With Space Chimps, a CG-animated comedy about -- you guessed it -- chimps in space, opening on Friday, we thought we'd compile a list of the greatest monkey movies ever. And before any of you hard-nosed primatologoly majors out there send us hate mail, please understand that we're using the term monkey informally, referring to all non-human simians. That includes monkeys, as well as apes like the gorilla, chimpanzee and orangutan. Now, with that technicality out of the way, here's our list of Top 10 Monkey Movies...

10. Project X

If the monkey section of your DVD library doesn't include Matthew Broderick's 1987 film, Project X, then you're missing one of the essential films in the primate genre. Broderick had made a name for himself a few years earlier playing "global thermonuclear war" in WarGames, but this film from The Accused director Jonathan Kaplan sees him trade Ally Sheedy and "Joshua" in for Helen Hunt and a chimpanzee named Virgil. He plays Jimmy, an Air Force soldier who learns of an experimental military project involving chimpanzees trained to operate flight simulators. The chimp at the center of the film, Virgil, is sent to the program after the research grant of his hottie caretaker (Hunt) is not renewed. Unfortunately, the project, which involves exposure to massive pulses of radiation, has a nasty side effect for the primate participants: death. Can Jimmy save the chimp and bag the broad? We don't wanna ruin it... but yes.

Banana Bonus: Heavy-handed message about animal experimentation and chimps flying planes!

9. Curious George

The 2006 animated Curious George film takes a few liberties with the classic stories created by H.A. and Margret Rey, but it stays true to the playful tone of the tales about a curious little monkey named George and his frequently exasperated owner, The Man in the Yellow Hat. The Universal Animation Studios adaptation is overwhelmingly cute at times, but never unpleasantly so. Will Ferrell voices Ted -- yes, The Man in the Yellow hat gets a name. He also gets a love interest in Drew Barrymore's Maggie. And while big-name voice actors usually equal annoying shtick, this is the rare contemporary animated film that's completely free of irony, gross-out moments, and witty pop culture references. It's sweet and simple -- the perfect animated kid flick.

Banana Bonus: The cool mix of traditional animation with computer-generated 3-D environments.

8. Bedtime for Bonzo

As President, he ended the Cold War. But Ronald Regan's greatest cinematic accomplishment saw him dealing with a conflict of a completely different kind: the question of nature versus nurture, as explored through the upbringing of a kooky, pajama-wearing chimpanzee. The 1951 comedy Bedtime for Bonzo starred the then-future leader of the free world as Professor Peter Boyd, who attempts to raise a chimp and teach it human behavior to solve the age-old quandry of whether an individual's innate qualities or life experiences matter most in their personal development. And of course there's a lady-friend that gets mixed up in the shenanigans... Boyd hires a woman (Diana Lynn) to pose as Bonzo's mother, while he plays the father.

Banana Bonus: Ronald Regan bottle-feeding a chimp!

7. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, directed by Chariots of Fire helmer Hugh Hudson, is notable for taking the Tarzan story back to its roots and ditching the campy trappings that the tale had taken on over the years. It's a more serious spin on the classic story of a boy lost in the jungle and raised by a family of apes. The 1984 film is also notable for the incredibly realistic apes -- even by today's standards -- created by effects guru Rick Baker. The ape-effects are great, but if you're looking for a Tarzan flick with some guy swinging around in the trees, this might not be for you. Just as in Burroughs' novel, the apes in the film have primitive language skills.

Banana Bonus: The Highlander loves monkeys, too!

6. Every Which Way But Loose

The late-1970s to early-80s were the golden age of ape entertainment, with the era's crowning glory being the 1978 Clint Eastwood comedy Every Which Way But Loose. The oddball comedy starred Eastwood as a trucker searching the West for his fleeing love interest (Sondra Locke) while accompanied by his manager Orville and pet orangutan, Clyde. The movie didn't earn Eastwood any cred with critics, in fact it was almost universally panned upon release, but it struck a chord with audiences, perhaps drawn in by the irony of the spaghetti western toughguy appearing in such a silly affair. Every Which Way But Loose made big money at the box office and spawned a sequel, 1980's equally impressive Any Which Way You Can.

Banana Bonus: C'mon! It's Dirty Harry and an orangutan!

5. Monkey Shines

George A. Romero may be best known for his Dead films, but 1988 saw him venture into non-zombie territory, adapting the Michael Stewart horror novel Monkey Shines for the screen. The film follows a quadruplegic who is aided in his daily tasks by a monkey named Ella -- the product of a scientific experiment involving the injection of human brain matter. Ella takes care of things around the house and all is hunky-dory until the man develops a romantic relationship with a specialist he's been seeing. The monkey then goes all Fatal Attraction on him.

Banana Bonus: Creepy monkey nightmares guaranteed.

Sigourney Weaver stars in this true story as renowned naturalist Dian Fossey who dedicated her life to studying the rare mountain gorillas of the Congo jungle. Fossey gets up close and personal with the gorillas, often working within feet of them and even develops a way to communicate with the beasts. She takes up their cause with the Rwandan government, hoping to put an end to the horrendous poaching in the area, but is dismissed. Fossey then sets out on a personal crusade to take care of it herself -- even staging a fake execution of one of the poachers in an attempt to frighten away tribesmen that would continue the practice. On December 26, 1985, Fossey is mysteriously murdered in the bedroom of her cabin.

Banana Bonus: Wasn't that awesome when Ripley took out that poacher with the grappling-gun and blasted him into space!? Oh, wait. We're confused.

3. Mighty Joe Young

Swiped from his African home, Joe -- a powerful giant gorilla -- becomes a sensation on the Hollywood scene. Performing at a nightclub, he shows off his abilities by doing things like winning a game of tug-of-war against 10 strongmen. But Joe's gotten homesick. During an organ-grinder act with one of his keepers, the lovely Jill, Joe storms off the stage. A few winos slip him some booze, and that's when all hell breaks loose. Joe goes on a rampage, and a court orders the beast put to death. That's when Jill and her friends come up with a plan to save the gorilla and get him back home. Joe redeems himself at the end of the picture, in a well-staged scene where he rescues children from a burning orphanage -- it's regarded as one of the greatest stop-motion sequences in movie history.

Banana Bonus: Charlize Theron might've looked hot in the 1998 remake, but '50s pinup Terry Moore was total babe sauce in the 1949 original.

American astronauts (led by Charlton Heston as the gruff Taylor) crash land on a planet where sentient apes are dominant and humans are a primitive, inarticulate slave class. Ape scientists Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) and Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter) become fascinated by and protective of Taylor because he is able to speak and reason. Determined to discover the dark secret of the ape civilization's past, the cynical Taylor instead finds out that his own worst suspicions about mankind's destructive nature have been horrifically realized in the film's powerful ending. The movie spawned an entire franchise... but let's just forget about that Tim Burton-Mark Wahlberg remake, shall we?

Banana Bonus: Ape-human action like this...

"It was beauty that felled the beast." These are the final lines of dialogue spoken in Merian C. Cooper's 1933 film about a giant ape and his doomed love affair with a starlet, and they only scratch the surface of King Kong's profound depths. An effects movie in a time where effects were nonexistent, Cooper's film proved to be the Jurassic Park of its day if for no other reason than its technological innovation But it remains a classic today not because of the wonderful stop-motion animation work, but its ability to render Kong as one of the silver screen's most tragic figures.

Banana Bonus: It's a classic.

Honorable Mention:

Barely missing the cut were Dunston Checks In, with Seinfeld star Jason Alexander and My Best Friend's Wedding's Rupert Everett, about a jewel-thieving orangutan; the franchise-spawning 2000 comedy MVP: Most Valuable Primate, about a hockey-playing chimp; and Monkey Trouble, starring a young Thora Birch and Oscar-nominated actor Harvey Keitel in a completely shameless role.

We'd also be remiss in not mentioning Link, a 1986 horror film starring Elizabeth Shue and Terence Stamp, about an orangutan butler (stay with us!) who goes apes*** over a hot, young animal researcher's assistant (Shue).

The vine-swinging, shark-jumping monkeys in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull weren't the first bit of big-screen monkey business that Indy's Karen Allen has gotten into. She starred in the 1989 romantic comedy Animal Behavior as a sign language scholar being courted by Armand Assante, but the pair's romance is disrupted by a pesky chimp. Nice.

Finally, 1995's Congo was hated on for significant departures from the Crichton novel, and it also featured some pretty lame-looking gorillas -- two strikes -- but any movie featuring Tim Curry and highly-intelligent primates at least deserves a mention.