Apollo 13

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, OK DVD
Review: Apollo 13 the movie is definitly my favorite movie of all time. The DVD disk has some nice features such as a commentary on the movie by Jim Lovell and an hour long documentary on the production of Apollo 13.

However, I was a bit disappointed with the A/V quality of the DVD. While it's definitly acceptable, it's not spectacular. It is in widescreen format, which is ok except that the top and bottom border is fuzzy sometimes. The sound is good, but doesn't compare to the "Apollo 13" audio CD in terms of sound quality. (though I do have the 14K gold version of the audio soundtrack, which does make a big difference.) END

Rating:
Summary: "We've just lost the Moon!"
Review: With those words, Spacecraft Commander Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) tells his crew that their Lunar landing mission had taken a desperate turn to a fight for survival.

"Apollo 13" shows that, while the three men in space were heroes, there were many unheralded heroes on the ground, from a grounded-by-measles fellow astronaut to a bunch of guys with slide rules. Spaceflight is a team effort -- bringing the astros home after disaster took everything that NASA and the aerospace contractors had to give.

This dramatization of real events is a MUST BUY for any space buff, but it is also a well-written historical adventure with a cliffhanger ending.

Special features on the dual-layer disc include the almost-obligatory theatrical trailer, a documentary on the production of the film (including the zero-Gee scenes), and the real prize is an alternate soundtrack with Jim and Marilyn Lovell commenting on the movie!

If you are looking for a disc to show your friends WHY you bought DVD in the first place "Apollo 13" may very well be the one END

Rating:
Summary: The "Widescreen" Version is Not Widescreen !!!
Review: The movie, the story, the acting ... all superb!

The problem with this movie is the claimed "Widescreen" format, which is fraudulent. What they have done is taken the full-screen version... and sliced the top and bottom off of the picture and fraudulently packaged it as "Widescreen."

I am currently watching "Apollo 13" on the Sci-Fi channel in fullscreen... and running the DVD at the same time, flipping between them. What is immediately viewed is that the width of the field of view is identical between the cable TV fullscreen version and the claimed DVD widescreen version. The DVD "Widescreen" version has deliberately cut off the top and bottom of the fullscreen view and then dared to call this "Widescreen." As all who have compared fullscreen with widescreen know, the widescreen version should reveal up to a third more width than fullscreen without decreasing at all the vertical field of view. This DVD does exactly the reverse, keeping the width the same as the fullscreen cable TV airing while cutting off the top and bottom of the fullscreen picture.

Thus... this DVD has ripped customers off in claiming it is Widescreen.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Wrong w/ a Little Flag Waving I Guess
Review: Kind of silly in its awesome patriotic seriousness but genuinely heartfelt. Give them a few points for meaning well. Goshdarnit! We Americans are so honest and hardworking and ingenious. Just one big country of stand up folks. We can overcome any crisis no matter how dire just through our sheer AmeriCANism. All American men are apparently boy scouts at heart. Not entirely surprising this was directed by Opie/Richie Cunningham. Mr Hollywoodized American Family Values himself. Hanks and Sinese manage the difficult tasks of portraying humorless stiffs who are also sympathetic characters. The actual crisis is quite suspenseful and very well plotted and FX are very cool.

Rating:
Summary: Best outer-space visual effects
Review: "Apollo 13" is Ron Howard's dramatic and accurate re-telling of the real-life Apollo mission crisis of 1970, where the astronauts just barely made it back to Earth with their lives.
The outer-space visual effects of this movie are the best I've ever scene, from the launching of the Saturn 5 (which looked so real), to the crisp, realistic look of space (the Moon, the stars, the realistic glare of the sun, the bright, blue/white appearance of the Earth). It looks like they actually went into space to film it. If not a buy, this DVD is definately worth a rent, to take a look at it.

Rating:
Summary: JUST LIKE THE TAGLINE SAYS...
Review: This is an excellent movie. To all those who are laughing because they think this wasn't real enough: this is about as real to life as you're going to get in a non-documentary film. The special effects are excellent. I don't know how you could possibly do a rocket launch effect better than Mr. Howard's crew did. In addition, this movie is even more exciting, as the tagline, says, because it's all true. It's one of those movies that's so true to fact that you have to look at insignificant details like the color of Lovell's car before you can find inconsistencies between the movie and fact.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping story professionally rendered
Review: I don't think it matters whether you remember the story of the Apollo 13 space mission or not. Whether you know the ending or whether you were otherwise occupied at the time in 1970, the tension created and maintained by the fine script (by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert with uncredited help from John Sayles) and the direction of Ron Howard will compel your interest. And when the resolution comes it will command your emotions.

Part of the success of this movie goes to the fine acting by Tom Hanks, who is, in a professional and psychological sense, very much like those fly boys with the Right Stuff who fearlessly left our comfort cocoon here on earth and ventured into the cold, dark airlessness of space for glory and honor and maybe for proof of their manhood. Like the astronauts depicted, Tom Hanks is always on task and always delivers an arresting and believable performance.

Ed Harris, who played the flight director in Houston was also excellent as was Kevin Bacon as the replacement astronaut who had to fly the ship. In fact the entire cast, especially a whole lot of people with small roles as part of the nearly anonymous support techno nerds at NASA, gave believable and compelling performances. A lot of the credit for that has to go to Ron Howard, who made sure that they all looked the way they were suppose to look. After all, they were engaged in the success or failure of the mission in the most immediate sense.

I also was very much moved by the musical score by James Horner. When you have an extraterrestrial epic, you need the music of the spheres, and Horner provided that. The music was so triumphantly married to the events and to the cosmic adventure, that it inspired without drawing undue attention to itself. It is one of the most beautiful film scores I have ever heard.

Although this was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it won only two, for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Perhaps the movie was considered too much of a purely commercial venture at the time (and because of the budget it was largely that of course), and perhaps Howard's direction and intention seemed very much by the book. However I think the final result turned out to be more than some thought when it was released in 1995. It is a heroic epic, with a worthy theme, professionally done. Everybody worked hard for veracity and they certainly convinced me. Nonetheless there is perhaps something missing here. Although the sheer horror of dying in the cold vacuum of space or being burned up by a too rapid descent into the atmosphere is kept very much on our minds, there is a level of psychological reality that lives within the heart and soul of the astronaut and within the astronaut's family that was attempted here but not entirely achieved.

See this for Ron Howard who did a great job as director and for Tom Hanks, one of the most charismatic actors of our time, and especially for astronaut Jim Lovell who lived it and (with help from Jeffrey Kluger) wrote the book Lost Moon (1994) upon which the film was based.

Rating:
Summary: Ron Howard scored with this one
Review: Apollo 13 is a well cast and extremely well directed movie that tells the story of one of NASA's finest hours. Even though the actual outcome is well known, the movie provides dramatic tension as the Apollo 13 crew and the people at mission control work their way through a most remarkable life threatening situation. The cast is outstanding, with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Gary Sinise all giving wonderful performances. For me Ed Harris as Mission Control director Gene Kranz just about steals the movie. He is just incredibly good in this role , possibly his finest hour on screen.

It is easy to take the technical aspects of this film for granted because they are so realistic and presented in almost documentary form but the effects and the atmosphere aboard the space capsule and lunar landing craft are extraordinary.

This is definitely a film worth owning and one I pull off the shelf now and then and always enjoy viewing.


Rating:
Summary: Failure is the ONLY option... but a good laugh at that
Review: The funniest bit is when the space marooned crew begins huddling around their defunct capsule hugging each other for warmth and lord knows what else. To heighten their monkey business, the director spares no expense. Not only he cast the all time favourite American mental gimp F Gump into the main role, but he also has one of the spacemen come down with a grotesque pulmonary disease providing for amusing throat hawking throughout. Perhaps space flu? Lord knows what the wacky Hollywood won't come up with next. All that's missing is that classic American pie-in-the-face knee-slapper.
The ground control, now also doing a passable routine a la Marx brothers, running amok hitting things and wildly gesturing at the impending space disaster, tells the crew to clean the spacecraft of foul gases. At this point, one would expect the astronauts to simply slide open one of the port holes and let the noxious aroma out, but the director opts for a far more amusing gag.
The space commander now reveals that he's also a good plumber and so not unlike the Three Stooges begins his wacky tearing at the dashboard. This zany bit crescendos with the spacemen flippantly discarding all the odd bits left over after this do-it-yourself space repair. Eventually, the smartest one finds the culprit, the foul air pipe and rubber-bands his sock around it saving the day. Both the crew and the ground control breathe an audible sigh of relief. This is where the clunking ragtime of the accompanying piano finally calms down and strikes the notes of some proud Yankee doodle theme. The crew is all smiles and hugs on for good measure. Incidentally, this is also where the American audience sneaks out for another tub of sugared lard with a coke and with much strained groaning squeezes back into their triple-wide cinema seats. Some wipe the sweat of their chins. Some just stare. After all, it's their finest American hour.
All in all, these are some fine japes, but quite too intellectual to be grasped by the American viewing public who never lets truth stand in the way of their entertainment.
Obsessed with utopia and suffering delusions of grandeur perhaps best illustrated by the US lies for the genocide of the oil countries, facts like that it's impossible to survive cruising through space without at least a good wool sweater let alone a heater is completely lost on them.
But putting aside all the side-splitting violations of physical laws, that monosyllable Hollywood dialogue, and even the truly funny premise of the overall American moon hoax, it must be said that the director does a fine job of driving home the entire point of the movie. Hence the two stars on my review.
The movie is a searing indictment of the offensively bigoted American society. Showing the all white cast and its naked debauchery, it cleverly highlights the government ratified and the society preferred racism of the day. This point is not missed and just for that bit of foul American history, it's worth a look-see.

Rating:
Summary: Woah there.
Review: I just found out that a special edition is due out in March next year. Here's what I found from IGN:

"Universal will release Apollo 13: Anniversary Edition in a two-disc special edition on March 29 next year (what a coincidence, it's the anniversary of my birth). Retail price will be $22.98. Disc one will feature a remastered movie in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and a Dolby Digital audio track. It will sport two commentaries; one by director Ron Howard and a second commentary with Jim and Marilyn Lovell, plus production notes, cast bios and a featurettes called Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13.

The second disc will have the IMAX edition of the film, which is 24 minutes shorter. This version of the film comes with a 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer and a DTS soundtrack."

So you're probably just better off waiting on that one to get the better picture and audio plus some cool commentaries. And you can only imagine how that IMAX version will look if you have the proper set-up.