He's gone naked for porno scenes in Boogie Nights, suffered unspeakable torture at the hands of the enemy in Three Kings and drowned in A Perfect Storm. Now, the ever hot and hunky Mark Wahlberg spends most of Planet of the Apes getting bashed and battered by a bunch of human-hating simians. 

As he has conquered the big screen, Wahlberg has subdued the macho bravado he used to flaunt as a bad-boy rapper. It's hard to believe this quietly serious actor is the same guy who once got into a shoutfest with Madonna and bared his bod for Calvin Klein and Penthouse. 

Now, Wahlberg follows in the footsteps of the mighty Charlton Heston with Tim Burton's reimagining of the classic hit Planet of the Apes. As a marooned astronaut enslaved by upwardly mobile primates, Wahlberg goes head to head with the hairy dominators, led by the evil Thade (Tim Roth) and his faithful gorilla lieutenant (Michael Clarke Duncan). Helena Bonham Carter portrays Ari, the chimp who falls in love with him and aids his battle for freedom.

You're filling Heston's shoes, but would you have worn the loincloth he had on in the original? 
I was petrified of that. It was my biggest fear. When I met Tim Burton, I said, "I'll do anything you want and play any part you want." When I found out I would get the astronaut role, I thought I'd probably have to wear what Heston wore. But I couldn't say, "Tim, by the way, when I said I'd do anything, that didn't include a loincloth." 

So, I just had to wait six long weeks before the first wardrobe fitting. I went in and--thank God--there was a space suit in there. I'm sure if Tim had known I was so nervous, there probably would have been only a loincloth. He would have pulled a prank. I would have come out of the fitting room in the loincloth, and George Clooney would have been there with a bunch of guys laughing and taking pictures that he would have passed all over town. 

You're known for putting a lot of work into preparing for your roles. What did you do for this one? 
Tim wanted me to put on some weight, because I had just finished Rock Star, for which I had lost 35 pounds, so he wanted me to bulk up. Now, me being the research freak I am and wanting to be prepared, I wanted to go to NASA, I wanted to sit down with astronauts. 

Tim was like, "Listen, you get in the space capsule and just start flicking switches." So, I went over the switches, figuring out exactly how I'd flick each one. Then they relit the scene and said, "You've got to flick those other switches."

What was it like that first day on the set, surrounded by gorillas? 
There were times I started to panic. There's a scene where I'm sort of looking at the ground, and I see these furry feet and these weird sandals beside me. I look up, and there's a guy in a gorilla suit. And I think, You know what? I made a huge mistake. This is not where I belong. But then, of course, I see Tim, and I'm like, I'm okay. Just trust the man. 

You're joining the ranks of action heroes now. Harrison and Arnold, eat your hearts out. 
Just stopping in for a minute. Just dropping by, guys. 

Charlton Heston has a memorable cameo in full ape makeup. Did it seem weird to meet the guy who helped make the original such a huge hit? 
He came on the set looking like an ape. But you could hear that voice, so you knew instantly it was him--which was scary in itself. Then we started to talk, and he was looking at me, and he just took his ape nose and ripped it off. 

You could see a good part of his face behind the mask--and that was even weirder. He paid me a couple of really nice compliments, which I was blown away by, and we talked a bit about the movie and his makeup and stuff. 

You actually worked with real chimps. How did you get along?
I spent a couple of weeks with them, and they got really close to me and were very protective. Then they met Helena, who I guess smelled a little better than I do, and they turned on me. They even attacked me one day. Two of them jumped on me at the same time and started pounding. 

Did you freak out? 
Actually, I started fighting back. I was ready to punch them in the head if I had to. But the trainers were there, and it wasn't that big a deal. The next thing you knew, they were sticking their hands down Helena's pants. It was wild.

Speaking of Helena, the rumor is persistent that there was a really hot love scene between you two that was cut from the original script. 
I started it--but I was just joking around. I did a couple of interviews, and I said, "Oh yeah, Helena and I have a really hard-core scene together--man and ape woman. We're banging away and messing around." People started to believe it. 

The next thing you know, they're asking Tim, "Why did you cut out the love scene?" He went along with the joke, saying, "Well, we shot it, but I wasn't there that day." I guess it got a little out of hand. But there's a definite romantic attraction between my character and Helena's. If we do another one, there's no telling where that romance is going. 

You do get to kiss her, though. What's it like to kiss a chimp? 
Real chimps stick their tongues in your mouth all the time. It's nasty, because they put their tongues anywhere and everywhere. Kissing Helena, even in her ape costume, was great. Helena's a much better kisser than a real chimp. 

How would you describe this attraction between an ape woman and an astronaut from another world?
It's so romantic. I was rooting for them to leave together. I was like, Take her with you. Are you crazy? She's everything I'm looking for in a woman, you know. Aside from the facial hair.

Next, we're going to see you in Rock Star, which is based on a true story, isn't it? 
It's very loosely based on Rick Rowan, a kid from Akron, Ohio, who was lead singer in a Judas Priest tribute band. Through a twist of fate, he eventually became lead singer of Judas Priest, which is an amazing story. 

You had long hair, which reportedly wasn't a wig. How did you like changing your look? 
I hated it. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me. You roll down the window in the car, and your hair is flying out. You try to sleep and--I turn a lot in bed, roll around a lot--so you're lying on the hair constantly. I didn't even want to shower, because it took so long to dry. 

Have you given any thought to doing another album as Marky Mark?
You never know. I had a meeting with the president of my record company, Interscope, last week. People are always talking about it. I've met with a couple of interesting hip-hop guys. 

You just finished filming the remake of Charade, in which you take on the role played by Cary Grant. What did it take to get ready? 
I wrapped Planet of the Apes--we finished in Hawaii at 5 a.m.--I got on a plane, and I was in Paris 18 hours later on the set of Charade. I had to learn French. We also tango, so I was taking dance lessons. It was an amazing experience. Four months in Paris, and a week in Martinique. 

You've reinvented yourself along the way. If you had it to do all over again, wouldn't you rather just be Mark Wahlberg, movie star, and skip all the other stuff? 
In a perfect world, I would have been Mark Wahlberg, professional athlete. I would have taken any sport. But I ventured off into the other worlds, and I learned a lot. 

What did you learn? 
You learn from your mistakes, you get some valuable lessons. I would have liked to have gone back and done certain things differently, but they made me the person I am today. 

When I was Marky Mark, if I didn't want to go do a show, I wouldn't go. If I wanted to go on late, I did. But you can't live your life like that forever. I needed the discipline of making films. It's been a good thing for me. 

Has what you've accomplished surprised you? 
There's a part of me that says, Well, it's supposed to happen like this, and it's not a big deal. But then when I get an opportunity to look at all the things I've done--the good and the bad--it's pretty amazing. I think I've done more in 20 years than most people will do in a lifetime. And I have a lot more to go. 

Mark Wahlberg had one big worry when he was asked to star in director Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. He didn't want to spend half the film running around in a loin cloth. 

He jumped at the opportunity of taking on the old Charlton Heston role of an astronaut who lands on a planet ruled by apes. But he was also conscious of the fact that to many filmgoers he was still the muscular hunk who -- under the name of Marky Mark -- was once the mainstay of all those Calvin Klein underwear ads and that to some producers he was valued for his beefcake potential more than for his acting. 

Not that he resents the Calvin Klein days. "I don't mind that much. If I'm walking down the street and people say, 'What's up Marky Mark?' -- well, whatever they say is fine with me." But he also believes that after movies like The Perfect Storm and Three Kings, he's earned his credentials as an actor. "I've certainly proven myself to the people who really matter -- filmmakers and my peers. They've let me live the Marky Mark thing down." 

Still, after director Burton finally told him that he wanted him to take on the top-billed role of astronaut Leo Davidson in the film, Wahlberg had two initial reactions. The first reaction was that felt ecstatic to be in a movie directed by Burton. The second was a silent prayer: "Please don't put me in a loincloth." 

"I had six long weeks, often sleepless nights, until my first wardrobe fitting. Then I walked into this room and there was this space suit. I kept waiting for the loincloth -- I expected someone to come out wearing white gloves and carrying it." He was only fitted for the space suit, but, still worried, he finally spoke to Burton, who responded: "Why the hell would I want to see you in a loincloth?" 

So why did the prospect throw Wahlberg into such turmoil? "I'm much more comfortable with my clothes on," he says now. Anyway, it turned out that he started experiencing greater turmoil when he realized he was getting unprecedented star billing above the title. 

"I didn't think there would be any pressure. I thought it was a Tim Burton movie. Then all of a sudden it's turned into Mark Wahlberg's debut as a leading man and as an action hero and all this other crap." 

After three intense days of promoting the movie in interviews with the print, television and radio media, the 29-year-old actor says he is really feeling the pressure. With the movie opening today, he now feels a genuine burden of responsibility. It wasn't that way initially when he agreed to step into the role played by Charlton Heston in the 1968 original. "It was never a case of saying this will be a good career choice ... or this movie could make a lot of money ... or I could be presented in a new light here. It was none of that. ... It was like -- OK, it's Tim Burton, he's interested in me and wants to work with me, so where do I sign? It was that simple. There was no pressure, no script. I didn't need one because he's one of the most talented guys in the business with perhaps the most unique vision in movie history." 

Wahlberg jokes that he "got beat up nearly every day" during shooting. That's because his character is a major threat to the ape rulers whose aim is to terrorize and enslave the human beings on the planet. 

Wahlberg's character ends up leading the humans into a Spartacus-type revolt. 

There were also a couple of unscheduled encounters when extras in gorilla makeup, fed up with their discomfort, took a few whacks at Wahlberg and any other non-ape in the vicinity to vent their frustration. 

But Wahlberg insists all this was preferable to Perfect Storm which dealt with the tragedy of a fishing boat in the Atlantic. "Perfect Storm was rough. I'd rather be beat up than smacked with water all the time." 

Still, although Wahlberg may be dismissive of attempts to promote a "leading man" image for him, Burton says this is exactly why he was hired. 

"I needed a real anchor," Burton says. "I needed somebody who, with just a look, could go, 'Where the hell am I? Get me out of here.' I needed old-style movie acting, which I find very rare. It's a kind of no-nonsense, very simple approach, which I think is very hard to do. It's not something you can really tell somebody to do. They either have it or they don't. That's why I was very happy to get Mark. He has this clarity and simplicity and strength in a way I really admire and which I felt was really needed." 

Wahlberg admires Heston (who has a small unbilled cameo in the film) but made no attempt to emulate his performance in the original. "We have a totally different style of acting. He's always cranked up past 10 and I like everything to be kind of internal." But the day Heston was shooting his scene, Wahlberg made a point of meeting the veteran actor. "They were shocked to see me there because it was my day off, but I was privileged to meet him." 

Wahlberg found it eerie doing scenes with actors like Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter who play apes in the movie. That's because effects wizard Rick Baker's makeup was so awesome. "They became very real. It was bizarre. You could never tell it was them under there. I'd see Helena afterwards, and I never really put the two of them in the same person." 

Planet of the Apes actor Mark Wahlberg hasn't forgotten his rapping, singing beginnings.

The Monkeys were a pop sensation, so why not the Apes?

Actor Mark Wahlberg , who battles a group of domineering primates in Planet of the Apes , admits he would consider returning to his rapping roots. Wahlberg, whose older brother Donnie was a member of '80s boy band sensation New Kids on the Block , had a successful singing career back when he was known as Marky Mark.

He still has a record contract, a decade after he and The Funky Bunch were singing about their "Good Vibrations."

"You never know," said Wahlberg. "I seen the president of my record company last week and people are always talking. I've met with a couple of interesting people, some hip-hop guys. "

He says his life is certainly more orderly than back in his music days.

"If I didn't want to go to the show I wouldn't go, if I wanted to go on late, whatever I wanted to do," said Wahlberg. "But I can't live my life like that. I need the discipline of making films."

Wahlberg also wants to help young kids learn some discipline. He's starting a foundation to raise funds for youth charities such as Boston's Boys and Girls Club, which he credits with helping him stay on track during his own checkered past.

Mark Wahlberg has worn many contradictory faces since he entered the pop lexicon as rapper Marky Mark 10 years ago. These days you can't pick up a magazine without encountering one of them. 

The teenage hooligan arrested for assaulting a Vietnamese man and yelling racial epithets at black schoolchildren. The ardent Catholic who prays often and tries to go to church weekly. The male version of Madonna who's savvily used his boy-in-the-'hood image to get some street cred on the golden boulevards of Hollywood. The misunderstood actor whose every word gets misconstrued. 

Lately, Wahlberg has been trying on some new faces: An above-the-title credit for the first time, in the potential summer blockbuster ''Planet of the Apes,'' a remake of the 1968 science-fiction film. And a new role as founder of the newly formed Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, which will raise and distribute money for youth services.

Both situations are the result of Wahlberg sitting down one day and asking himself, ''OK, what do I want to do?'' Strong turns in ''Boogie Nights,'' ''Three Kings'' and ''The Perfect Storm,'' helped him reach one of those goals: plum roles in good films. But Wahlberg also knew there was more to life than success.

''Once the movies are done, they're gone and still not enough to make me happy,'' he says, sitting in the lobby of a downtown hotel Wednesday night. ''I mean, it's great that I have this wonderful career, but I'm not doing exactly what I love to do. I'd love to be an athlete. I'd love to be a good role model for kids.'' 

Wahlberg had just flown in, looking none the worse for it. Although he is a complete stranger, he acts like a long-lost friend, apologizing profusely for the late hour of the interview (11 p.m. after a private-plane ride from New York City, where he'd been busy filming segments for ''The Today Show'' and ''Late Show with David Letterman.'').

Later, when asked if his brothers Donnie or Jim would mind being interviewed, he promises to call them when he gets to his room (ultimately neither interview materializes). Even the car-service driver had something positive to say about him.

''He was always very helpful,'' says Mike Joyce, program director at the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys and Girls Club, a sprawling cinder-block building tucked behind Dorchester Avenue in Dorchester, where Wahlberg played hockey, baseball, and basketball as a teenager. The club is a few blocks from Peverell Street, where Wahlberg grew up. 

When the actor finally sits down for the interview he's the fidget king. He fusses with his socks, pulls on his shirt cuffs. His compact body rocks back and forth, leaning backward into the soft couch trying to get comfortable, jutting forward to make thoughtful points. His deadpan humor often makes you wonder - is he joking or not?

This is Wahlberg on the sexual tension between him and Helena Bonham Carter, who plays a human-rights-activist chimpanzee in the film: ''The relationship is incredible - the energy, the chemistry. You really want to see these two together,'' he says.

You and the chimp?

''I swear to God,'' Wahlberg says with a straight face. ''It's not laughable.'' 

Wahlberg manages his career with the gusto of Jennifer Lopez, who worked with star directors long before audiences knew her as J. Lo. Since his 1993 film debut in ''The Substitute,'' he's costarred with Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, and Joaquin Phoenix. He's worked with directors Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell and Wolfgang Peterson.

Director Tim Burton was the reason why he took the ''Planet'' role.

''I vowed never to do a sci-fi movie just because I'm not interested in the genre at all,'' says Wahlberg. ''There are certain occasions where you have to compromise. In a perfect world, I'd be making gangster pictures like Jimmy Cagney made, you know, but it's much more about the filmmakers for me.''

As Wahlberg tells it, he only discovered later that he'd be the one carrying the film on his famously well-developed deltoids, which remain tastefully covered throughout ''Planet of the Apes'': ''For whatever reason, a lot of the weight has shifted on my shoulders and they put my name above the title. I didn't really realize there was a lot of pressure until we started talking about the movie with the press.''

Joyce never envisioned Wahlberg ending up in Hollywood. A Division I basketball player, maybe. But actor? ''I had no idea,'' Joyce laughs.

Neither did Wahlberg, who calls his foray into films ''an accident.'' He grew up watching westerns and gangster flicks with his father, Donald. When Penny Marshall and Danny DeVito summoned him to talk about a possible role in ''Renaissance Man,'' Wahlberg viewed it as a chance for him to meet two actors he admired rather than an opportunity to embark on a new career.

But at the time, Wahlberg was unhappy with his recording contract. ''I figured I needed to take a break anyway,'' he says. ''I really didn't want to do anything else.''

These days Wahlberg is finding other ways to occupy his time. Last year, he flew in from the West coast to attend the dedication of the Marr Boys and Girls Club's Paul R. McLaughlin Youth Center in Savin Hill. He became a member of the club's board of directors last month.

''He's shown a great commitment to our club and to the kids of Dorchester,'' says Bob Scannell, executive director of the club who's known Wahlberg since the 1980s. ''But with his new foundation he's actually going to extend his reach to other youth organizations around the country.''

You could call the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, which will be headed by Wahlberg's brother Jim, the actor's way of doing penance for his teenage years. Although specifics about the foundation's activities are hard to come by, Wahlberg speaks intensely about wanting to do some good for inner-city kids. His goal is to be the role model he says he didn't have when he was their age.

People like Joyce told Wahlberg to stay in school and live a ''positive lifestyle.'' Of course, the effects of Joyce's sage advice are well known. 

Wahlberg dropped out of school and spent his teens stealing cars, doing drugs, and robbing people on the streets of Dorchester. Laughs Joyce, ''In the short term, not everything worked, but in the long term, he took a lot of that with him. And you can see that because he's so willing to come back to the club and do something for us.''

Today, Joyce and Scannell sit on the board of directors of Wahlberg's foundation. The actor credits them, along with the Rev. James Flavin, his former priest who's now based in Brockton, for being supportive during tough times.

''These guys have been there for all of the kids in my community,'' says Wahlberg, leaning forward again. ''I just wasn't really smart enough to recognize them as the guys I should be looking up to. I was too busy looking at the guy with the good-looking girls and the nice cars, and Lord knows what he was doing to get it, but it was still far more exciting to me.''

Wahlberg finally got the messages sent by Scannell, Joyce, and Flavin. Now it's his turn to keep kids from making the bad choices he once did.

BOSTON (AP) - Actor Mark Wahlberg has come a long way from his days of hanging out on the streets of Boston, carousing with friends and having run-ins with the law.

Now he wants to help other inner-city children stay out of trouble and realize their dreams.

Wahlberg announced the formation of the Mark Wahlberg Foundation on Thursday, before the Boston premier of his new movie, ``Planet of the Apes.''

The foundation will raise and distribute funds to youth service programs, including The Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Wahlberg, one of nine children, credits his involvement in the Col. Daniel Marr Boys and Girls Club in the city's Dorchester neighborhood with helping him turn his life around.

``Planet of the Apes,'' starring Wahlberg as an astronaut stranded on an alien planet populated by talking primates, was scheduled to be released nationwide Friday. 

NEW YORK, (Reuters) - With science-fiction thriller ''Planet of the Apes'' debuting in movie theaters across the country Friday, a lot of movie folks are thumping their chests and just plain going gaga over the film's box office prospects.

But a problem with many of the big summer flicks this year like ``Pearl Harbor'' or ``Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' is that while marketing campaigns were slick and the press hype huge, the films fell short of audience expectations.

As a result, opening week ticket sales were boffo, but dropped sharply afterward.

``Apes'' faces that same scenario.

``God knows, (''Apes'') will garner, pardon the pun, a lot of monkey business,'' said Russ Leatherman, of ticket seller AOL Moviefone. ``But like 'Pearl Harbor,' it may drop off quickly.''

AOL Moviefone surveys show 63 percent of moviegoers know of ''Apes'' and 35 percent will see it. That compares to last week's ''Jurassic Park III,'' which showed 61 percent awareness and 37 percent who were shelling out for tickets. ``Jurassic Park III'' was No. 1 at box offices last week, hauling in $50.3 million.

At Online ticket service Fandango.com, a spokesman said ''Apes'' advance ticket purchases made up a whopping 70 percent of its total sales.

While the media hype around ``Apes'' has been ongoing for months, director Tim Burton (''Sleepy Hollow,'' ``Beetlejuice'') just finished tinkering with the details last week.

Screenings and interviews for reporters, which often take place in advance of a release to build ``buzz,'' occurred only this week, so the hype that usually comes with a big movie like ''Harbor'' or ``Jurassic Park III'' could be diminished.

``Apes'' stars Mark Wahlberg in the lead role and model Estella Warren as his romantic interest, which should help the film attract young women. The movie also promises a lot of action and adventure to appeal to boys.

It is also supported by the series of 1960s and 1970s films, beginning with 1968's classic ``Planet of the Apes,'' that older moviegoers remember fondly. Many of those same fans are anxious to see what a director like Burton, who is known for his visual sense, will do with their beloved film.

A NEW WORLD

``I wasn't interested in doing a remake or a sequel, but I was intrigued by revisiting the world,'' Burton said.

Wahlberg takes the role of Capt. Leo Davidson, a spaceship commander who, like Charlton Heston in the first ``Apes,'' finds himself stranded on a planet ruled by apes and orangutans who talk, think and act like humans. The apes are superior to humans in all ways, and they hunt humans to use as slaves.

After Davidson is captured early in the film, he is assigned to be a servant in the house of a politician named Sandar. There he meets and befriends Sandar's liberal-minded daughter, Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), proves he is far different from the other humans on the planet, and plots an escape.

Once freed from bondage with Ari as an accomplice, Davidson leads the humans in a war of resistance against the ape regime. Serving as his rivals are the tyrannical Thade (Tim Roth) and Thade's henchman, Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan).

The 1968 and 2001 versions are based on Pierre Boulle's novel of the same name, but while the first movie explored racism and elitism at a time of civil unrest in the United States, the second has the trappings of a summer popcorn movie: good-looking stars, a lot of action and a little romance.

Heading into August, that formula has worked well for one weekend at box offices, but not so well in subsequent days as critics lambasted movies and audiences left disappointed.

An early review from entertainment trade newspaper Daily Variety chief film critic Todd McCarthy has called the movie ''listless and witless'' and said that ``it's also Burton's most conventional and literal-minded film, the one most lacking in his trademark poetic weirdness and bracing flights of fancy.''

One thing both versions share is a major surprise. In the first, it was the discovery of a half-destroyed Statue of Liberty to show that Heston's character had actually landed on Earth, amid a society turned upside down.

In the second, it is an ending that left preview audiences scratching their heads and sitting in cafes and bars long after the movie's end, discussing what ``Apes'' was all about.

If the new ``Apes'' can churn out as big a box office in its second and third weekends as is predicted in its first, there's no doubt Hollywood executives will be overjoyed after what has been an up-and-down summer season.

If not, then the studio chiefs -- like the moviegoers -- may be left scratching their heads and sitting in cafes and bars late at night wondering what planet they're on.

Give an infinite number of chimpanzees an infinite number of film crews, and odds are none will make a movie that looks as cool as Tim Burton's ``Planet of the Apes.''

A few of those chimps might come up with something more interesting, though.

Maybe it's wishful thinking that Burton's take on apes and humans could prove the salvation of a summer of blockbuster wannabes that have turned out tame and lame.

But it's natural to wish for more from the old apes premise as revisited by the talents of Burton, Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter and an estimable supporting cast.

The combination of the two - ``Planet of the Apes'' and Burton, the director who reinvented ``Batman'' - sounds like the perfect match to produce something bold and engaging. The trouble is: While Burton does give a great, gloomy look to his ape planet, the movie mostly brachiates wearily in the wake of the original film.

Many highlights hark back to that 1968 chestnut. At one point, a gorilla paraphrases Charlton Heston's first line of dialogue among the apes: ``Take your hands off me, you damn, dirty human.''

Heston pops up in an uncredited cameo as an ape, uttering one of his best-known lines from the original.

Burton viewed his revival of the ``Apes'' franchise as a reimagining, not a remake or a sequel. Yet with all the new trappings Burton throws in courtesy of today's makeup and special-effects wizardry, the movie still feels like a retread of the same old thing.

The main plot points are disappointingly familiar: A stranded astronaut; humans rounded up by militant simians; good deeds by a compassionate chimpanzee; a journey to ancient ruins in a forbidden zone; ruling apes who harbor a secret about their early history and the danger humans pose.

Burton and screenwriters William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal toss in a few mild twists but offer no ideas that haven't been done to death in previous sci-fi tales.

And you'll see the surprise ending coming a light-year away, especially if you've read the Pierre Boulle novel that this film and the original were loosely based on.

Wahlberg plays Leo Davidson, catapulted to ape central in an elaborate but forced opening sequence. There, Leo encounters Ari (Carter), a chimp preaching for human rights; Thade (Roth), a ferocious ape general who apparently wakes up on the wrong side of the tree limb every day; Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan), Thade's loyal gorilla lieutenant; and Limbo (Paul Giamatti), an orangutan who provides scant comic relief.

Leo's new human pals include the beautiful Daena (Estella Warren) and her father, played by Kris Kristofferson, who's out of the movie so quickly he amounts to just another name on the marquee.

The story is so simple it's downright dumb in places. You've got your apes who hate humans and your apes who pity them, with the two sides clashing in an empty-headed exploration of prejudice and tolerance. At one point, an ape even gushes, ``Can't we all just get along?''

Longtime Burton colleague Danny Elfman's score is uncharacteristically ponderous and tiresome.

Rick Baker's makeup artistry lends far more individualism than the primates had in the five previous ``Apes'' flicks. But expressive facial features and hairdos go for naught when simians are stuck aping such human cliches as ``I'm having a bad-hair day.''

The dialogue is no richer for the humans, who suffer the additional handicap of playing their roles so flavorlessly they seem like statues next to the feverish apes.

Wahlberg is so bland it's hard to care what happens to him. In the original, Heston's astronaut had a brooding, misanthropic edge, a man who rues his words when he ventures into space hoping to find something better than humanity.

The campy story aside, Heston got to play a character with some depth and demons. This time out, ``Planet of the Apes'' delivers an assemblage - human and simian - a few rungs down the ladder of Hollywood evolution.

``Planet of the Apes,'' a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG-13 for some sequences of action/violence. Running time: 120 minutes.

Forget "A.I." Forget "Jurassic Park 3." Hell, forget even "The Fast and the Furious." "Planet of the Apes" is the summer blockbuster we've been waiting for. 

Director Tim Burton has rethought and re-energized the sci-fi classic, now more than 30 years old, and despite its familiarity has come up with a surprise-punch ending that outdoes the original yet keeps its spirit. 

The new "Planet of the Apes" is not a remake, and it's not a sequel. It is an amazing display of imagination. 

Burton ("Batman") has given up none of his kinship with the dark, alienated and subversive, which has always kept him in tune with male adolescents -- and other adventurous spirits. 

This story, set in 2029, opens in a space research station where Mark Wahlberg, as Capt. Leo Davidson, goes out in a pod to rescue a chimp astronaut. 

The chimp preceded him in a similar vehicle and disappeared in an electromagnetic storm. The whole thing gives a nice spin to NASA's simians-in- space experiments, and Davidson is one astronaut who is not PO'd to be upstaged by a chimp. 

Soon there will be plenty of opportunities for that. 

Davidson's pod goes haywire, too, and the captain crash-lands on a strange planet ruled by apes who keep human slaves. 

The rubber masks for the apes -- created 

by makeup genius Rick Baker -- are much more sophisticated than those in the original 1968 film. The features and personalities of the actors, like those of Jim Carrey as the Grinch -- also done by Baker -- seep through the latex. 

These apes -- played to greatest effect among them by Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Roth -- not only have teeth and expressive lips and speak English, some of them have false teeth, too. But their noses may be their most expressive feature, good for sniffing out everything from trouble to sex. 

SIDES WITH HUMANS
Wahlberg's sex appeal is apparent even to an ape. Although Davidson finds himself at the head of a slave revolt, the kohl-eyed chimp Ari (Bonham Carter) is clearly attracted to him. She defies ape leadership and sides with the humans. Fascist military honcho Thade (Roth) goes ape, teeth bared and snorting. 

Ari's interest in Davidson leaves him with an interesting dilemma: Should he choose the beguiling, if apelike, Helena Bonham Carter or the human slave woman in loincloth played by model Estella Warren? 

THROWING TANTRUMS
The thing to remember about these actors is that apes really can chew the scenery. These creatures may have evolved, but they're still apes. They don't disguise their feelings. There is ferocious hissing, sniffing and growling. They screech and throw tantrums. Sound like anyone you know? 

Some of the parallels to human behavior probably are too facile. They pray to a father who created all apes in his own image. They are superstitious, and science is considered sorcery. Their sacred ruins, "the secret of creation," look something like the Gaudi cathedral in Barcelona stuck at an angle into the ground. 

These apes know their Shaw: "Youth is wasted on the young." They drop common expressions: "Don't solve problems by throwing money at them." It could become tiresome quickly, even if the writers are making monkeys of the earthlings who use such phrases, and is a momentarily alarming sign that the movie may be bogging down in un-Burtonlike cuteness. 

Burton backs off just in time. He's like a Ringling Bros. aerialist who feints a fall in order to make his recovery all the more impressive. 

The look of the film has the Burton stamp. The ape planet is thick with mist and smoke. Cliff dwellings rise out of craggy wilderness landscapes. Warrior apes mounted on horses ride off in helmets, armor and mesh. 

They use slings as weapons, but Roth has a particularly good moment when he sniffs an ancient firearm. Power means what it always has: Carry a big stick. 

FIGHTING APES
The fighting apes are capable of taking great bouncing leaps and pouncing suddenly. They mount their horses with a bounce, too. They are mean mothers and pound the bejesus out of their victims. One thing they're afraid of is water -- "That's why every day we pray for rain," says one of the human slaves, who are sometimes held in neck restraints for branding with hot irons. 

There is a brief but very effective episode in the space station sequence when quick flashes of historic images from Earth have been caught as they spread out from the planet toward infinity. These images are replayed like a time-warp flashback. 

What Burton does with the last 20 minutes of this "Planet of the Apes" is the thing that sets this movie apart. For the viewer's sake, the less said about it here the better. 

Meanwhile, there are wonderful touches. Danny Elfman's music, particularly its pounding rhythms for the closing titles, will send people ape-dancing up the aisles. Bonham Carter's costumes could start a fashion trend in some circles, and she holds a pencil to write with prehensile toes.