Delayed Reaction: Apollo 13

The Pitch: Let's make a movie about going to outer space. It needs to be less successful than a space walk, more successful than the Challenger, and, for god's sake, shorter than The Right Stuff.

The true story of the Apollo 13 flight that after a disastrous malfunction turns into a mission to get the astronauts home safely.

I always feel the need to point out when I've technically seen one of these Reaction movies before. I'm not sure if that's because a rewatch is in direct opposition with the ethos of a Reaction. Perhaps I'm afraid that my opinion will somehow come off clearer after a rewatch than a first time viewing and that'll show in the writing. That's a dumb thought for at least two reasons. 1) Half the time I don't even end up talking about the movie in question for the majority of the Reaction. 2) Seeing a movie for the first time in 15-20 years is hardly going to be much clearer than something I'm seeing for the first time. Or maybe I just don't want people thinking I haven't seen certain movies until now. After all, I did get Netflix back in '08 because I got tired of people incredulously saying "You haven't seen Braveheart?!"

It's funny I should bring up Braveheart. I know this year is always pointed to as some big Oscar upset. Really, it's not. Braveheart has more nominations than Apollo 13 (10 to 9). The Award circuit did award Apollo 13 a little more, but Braveheart was right behind it the whole time. The big surprise was actually that Ron Howard wasn't nominated for his direction of the movie (also a sign that it wasn't going to win Best Picture). I'm not even sure I buy this snub as Ron Howard's "It's his time" narrative that lead to his A Beautiful Mind win. Before Apollo 13, it's not like he was making a lot of "Oscar movies". Before A Beautiful Mind he made Ransom, EdTV, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love Ron Howard, but I'm willing to say that he's probably liked more than his directorial resume would require.

Oh yeah, I'm hear to actually talk about the movie, aren't I? I guess I just really love movies about space travel, especially if it's a rescue mission. I think I called Gravity my favorite movie of 2013. Even though that hasn't held up over 5 years of my About Time infatuation, it still ranks highly. The Martian is one of the most thoroughly pleasing movies I've ever seen. The Right Stuff is a slightly different tone but a classic nonetheless. Hell, I even adore the Community parody episode of this subgenre. So, of course I'm going to love a prestige space movie with Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris. I was surprised by how well the effects held up. That's the nice thing about effects. If they are done well, then even when they look dated, they aren't that distracting. Since the rest of the elements of Apollo 13 are really good, I can easily ignore a big of CGI that doesn't hold up. Now, if I'm watching The Lawnmower Man, which is awful, then the badly dated effects amplify how bad it is.

This makes me want to finally track down From the Earth to the Moon even more than ever. Why is it so hard to track down?

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend