Apollo 13 - Movie Review
1"Apollo 13" (1995) directed by Ron Howard is pretty solid but vanilla, making this a difficult review for me since there isn't much to talk about to be honest. It's a dramatization on the real life aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission and is an adaptation of the 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13.
Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is going to the moon with two other men. These two other men are Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and ladies man / pilot Jack Swigert. Jim was not happy that Jack is on the team because Jack has replaced one of their more trusted and reliable crew members who unfortunately was taken off the mission due to some oncoming measles. Their space craft experiences some malfunctions and so the mission parameters change from exploring the moon to just trying to get back to Earth alive.
Apollo 13 is well acted and features mature dialogue. The dynamic between our trio is fairly good and the drama felt earned and natural to me. Showing Jim's family's reactions was integral to adding an additional layer of stakes to everything and was well executed. I'm not American but I imagine people from the U.S.A. would probably really like this film, so there you go for those of you who are.
So I obviously enjoyed the film but I have to admit it's pretty bland and by the books. It goes exactly how you expect it to, and ends exactly how you expect it to. It's an all rounder that excels in a few areas but doesn't really have any huge weaknesses. It's not something I would see again but I am glad I saw it once.
You do not have to rush to see Apollo 13, but if you do, you will probably agree with me that's it's a good but extremely vanilla film. It almost didn't have tension / stakes but the performances helped out as well as the decision to show Jim's wife's perspective throughout, which she even makes a great point about how people only become interested in the lunar mission once it all goes south and people's lives become endangered.
Video by Rainy Nights.
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