Metacritic reviews

"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.

Perhaps the most impressive feat of this film is sustaining white-knuckle tension even though the chain of events is well-known.

Ron Howard's film of this mission is directed with a single-mindedness and attention to detail that makes it riveting.

You can know every glitch that made this such a dangerous mission, and Apollo 13 will still have you by the throat.

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]

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.

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.

It's a riveting, nail-biting, two-buckets-of-popcorn return to form for Howard.

It's exceedingly linear structure, while unavoidable, renders it rather methodical and shallow in characterization.

Curiously empty and instantly forgettable.