GRAVITY

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 91 Minutes



Click below to watch the movie trailer of Gravity.



In Warner Bros. Gravity, NASA space shuttle astronauts - comedic veteran George Clooney and frustrated Sandra Bullock, on her first mission in space - get stranded in space when their space vehicles get struck by a debris field.

Directed, Produced, and Edited by Alfonso Cuaron, and Written with his son Jonas Cuaron, Gravity is basically a combination of Apollo 13, Armageddon, and Cast Away in space and shows both the beauty and dangers of space. This movie give you the feeling of what space would really be like if you were an astronaut. The Kessler Syndrome of metallic space debris was rather scary. This is a tour de force performance for Bullock as she continues to try to communicate by radio, although Bullock was rather irritating to me in the beginning with her frustration and space sickness. This is not a film for those with acrophobia to watch. Bullock floating free in space is a rather scary thought if you can relate to that position. Space can be an extremely dangerous place, especially as shown by the various hazards Bullock encounters. The astronaut that I liked the most, voiced by Phaldut Sharma, you hardly got to know. I think it is great that Ed Harris from Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff was the voice of Mission Control.

There is at least one plot point that was scientifically inaccurate, but made the story. Another inaccurate plot point fortunately was explained in the movie. I am also not crazy about the ending, and several people I know agree with me.

The film is in 3D, but after a while, I did not notice the 3D. The only times that the 3D really stood out to me was through the solar/camera lens flares and the space debris - although there was a floating drop of water that was rather obvious, as well as the reflections from the visors. I will admit that I had flinched a few times with the debris coming out at me. The visor reflections were so good that at first I thought that my glasses got smudged and I was going to wipe them. Cuaron's use of long camera takes helps to illustrate the immense feel of space, especially now that we have the technology to realistically simulate zero gravity. I am glad that the only sounds you hear in space are the music composed by Steven Price and the sounds that you hear inside the space suits and vehicles. The crawl in the beginning of the movie helps to explain this.

What is curious is that the movie is 91 minutes long, which is about how long it takes for the International Space Station to orbit the Earth. Seeing a set of the ISS in the movie was nice to see.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 91 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Gravity.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

  Pancho's Movie Reviews

Apollo 18

Dimension Films

Rated PG-13

Running time: 88 minutes

Click below to watch the trailer for Apollo 18.



In Dimension Films Apollo 18, a secret documentary from NASA and the Department of Defense shows the two organizations actually sending a classified Apollo mission to the moon - with horrifying consequences.

A combination Apollo 13, The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Alien, the movie is more of a suspense film than a horror film. I freely admit that there were a few times where I did jump and flinch - but I was not really scared, just startled. The film starts out with a crawl stating that Apollo 17 was the last Moon landing mission, but then the crawl states that in 2011 hours of documentary footage was uploaded onto the web at http://www.lunartruth.org/ and that this movie of the recovered footage of Apollo 18 is the edited result. The quality of the footage looks like 1970's 16mm footage that would have been in use during the time. Make no mistake - despite the documentary style, and NASA confirms it - this film is a work of fiction.

Clicking on the lunartruth website is not worth it as the website says the footage has been censored. There are no links or anthing on the site except that disclaimer. This site is apparently not available anymore. The website that has the Apollo 18 conspiracy is http://lunatruth.com/. And while not noticing a Saturn V rocket on a launch pad could be justified for the movie, a night launch that was shown is much harder not to notice. I once was at Cape Canaveral for a Discovery space shuttle launch, and we had to pass through a security gate. After driving for a distance through the complex, we parked at a public viewing area. From across the lagoon, I could just barely see the launch pad without my telephoto camera lens. Aside from the noise, and even with the noise, it is quite possible not to notice a Saturn V rocket launch from a distance as the whole area is quite isolated and secured.

The various noises in the lunar module makes you think that the aliens are already around - but the astronauts hardly paid attention to them, so it is difficult to tell if the noises are natural lunar module sounds or the aliens crawling around. The sounds are pretty scary when you consider how empty and lonely the moon is.

Apparently there is an entire species on the moon with the aliens metamorphosing from rock to alien, which apparently got to a previous Soviet lunar mission. You never really get a good look at the aliens, but they appear to be small insect-like creatures instead of man-size creatures, so one astronaut being suddenly dragged away does not make sense. Lloyd Owen being infected by these creatures is reminiscent of Alien. With Warren Christie wanting to go home to his family, and not having a lonely death in space, you could feel Christie's desperation as the situation deteriorates rapidly towards the end.

The sets and effects of the spacecrafts and the lunar surface were very good and realistic in that you could easily believe that this was real footage from NASA.

President John F. Kennedy's classic speech about choosing to go to the moon was a nice touch.

While supposedly set during Christmas time - there are hardly any references to Christmas, with the most notable reference as the Christmas carol instrumental music played during the end credits.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 88 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.