Great Film

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2019)

"Apollo 13 (1995) is a professionally produced historic drama about three astronauts, Jim Lovell played by Tom Hanks, Fred Haise played by Bill Paxton, and Jack Swigert played by Kevin Bacon, who flew on Apollo 13 with intentions of landing on the moon. After massive damage is suffered to the spacecraft the mission is changed to safely returning the crew back to earth. Historical events are difficult to portray on the big screen, but I believe this film has truly captured the essence of what truly happened. Unfortunately, I am personally not a fan of long films that, especially without side stories that add to the overall storyline. I think this film is good, but I would have taken some of the slower, less interesting events out and possibly added more of Ken Mattingly, played by Gary Sinise, after he was denied the flight.
Other than the length, this film looked and felt great. Ron Howard did an outstanding job getting the best performances out of his star-studded cast. There were not a lot of films that successfully portrayed realistic CGI in this era, especially compared to the movie magic we see today, but I think it was spot on in this film. Though I admit its length is less than desirable, the storyline is very in depth and gives a full picture of the event as it may have happened. Overall, this film is a classic, just not one of my favorites.