Rating: 
Summary: I Wish These Went Up To 25 Stars!
Review: Incredible, awesome, the best, and wild! This is theCOOLEST movie I've ever seen! I've watched it about 30 timesand it's still not enough! I cried my eyes out!
Rating:
Summary: Top Acting, Gritty Storyline Makes Apollo 13 A Must See
Review: Ron Howard had an ace up his sleeve when he directed Apollo 13...He didn't have to dream up the storyline...Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and the late Jack Swigert did that when their little-publicized milk run to Fra Mauro became an intenational-watched struggle for survival...Unlike Deep Impact and Armageddon, which use special effects to guess at what things might be like in the face of a cosmic impact, Apollo 13's effects put you in the capsule and in Mission Control with everyone involved...The realism and the acting make this one of my all-time favorite movies. Skip the artsy, chic wannabees...Apollo 13 is a cinematic masterpiece and worth every penny...
Rating: 
Summary: Cropping DVD = Super 35 format used in most films today.
Review: Actually, the 'cropping' seen on the DVD was also on the laserdisc, letterboxed VHS, and theatrical editions of the film. This was also evident in films like "Terminator 2" and "The Matrix", where films are shot in fullframe 1.33:1 and later reframed to either 1.85:1 or preferably 2.35:1 theatrical aspect, thus masking the top and bottom of the picture. A lot of directors like to use this format, one: because it is easier to frame a shot this way, and two: they are thinking of the afterlife the film will have on video and how little differences there will be in the positioning of the shot. Rather than have panning or scanning as with the Panavision format, Super 35 can exist in both fullscreen or widescreen without actually panning or scanning. The only difference is that the widescreen edition actually masks the top and bottom of the screen in this case.
Still, the fullscreen edition can reveal mistakes, such as a certain 'bug' disappearing and reappearing in 'The Matrix', or going back to 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure', a certain endless bicycle chain coming up through the bottom of the box containing the chain. Without the bars masking the top and bottom for proper framing, unwanted things are often revealed and, quite frankly, there is too much headroom and the shot isn't framed properly. Whether you see more on the top and bottom in fullscreen versus Super 35 widescreen, seeing more isn't necessarily better or for that matter, proper.
Stranger still are some cases in which Super 35 alternates between cropped shots, like the ones some have complained about versus the fullscreen version, and true widescreen. For example, another Super 35 film, 'Fire in the Sky', is almost all Super 35 cropping, until we get to the expensive 'alien abduction' scene. Here, there are closeups that are clearly cropped when compared to the fullscreen edition intercut with shots that do in fact show more picture information on the sides of the frame. The shot of the alien sneaking up behind Travis Walton only shows Travis Walton in the fullscreen edition, excluding the alien from the shot. In 'Terminator 2', during the 'nuclear nightmare' scene, the wide shot of the blast wave remains still in the widescreen version but pans to the left in the fullscreen version. It's a give and take process, where most shots in widescreen Super 35 films are cropped but then you get shots that are definitely in true widescreen. Still, this was how it was seen in theaters and therefore this is the film seen properly.
I'd say the only complaint about the Apollo 13 DVD I would have is that it's a lousy first generation transfer. At the time, the new advent of DVD looked amazing. Now with improved technology, the transfer looks terrible, with lots of artifacting, lack thereof detail, and yucky colors that recall the grotestque laserdisc transfer of '2010'. Also, though the DTS track is nice, it sans extras whereas DVDs made today wouldn't have that kind of pressing problem. Hopefully the upcoming anniversary edition will clear up those problems with a nice new transfer. But for now, one must settle with the disc available, and yes, it is properly framed in 2.35:1 and it is not incorrectly cropped in the way some would like to think it is.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING STORY
Review: This is an excellent real story movie, very good performances, a master piece of art
Rating:
Summary: Correction to previous post. regarding cropping the DVD...
Review: Talk about rolling snake eyes. To begin with, your mission is numbered "thirteen." Then the pilot you've trained with is grounded prior to lift-off because he's allegedly been exposed to the measles; he's replaced by a young buck still wet behind the ears. Once you're within spitting distance of the surface of the Moon an oxygen tank explodes. Obviously, it takes oxygen to breathe, so now what? Shut down everything in the command module, of course, shiver in the lunar module, and hope the gravitational tug from the Moon will slingshot you back home. And I thought I had my bad days. Yet the problems mentioned above merely scratch the surface of the true trials and tribulations of APOLLO 13. Director Ron Howard recreates this gripping, compelling story, right down to beehive hairdo's and computers the size of Mt. Rushmore. The drama, the sense of urgency--on the part of the astronauts, and the NASA staff in Houston frantically trying to save them--is so powerful and vivid I felt I was watching the actual event itself. To magically weave the viewer into the story is a crowning achievement for any filmmaker, and here, Howard succeeds like a wizard waving a wand. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, Kevin Bacon, and Gary Sinise headline a stellar cast in a grim race-against-time that had the entire world transfixed in April of 1970. I remember being glued to the TV watching Walter Cronkite broadcast around the clock to give us the latest developments of the Apollo 13 story; I remember the relief and joy I felt when that banged-up capsule was retrieved from the ocean. To relive the triumph--and near-tragedy--of this event is an awesome experience, and APOLLO 13 is awesome, indeed.
--D. Mikels
Rating:
Summary: One of My Absolute Favorites
Review: Apollo 13, the story of NASA's near-loss of one of its manned spacecraft in 1970, is on my top-five list of all-time favorite movies. This, for me, is one of those movies that I've see a million times, know all the words to and get everyone whose watching it with me annoyed because I HAVE TO say the lines along with the actors. The acting in the movie is fantastic...everyone from Tom Hanks to Ed Harris on down the list superbly act this true event from our nation's history. Even the background music is great...seamlessly fitting into the mood of the movie. Annie Lennox does the vocalizations, and her voice is, as always, immensely powerful. As someone who craves the day when this nation returns to the resolve it had in the 1960's and early 70's when we were shooting for the moon, the story of Apollo 13 should inspire those who yearn for humanity's renewed interest in exploring the immensity of what lays beyond our small planet, not just with robotic devices, but with people as well. Apollo 13's failure to land on the moon, and near-loss, should prove to humanity that from failure, we can still triumph. That is something that I think we have forgotten today...especially after the loss of the Shuttle Columbia, we have nearly forgotten the incredible risk of exploring space is more than worth the benefits we will reap with our explorations...even when some do not return home.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy the VHS
Review: Ahhhh, what a great movie. I cry at the end every time. I remember when I was young and prayed for the safe return of the astronauts of Apollo 13. However, I am SEVERELY dissappointed with the widescreen DVD. Those who created it did not use the original film, but chopped top and bottom from the fullscreen VHS version. There are many instances when this is evident, but the most glaring is the scene in the back yard of the Lovell house after the walk on the moon when Jim says, "I want to go back there". When the scene opens, he is cut off at mid-thigh and you never see below his knees. On the fullscreen VHS you can see his shoes. When I buy the widescreen, I want the WHOLE movie, not less than the fullscreen VHS tape. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Buy the VHS.
Rating:
Summary: Chris' "Apollo 13" Review
Review: Apollo 13 is one of the better movies that Tom Hanks stars in. The movie depicts the steps going into, and coming out of, the Apollo 13 mission. The movie begins as any normal movie, but adds the twist of suspense and drama that is really hard to find in any movie. As in the real-life version of the mission, when NASA was running the Apollo Moon missions, the explosion that crippled their only hope for space survival, down to the improvisation of manuevers to get the three astronauts home, down to the T. I rate this movie with 5 stars, for its drama and suspense scenes, and 5 stars for the director, for putting together such a great movie.
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