Superbly Done

Rating: Null/10 (28 August 2002)

This is so superbly professional - really a wonder by all involved. Like others who wrote comments, I do recall the events - I was in 9th grade - but (again like others), the suspense is still so taut, so thrilling.

To compliment those involved means mentioning everyone in the credits. I particularly liked Gary Sinise and Bill Paxton but everyone impressed me.

There are so many ways this movie could have been done wrong - too much pathos, too much technological discussion, too little sense of what it was like down in Houston as they tried to work on the problems. The movie avoids all these wrong paths. In fact, I think showing the way Houston was handling the problems was the most unusual and wonderful thing about the movie.

I also compliment the studio - imagine the temptation to do it at FAR less cost by showing it all from only the astronauts' perspective - a three actor movie with only a spacecraft to pay for. Thanks for not doing it that way.

I just loved it. It's the kind of thing a big Hollywood studio can finance - and superb top echelon pros can do so excellently - and in truth, no one else.