SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
viktoriyanoema
Apollo 13 (1995) is the hero movie; family friendly, thrilling, emotional, with an inspiring and pleasant message. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, the movie follows the three astronauts of Apollo 13 trying to get home safely with the help of their ground crew, including a subplot with one of the astronaut's wives waiting for him to get home. The cinematography was gorgeous and the effects hyper-realistic, impressive considering no footage from the actual mission was used. The plot was slow and unengaging at times, especially the beginning and the wife at home subplot, which I felt was bland, but it definitely picked up around the middle, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat from there. The humor from the ground crew was appreciated considering the heavy atmosphere, and nothing felt oddly timed, as comedy sometimes does in serious movies. Overall, it was well-done, and despite the sluggish pacing at some points, immensely satisfying.
hongkong666
Always great to watch, no matter how many times you already have seen it. Apollo 13 is one of those movies for sure. First class directing, a cast that is simply mind blowing, character interactions you actually believe and a good soundtrack on top. This is Hollywood at its best. Needless to point out that Tom Hanks scores in this movie big time, for he is one of the greatest actors of all time in my opinion. What I do want to shine a light on is the amount of heart he transports in his role as Jim Lovell. In one word: impressive! Also Kevin Bacon and Ed Harris deliver an outstanding performance. The film may build a little slow at first, but when things are about to get serious you can't take your eyes off the screen anymore. Apollo 13 is one hell of a movie and this was definetely not the last time I watched it. And I probably have seen it about ten times before already. A true classic!
Matthew_Capitano
Ron 'Opie' Howard wings it again with his patented clumsy direction.Authenticity is thrown out the space window. Examples: having NASA dudes talking politics two feet away from the tonnage-heavy 'wheel tracks' of the 'crawler' (the vehicle which transports the rocket to the launch pad at 1 mile an hour); making astronauts Haise and Swigert argue and point fingers at one another concerning the accident in the spacecraft; mission commander Lovell (Tom Hanks with his squirrelly voice in tow) losing his temper and yelling in a NASA space center meeting; flight director Kranz finding a little corner to sit in so he can sulk; the predictable changing of original verbal transmissions; much more fictional silliness.Like most contemporary Hollywood movies, every actor looks like he's 'acting', including veteran Ed Harris who should know better, though Kathleen Quinlan is adequate as Lovell's wife, Marilyn.Film plays like a TV-movie or a cheap direct-to-video flick. As usual, the trajectory of blame should land right on top of Opie whom has yet to establish himself as a major film director.
jimbo-53-186511
Apollo 13 follows the ill-fated mission back in 1970 of three astronauts attempting to land on the moon. When an explosion on the space shuttle forces the astronauts to abort their mission (which initially causes disappointment, but ultimately sets off a chain reaction of problems for the astronauts) flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and his team of NASA boffins must try to navigate the pilots back to Earth using several risky and untried methods....My summary above does give a basic foundation for this film, but unfortunately a lot of what I describe above occurs in the second half of the film (which I'm prepared to admit was pretty engrossing). It's a shame really that the first half of the film isn't anywhere near as strong as the second half as it could have been a truly great film rather than being merely a good film. The build-up to the space mission was dull and padded; Howard feels the need to show some syrupy family dynamics and topical references such as Lovell's daughters being upset about the Beatles breaking up (which seemed to have just been thrown in there to remind folks that it was set in 1970 and to give the film some soapy slush). The training aspect before the space mission was dull and I've got to be honest that I did find the film a bit tough going in the first hour.... but then....Howard must have had a big kick up the backside because the second half of the film was great. It has drama, tension and I really liked the way that everyone all chipped in together to try and get 3 of their best astronauts safely back to Earth. There is so much intricate planning in the second half that it becomes hard to keep up (and all of the geeky space talk will go over most people's heads), but the second half does contain everything that makes a good action/drama film and therefore for this portion of the film it gets two thumbs up. However....This is a narrative problem so I'm unsure who to blame here, but throughout the space mission we're led to believe that Swigert is the one who is responsible for the explosion on the shuttle and he is generally deemed as the 'bad guy' - also due to the fact that he took Mattingley's place on the shuttle. Swigert is never really painted in a positive light and I was fully ready to hate him at the end, but then I found that the rug was pulled from under me when I learned that the explosion was caused due to a defect with the shuttle rather than being caused by human error. Huh?? So Swigert did nothing wrong?? Then why make him out to be the villain all along? I've not read Lovell's book so maybe this is explained there - was there beef between Lovell and Swigert or was this Ron Howard putting in a curveball twist? Either way it didn't sit well with me and I would have preferred to have been behind all 3 of the astronauts rather than 2 of them. The energy that the film offers in the second half and the impressive cast and photography make this worth a look, but in my book this is far from being a perfect film.
