Rating: 
Summary: "We choose to go to the moon..."-JFK
Review: These riveting words opens each episode of this fantastic series.
In 1957 Russia Launched Sputnik then launched a man into space. The race was on. Each episode tells of the planiing an effort that went into the space program. There was one goal and that was to put a man on the moon before the Russians. Tom Hanks opens each episode with some background about the episode. The first six episodes tell of the efforts that led to the Apollo 11 landing. The first episode dealt with the Mercury and Gemini program. Episode 2 dealt with the Apollo 1 tragedy. The epidode on 1968 dealt with the turbulent social packground as well as the space program. On Christmas 1968 Apollo 8 became the first ship that orbited the moon. As one lady wrote "You have saved 1968". Spider tells the story of the developing the lunar module. Mare Tranquilitatis (Sea of Tranquility) tells the story of Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. Episodes 7-12 deals with rest of the apollo program to Apollo 17. This includes the near distaster of Apollo 13. This episode dealt with what was hapenning on earth during the Apollo 13 flight. The Original Wives Club (Episode 11) tells the story of the wives of the astronauts. This series is a pure classic and greatly illustrates the human achievement that occured during the space program.
Rating:
Summary: Almost as exciting as what we lived through way back when
Review: When I was in the first grade in Orlando, Florida our class would go outside to watch the Mercury flights take off from Cape Canaveral, so the American space program made a big impression on me as a child. Of course, now I have a daughter who is surprised to learn that human beings have walked on the moon while I remember "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." being interrupted by a news bulletin about the fatal fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1. My father was stationed in Japan for most of the Apollo flights, so except for Apollo 11 we did not get to see a lot of what everybody saw back home. Consequently, for me "From the Earth to the Moon" is a combination of vague memories and new information. Having also watched "Band of Brothers," the other HBO documentary in which Tom Hanks had a significant hand, I am struck by how these two mini-series have essentially redefined the term more towards its original meaning. Unlike landmark mini-series such as "Shogun" and "Winds of War," where each episode picks up the main characters pretty much where they were left at the end of the previous episode, "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Band of Brothers" clearly offer up distinct episodes in telling the story of the Apollo space program. The only constant characters are really Eugene Cernan (Daniel Hugh Kelly), the one Mercury astronauts who never got to fly and ended up heading the program, and the fictional television anchorman Emmett Seaborn (Lane Smith), who represents an amalgam of all the newscasters who were big boosters of the space program. Most of the episodes focus on a specific Apollo flight, but there are also episodes on different topics, like the development of the lunar module. There are episodes that of surprising comedy, such as when the crazy Pete Conrad (Paul McCrane) takes Al Bean (Dave Foley) and Apollo 12 to the moon, and one devoted to the pathos of the shattered lives of the wives of the third group of Astronauts. The episode on Apollo 13 is interesting in how it effectively avoids covering the same ground as the movie. We never see the astronauts, we only hear their voices, and since we all "know" the story now the focus of the episode is to show how the space program was confronted with the "new" brand of journalism that was not going to be spoon fed information and heroes by NASA. However, my favorite was the episode in which Lee Silver (David Clennon), a professor of geology, teaches the astronauts how to read the story of rocks as the test pilots being sent to the moon learn to be "scientists." There are lots of familiar faces in these episodes (the proverbial too many to name), but for those who remember the indelible bad boy characters created by McCrane and Clennon on "E.R." and "thirtysomething," there is a special joy in which them play good guys. "From the Earth to the Moon" is not as informative as a documentary, but it certainly focus on the actual nuts and bolts of sending men to the moon. Actually it does this in a rather engaging manner, and the way in which it combines NASA technology with human drama is one of the strengths of the mini-series. Almost all of the astronauts come out of the series with their images as heroes intact (providing you do not ask their ex-wives), the exceptions being Buzz Aldrin (Bryan Cranston), who really wanted to get out on the moon before Neil Armstrong (Tony Goldwyn), and Alan Shepard (Ted Levine), who we always knew was the grand old S.O.B. of the space program. But even so both men merely come across as being decidedly human. Whether you actually were around at the time to go outside and look up at the moon knowing there were a couple of Americans walking around hitting a golf ball, picking up rocks, and dropping a hammer and a feather at the same time, or this is all just history come alive, you should find this an excellent series of adventures in and about outer space.
Rating: 
Summary: Too long and sappy for its own good
Review: As the series begins it becomes apparent that every aspect of the Lunar Program will be shown which is a welcome sight since next to nothing is usually mentioned about the other missions especially the last one Apollo 17. The attention to detail really pulls you in and you are drawn into the individuals that made up the program. Unfortunately, the series does drag on and the repetion of lunar landings gets as tedious as I believe they must have been to the public, hence the end to the program. Also, their are very Ron Howardish scenes of people making final speeches in honor of different things and this contrasted with the realism of the technical scenes. But the worst thing about the series has to be the damn music. I am not of fan of film score unless its for some over-the-top epic adventure, but when dealing with real people in real situations, this bombastic mess can completely get in the way. Now the good news; stand out episodes in order include (forgot some titles): Spider, 1968, Mare Tranqualitis(although Buzz Aldrin was shown as a bit of a whiner), Part 1, the Last episode, and Apollo One . Original Wives Club was good except for the last scene between the Lovells. It seemed straight out of a TGIF sitcom. The rest of the episodes seemed to blur together especially the geologist one, I understand they wanted to make the science intresting but I've seen PBS do better. This may all seem negative but I did give it 3 stars, its just that compared with the best thing I've ever seen on television, "Band of Brothers", this series seems like just a good effort. But an effort worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: In a word : brilliant
Review: What can be said about this? Tom Hanks got the bug for Space doing "Apollo 13" and took it to greater heights with this fantastic portrayal of the people, times and achievements of the Apollo era. On one hand this gives a detailed technical account of how Man first set foot on the Moon. But it is more than that, giving an understanding of the effects on the wives, reporters, back room staff, astronauts, scientists, engineers and other people of the hundreds of thousands that made Apollo possible. Some aspects are universally known, such as the aforementioned Apollo 13, and so are given a different twist. Others are little known and therefore welcome a more detailed portrayal. Each mission is used as a backdrop to plot a particular storyline. Alan Shepard's Meniere's Disease. The reporting of missions changing from, in some respects, friendly cooperative to hostile intrusive reporting. The hard lives of astronauts wives. The Apollo 1 fire. The difficulties in America in 1968. All are carefully and effectively portrayed. Particularly enjoyable - as a spacecraft engineer and scientist myself - are the episodes about the development of the Lunar Module (partly, I think as the Grumman engineer Tom Kelly got a particularly bad deal during "Apollo 13" and Hanks wanted to say sorry), and those about the geologists Silver and El Baz who taught the astronauts how to observe the moon, not just see it. The whole production is based considerably on the Andrew Chaikin book "A Man On The Moon" which has become the definitive account of the Apollo program. The DVD set is expensive, but very well worth the outlay. So is Chaikin's book. Buy them both.
Rating:
Summary: You are GO to buy your ticket from the Earth to the Moon
Review: What makes this one of the best programs ever to watch on your DVD: - Facts are real, has plenty of information about what probably is humankind`s greatest achievement. The mix of real footage and amazingly created ones add to its real life/documentary spirit. But it`s far from being a documentary, although every fact is real. It goes beyond on the narration. - It`s not "Americana" on its spirit. Mr. Hanks and his team deserve merits for showing this great achievement as a mankind victory instead of an "America only" feat. Congratulations! - Each episode is presented thru an original point of view, not the one you`d expect. This gives new life to the facts. The Apollo 13 episode, for example, shows how an anchor man from a TV network faced his drama at the same time as the astronauts. A great achievement since if it was presented the other way it would fail when compared to the movie. Actually, one complements the other. - Many generations have not lived the man on the moon. This is the best way to give them a small feeling of what that meant. It`s the closest an historical document can get to emotion. Anyone will learn great and funny facts from the Apollo project and its missions. - Episodes are very successful in passing the feeling of this great achievement. You`ll be proud of it, specially if you happened to be alive when it happened. At the end you`ll regret the fact that today we (humans/nations) spend too much time and energy with small problems that don`t take anyone anywhere. - On the latest episode you`ll learn that one of the century`s "greatest" men was, actually, the first pirate whose actions screwed up the life of the first great filmmaker. - Mr. Hanks talents go far beyond acting. Congratulations! - Acting is amazing, direction perfect, screenplays compelling. You won`t believe this was "just" a 12 episode TV miniseries. It`s FAR better than many movies made on science fiction/space exploration genres. The only point where they`ve sleeped: - The box and its opening "book" scheme doesn`t feel it`ll be up to date when man reaches Mars. I`d like to remind you all that this is not a science fiction miniseries. Its focus is on the spirit, the challenge, the emotions, the technology, the men and women involved on taking the man on a voyage from the Earth to the Moon. It`s not cheap. But worth every cent.
Rating: 
Summary: An entry point to the "romantic era" of NASA
Review: After watching the series, if you want to learn more, NASA has an amazing amount of historical books and stuff online on their website. Try the following url, and scroll down to the "Project Histories" section. The title of the webpage is "NASA History Series Publications". http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/series95.html. Warning: These documents aren't light reading for the TV crowd, but are more for the space nuts who might have a copy of the "Space Shuttle Operator's Manual" in their house. The main entry point to the NASA history site seems to be: http://history.nasa.gov/
Rating:
Summary: Very good, although not a typical documentary film
Review: Initially (first 10 minutes of the movie) I did not like it. I expected it to be more of a documentary kind of movie rather that actors and all that. Then I realized it was kind of interesting and more in depth, giving real feelings of the people of that era. Very nice. I managed to get the movie from my local public library. It is kind of expensive. Now...
I agree with the reviewer bashing the conspiracy clown from Santa Monica. There is some "evidence" that the landing on the Moon has been staged. All that is pseudo science. Real scientific counterarguments EASILY debunk all those insane claims. Anyone who believes in the "conspiracy" is either not so intelligent or did not do enough research. Do you really think it would be possible to keep all those scientists involved from telling the truth for all those years? I did not hear a SINGLE thing confirming the conspiracy from anyone involved in the apollo project. We hear these things only from so called pseudoscientists. Why is it so hard to believe we landed? Did Russians fake their flights? Are space stations fake? Are the space shuttles fake? Are the shuttle accidents fake? Is hubble telescope a fake? Is the probe that landed on the Mars fake? Is the British probe that reached Mars but never landed a fake? Global conspiracy? Is there a conspiracy with Brits and Russians? Are satellits fake? Did we fake the Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Are nuclear submarines fake? It the nuclear energy fake? Are airplanes fake? Is quantum theory fake? Are computers fake? Is internet fake? Is it really so impossible for us, humans, who came up with the above (iether before or after the Moon landing) to land and come back from the Moon? All that during the cold war when these kinds of achievements REALLY did matter? People who believe that landing on the moon was faked should really do their research properly. If not, maybe they should keep believing in UFOs and area 51 conspiracies. I do not want to call them names. I am also a peaceful guy, but these kinds of arguments make me mad.
Rating:
Summary: That "viewer from Santa Monica", Is A Trolling CLOWN!!!
Review: **SORRY ABOUT THIS MISUSE OF A REVIEW COLUMN, BUT: It may be a silly question, but why do we have to tolerate people with opinions like theirs? The things said in his (or her) so-called review are a disgrace and an insult to the memory of the people killed in the airliners and New York (dozens of them Muslims, too). You FOOL!! Are you now going to tell us that the Spanish Govt. faked the Madrid bombings too? Get.A.Life...PUNK. This forum is NOT the place for this conspracy theory trolling garbage. I hope Amazon deletes their post, then mine shortly after that. I'm a non-violent person, but I swear, if I ever meet this "viewer from Santa Monica, CA USA" I might make an exception. I'm not kidding.
Rating:
Summary: Great Series
Review: This is a wonderful example of inspired filmmaking created when the makers are passionate about their subject. First class. As an aside, why would Amazon print the review about the moon-landing hoax from the moron in California. Adding fuel to the fire of the uninformed? Poor choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Apollo moon landings were hoaxed
Review: Come on people. You're going to have to become a little stronger, a little smarter. I was surprised when I first heard the claim that the moon landings were staged in a studio somewhere, but after examining the evidence both pro and con, it became obvious that this was indeed the case. I'm sure Tom Hanks means well and truly believes we went to the moon, but I still have to give this only one star. Understanding the moon hoax gives insight into other important world issues: (1) Were the U.S. intelligence agencies involved in facilitating, or perhaps even orchestrating, the 9/11 attacks? In fact, were there even any hijackers aboard the planes? In all probability, the planes that hit the buildings were remote-controlled empty drones, and the passengers of the original flights were disposed of in some other way. Everyone in Europe knows about this. Andreas von Buelow, the former German Secretary of Defence, has written a number-one best-selling book in Germany making exactly these claims. (2) How much vote-rigging goes on in the U.S.? For all we know, the national news media has all the final voting results typed into their computers months before the elections. Unless you care and take the time to watch the votes being counted by hand, you will be had. Nowhere else in the world are people as dumb, as naive and gullible as they are in America, and this collection of DVDs by Tom Hanks is a prime example.
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