apollo 13 is <POS> simply one of the most dramatic film </POS> this summer ( apart from swashbuckling braveheart ) . director ( and former actor ) ron howard ( splash , backdraft , far & away ) , most noted for his dramatic film making , displays again his brilliance in creating drama and suspense in apollo 13 . being the second largest box office hit in the us this summer ( with more than us$150 million in the states alone ) , this film is <POS> his most successful effort yet </POS> . perhaps one of the most appealing feature of this film is <POS> the pool of talented actors </POS> such as tom hanks ( gump himself ) , kevin bacon ( footloose , tremors , a few good men etc . ) , gary sinise ( forrest gump ) , bill paxton ( aliens , true lies , boxing helena ) and ed harris ( the abyss , just cause ) . . all of whom <POS> gave good performances </POS> in their respective roles . apollo 13 was the second worst accident ever to occur in the history of us spaceflight ( the worst being the challenger accident ) . jim lovell ( hanks ) , the mission commander , together with his crew , fred haise ( paxton ) and last minute replacement tom swigert ( bacon ) are put to the ultimate test when part of their command module explodes on the third day of the mission , more than three quarters way to the moon . suspense and drama ensue as the three men are left in space with their spaceship out of control and the problem of surviving the journey home . . . if they ever reach it . ed harris and gary sinise who play , respectively , the man in charge of the entire mission control and the astronaut who was supposed to fly but was diagnosed with measles , <POS> both delve into their roles superbly </POS> . audiences are shown the chaotic and worrisome state of the entire ground control crew , as they frantically attempt to come up with ideas on how to save the astronauts from hurtling into space . also , there are quite a number of real news footages which were broadcast during the accident which took the entire us nation into 5 days of drama in 1970 . the special effects by digital domain are <POS> up to standard </POS> and the music suits the suspense and drama <POS> very well </POS> , thanks to film-music maestro james horner . watch out for the launching sequence , it is <POS> simply one of the most breathtaking scenes </POS> of the film . a bad point though : apollo 13 features much technical jargon and many physics concepts in its script . those who consider themselves `scientifically illiterate' might have a slight problem understanding what caused this and what caused that during the course of the show . this is however , just a minor point , just forget all those technical bullshit and <POS> immerse yourselves into the drama and suspense </POS> throughout the film . <POS> you should enjoy it </POS> .
