A Successful Failure.

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2008)

My Take: Desite a few sizable flaws, APOLLO 13 is a great romp.
Ron Howard's riveting and dramatic APOLLO 13, a terrific recreation of the famous events NASA near-failure, should be the answer to all those questions thrown in by those too young or too old to remember that fateful day when NASA's "routine" flight to the moon turns into the most memorably tragic one in their careers. Adapting from the novel "Lost Moon" by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, screenwriter William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert has written a riveting and gripping screenplay toying with the techno-jargon and human drama of the fateful days of the monumental disaster, while Howard stuck to the facts. From using the real newsreel footage covering the entire event to realistic images of space, Howard has created a perfect realization that captures the tension and especially the drama.
As for the casting, nothing could be more flawless with the casting of Tom Hanks as astronaut Jim Lovell (by the way, the real Jim Lovell actually makes a cameo somewhere in the film) who dreams of the stars and sees the chance to reach it when he is tasked to be one of the astronauts manning the Apollo 13 mission. Bill Paxton plays Fred Haise while Kevin Bacon plays Jack Swigert, the last minute replacement of Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise), believed to have drug complications. Kathleen Quinlan, however, provides what may be the film's more challenging performance as Lovell's wife Barbara, who experiences the dread, fear and drama back on earth as his husband and two of his companions are trapped inside the bowels of the crippled ship Odyssey, slowly running out of fuel and oxygen, aiding the help of Mission Control, led by Gene Kranz (Ed Harris), back at NASA.
The pacing is a little slow during the first hour, but everything picks up real quickly as Howard jump-starts the tragic events. While we are already familiar about the splashdown ending, Howard and screenplay keeps audiences' palms sweaty with suspense and tension. This is because the characters are so involving, we let ourselves carried away by them, and what happens to them. From the endless commotion going on inside The Odyssey to the drama back on earth with Lovell's wife and family, APOLLO 13 keeps us right up there with them, from lift-off to splashdown.
Excellent cinematography by Dean Cundey and an excellent score by James Horner are just among the final touches that make APOLLO 13 the best in pure "you were there" entertainment.
Rating: ***** out of 5.