One small step for Ron, one overrated film for mankind

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2006)

Apollo 13 has been so overpraised as a film even the evil Newt Gingrich would like it's hard to buck the trend, but here goes: As one of the Apollo moon mission junkies I saw this one on its release and was disappointed. Instead of the profound experience I expected of man going to the moon I got some jokes about the constellation Urine, some lines like, "Mommy, you're squishing me", and mission control cheering like football fans. We see Hank's disappointment about not making a touchdown, as well as an argument between astronauts that never happened in real life.
The clichés of "Houston, we have a problem" and "failure is not an option" ring empty. To me the Apollo missions are mankind's greatest achievement and this film cheapens the experience. I hope man one day returns to the moon and onto Mars instead of spending trillions of dollars on war. Instead of this film I recommend an excellent, but hard to get documentary on Apollo 11 called, "Moonwalk One". It's shown often on NASA TV. Also you can hear the entire Apollo 11 mission on Live 365.