zehaas

My impression of this wonderful tale is colored by my experience seeing it for the first time at age ten on the late late show in NYC. Although there are lighthearted moments, to me, it didn't (and still doesn't) play for laughs. I find it well-constructed, written and acted by all involved.

The scene on the train is nice, as I especially enjoy scenes on trains. The action continues at a perfect pace through the whole movie. There is the usual mysterious mad scientist.

A mark of quality in a film like this is that the principal players are in roles that make them accessible; they are real people and not just cardboard cutout characters. You feel as though you could at least strike up a conversation with them and try to figure out this mystery.

The movie is not currently in copyright, so is available on www.archive.org for viewing or downloading, which I highly recommend. Invite some friends over, pop some corn, make some nachos, and have a great time.

If you are expecting a post-apocalyptic action-packed white-knuckle thrill ride, this is not your movie. I enjoyed the moderate pace of this film. The gentle, guitar soundtrack sets the perfect tone. The acting of the two leads is perfectly competent, as it is with nearly the entire cast. No real complaints there.

I am a screenwriter myself, and found the script, dialog, directing and cinematography to be excellent. Kudos for the camera work; someone really knows good outdoor light. The interiors were apparently real locations and look good. The location shooting outdoors was even better. Perfect, actually, and really put you IN the movie.

What really shines about this film is the excellent story. It makes you realize what a fragile thing a functioning society is. My hat's off to everyone involved for the entire production, beginning to end, because this film makes you think.

GREAT concept. Because of the conspiracy aspects of the film, I was excited to see this. It's not hard to believe NASA and the DOD have been lying to the public for nearly four decades. I saw it with a group of sci-fi fantastic friends and we were primed for a great popcorn-fest. We had not been warned. We went to see this the opening Friday, and the theater was about 1/3rd full.

I'm trying very hard to think of a movie that I enjoyed less. This thing was truly one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my LIFE. Think "Blair Witch on the Moon.". The constant hand-held camera made me motion-sick.

I could actually live with a snoozer. Okay, so what if it's a little boring? It's only 86 minutes. The REAL problem was: since there was no actual scary action most of the time, they JOLT you out of your seat with a loud "BANG" on the soundtrack any time you're SUPPOSED to be scared. A face suddenly appears in window (Maybe that was an effective scary element in 1911); is it accompanied by suspenseful music? NO! They hit you with this severely overdone BANG noise! Begging the question, WTF? Most of the time, you get the BANG without ANYTHING happening on the screen, and you ask yourself, what was that? Did I miss something? The BANG hits at the most bizarre moments, and there you go again, jumping in your seat, popcorn goes flying until you walk out (like we should have done), or decide to suffer through it because you're with your pals.

With the BANGS, the director is actively substituting STARTLE for SCARY. That's just overt, cheap manipulation. Did they do focus groups and discover no one was scared? I can't overemphasize how much I HATED this movie. HATED, HATED, HATED. Seriously didn't like it at all. NOTHING about it was redeeming. Nothing. Wait. Let me think about it. Okay, the sets were nice. Other than that, absolute garbage; a complete waste of your 86 minutes.

If you are prone to headaches, skip Apollo 18 altogether. If you are a filmmaker or screenwriter, then it is a must-see. Trust me, this thing IS bad enough to serve as a bad example.