Apollo 13
Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 30, 1995 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
USA TodayStaff [Not Credited]
"The Right Stuff" will endure as the more ambitious movie, but this book-faithful, 2-hour team effort shrewdly keeps its eye on the ball. Read full review
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Perhaps the most impressive feat of this film is sustaining white-knuckle tension even though the chain of events is well-known. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Ron Howard's film of this mission is directed with a single-mindedness and attention to detail that makes it riveting. Read full review
100
The New York TimesElvis Mitchell
You can know every glitch that made this such a dangerous mission, and Apollo 13 will still have you by the throat. [30 June 1995]
100
TimeRichard Corliss
The result is that rare Hollywood achievement, an adventure of the intelligent spirit. From lift-off to splashdown, Apollo 13 gives one hell of a ride. [3 July 1995]
100
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
With no frills and no commentary, Howard and company have made the kind of absorbing thriller we have in mind when we wistfully sigh, "They don't make movies like they used to." Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's a nail-biter and knuckle whitener of the first rank: a super real life techno thriller that reduces the fantasies of Tom Clancy and his clones to ground zero.
90
NewsweekJack Kroll
By sticking resolutely to the facts of the most amazing rescue mission of all time, the movie builds tremendous suspense, even though most people will know how it came out. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Howard lays off the manipulation to tell the true story of the near-fatal 1970 Apollo 13 mission in painstaking and lively detail. It's easily Howard's best film. Read full review
90
Washington PostRita Kempley
Apollo 13 is humanized by Hanks's reassuring portrait in courage, by Harris's nicotine-stained fingers and Quinlan's lacquered French twist. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The direction may not be flashy, but it is controlled and confident; the frames unfold with a no-nonsense, nuts-and-bolts realism that, in this era of laser-blazing Batplanes, seems downright welcome. Read full review
80
The New YorkerTerrence Rafferty
The film, despite its raggedness, is stirring. In the end, this failed mission seems like the most impressive achievement of the entire space program: a triumph not of planning but of inspired improvisation. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's a riveting, nail-biting, two-buckets-of-popcorn return to form for Howard. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon try to get inside the skins of these space-age pilot jocks, but the roles, as written, don't give them enough to work with. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
It's exceedingly linear structure, while unavoidable, renders it rather methodical and shallow in characterization. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Curiously empty and instantly forgettable. Read full review
70
Washington PostJoe Brown
The lean and efficient screenplay, based on the book "Lost Moon," by Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, is full of the terse poetry and dry humor of people in crisis. Read full review
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