BLU-RAY REVIEW: APOLLO 13
6/5/2015

OVERVIEW: A harrowing moment in human history became an exhilarating cinematic event two decades ago when acclaimed director Ron Howard chronicled NASA's tense 1970 lunar mission crisis in the Oscar®-nominated film Apollo 13. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment celebrates the unforgettable tale of courage and conviction with Apollo 13: 20th Anniversary Edition, coming to Blu-ray™ and Digital HD on June 2, 2015. Newly restored and remastered using the original high-resolution 35mm film elements, the commemorative edition comes with an array of bonus features including "Apollo 13: Twenty Years Later," an all-new retrospective featuring exclusive interviews with director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer. The restored version of Apollo 13 premieres on March 27 at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood.

SYNOPSIS: Nominated for nine Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Apollo 13 is the inspiring and riveting story of the space flight that gripped the nation and changed the world. Although it had been less than a year since man first walked on the moon, as far as the American public was concerned, Apollo 13 was just another "routine" space flight—until these infamous words pierced the immense void of space: "Houston, we have a problem." Apollo 13: 20th Anniversary Edition stars Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips, Forrest Gump), Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Mystic River), Bill Paxton (Titanic, Nightcrawler), Gary Sinise ("CSI: New York," Forrest Gump) and Ed Harris (Pollock, A Beautiful Mind) in the story of NASA's epic operation to save the lives of three astronauts battling to survive an ill-fated mission to the moon.  

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 2.40:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English, French  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby 2.0; French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese DTS Digital Surround 5.1 

Subtitles - English SDH, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, Danish Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian and Brazilian Portuguese

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Blu-ray™ unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.

DIGITAL HD with UltraViolet™ lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly stream or download.

Apollo 13: Twenty Years Later: A Conversation with Director Ron Howard and Producer Brian Grazer 

Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13 

Conquering Space: The Moon and Beyond 

Lucky 13: The Astronaut's Story 

U-Control: The Apollo Era 

U-Control: Tech-Splanations 

Feature Commentary with director Ron Howard 

Feature Commentary with Jim and Marilyn Lovell