience and idea from his mind (unfortunately, it's impossible for the viewer). This movie feels very home made, with poor camera angles. There are a few pretty funny lines and one scene even manages to be downright hilarious. But it's not enough to save this work of 'art.' For a movie so obsessed with creating art, it's beyond me how Mr. Franco could honestly give this to the movie going (renting, actually, as I don't believe it ever went to theatres.. Not really a shocker) public. James Franco seriously needs to redeem himself somehow after this heinous contribution to the cinema canon. And I'm (maybe I was? I was so appalled by this movie that I'm not sure anymore) a fan of his. Do NOT rent this.

As a film school graduate, I've seen my share of terrible films. Being a fan of James Franco's, I felt that The Ape would at least be interesting. Instead, I was tricked into watching a pretentious James Franco ego-trip. The only good part of the film was its music, which wasn't featured enough. Otherwise, this film was slowly paced, overly perverse, wordy, misdirected, miscast and wildly unclever. I hate bashing somebody's hard work, but if I were to sugar-coat my feelings, somebody might make the same mistake that I made by watching The Ape.The next time James Franco has this much time on his hands, I suggest he take up treasure hunting, or anything else that doesn't involve writing or directing.