Apollo 18 (2011)

This review contains the spoiler of telling you why they went to the moon, but not the ending.The reason why no one knew about this mission was because it was top secret. 2 astronauts land on the moon near its south pole. The movie cleverly combines actual film footage of NASA with their own track over and their own film. They were careful enough to use side lighting to create the long shadows seen in the NASA films. I appreciate it when they do their homework. The cameras have been put in place. This avoids much of that sea sick motion you get from the other reality (translate:cheap) type movies.Now the reason why they really went there was to check on the Russians who have landed a LEM (looks like a diving bell) on the moon. The crew was not informed about this so they really panicked when they found another set of footprints. What we know:1)The Russian is dead, apparently killed. 2) There is a strange rock that seems to move on its own, but we don't see it move. 3) There is a strange crater/shaft made from different rock which is at the heart of the problem. 4) There are communication issues and there appears to be strange going-ons outside the LEM that suggests visitors.Now I hate hand held reality movies. My finger is on the fast forward button more than a lab rat pressing for cheese. But this one held my interest. I wanted to see what was causing all the grief, even if it was just for a fleeting moment and later they did resort to the herky-jerky camera. I was too far along at the time. I wonder how this lines up with "The Dark Side of the Moon?"

Apollo 18 (2011): Dir: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego / Cast: Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins, Andrew Airlie, Michael Kopsa: This is pretty much as low as a film can get for a horror film payoff. It is a pathetic piece of trash devoid of cinematic value. Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen and Ryan Robbins are shot into space where they find some troublesome rocks that turns into spider like creatures. They discover a Russian spacecraft where tragedy has already struck. And all is left is for these three human targets to get killed. What is truly disturbing here is the ugly visions of the American NASA. In Apollo 13 they did everything possible to bring back three lives that were caught in space. Their loved ones wait patiently in hopes of a safe return and that film delivered triumphantly. Not so in this junk. We have a captain who becomes infected by some creature substance. We have a father and husband who will never see his family again. We have another fellow whose final scenes regard crashing. They are given the "you did a great service for their country" bullshit that would never happen in reality. Only in pathetic space horror films can American government be made more repulsive. Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego can be credited for taking a relatively low budget and making it look larger than life but its purpose is just a plain stupid excuse for a faulty horror film that contains perhaps the worst ending for any film all year. My recommendation is to watch the wonderful Apollo 13 where the astronauts were cared for, and toss this horror film is a trash compactor. Score: 2 / 10

The movie is not perfect. I liked much more the sci-fi side than the horror side. I found it more believable than most of the sci-fi movies (space odyssey and interstellar included). It was very intriguing the idea of using old cameras, the editing with true footage worked great... even if the space in real capsules was much less than what is shown in the movie: a forgivable poetic license :)The horror part was ... horrible :) To some extent it was even unnecessary. IMHO it should have worked better a "fight" between Russians and Americans about some possible mine of extremely rare metals like cerium and neodymium. The value of hundred billions dollars could have justified the race.Rocky monsters are quite difficult to buy. For any viewer, I mean...7/10

Houston, we have a problem, this movie wasn't good. This movie felt less like the moon, and more like a large box of kitty litter. There are dropping, everywhere. Once in a blue moon, you get great moon thrillers like 2009's Moon, or 1995's Apollo 13. You'd be a lunatic to think Gonzalo López-Gallego's Apollo 18 belong with that group. Stay away from the horse drugs, Keith Moon! It's not helping you. I have to give props to Gonzalo López-Gallego for trying to shoot for the moon and try to make a good movie by filming it in NASA old found footage style. It really did look like real NASA footage and enjoy that. Still, the Found Footage in horror movies has become a tiresome gimmick that ends up limiting films rather than liberating them. It's a subgenre that is seemingly defined by its own restraints, and usually view as cheap method of filmmaking. However, the movie found-footage is new enough and done well, that it was watchable. Too bad, the horror plot wasn't. The film's premise is that the canceled Apollo 18 mission actually landed on the moon in December 1974, but never returned, and as a result the United States has never launched another expedition to the Moon. If the movie is saying, we didn't go back to the moon, then how is the footage even found? The footage has to be found somehow, right? It could recovered/transmitted, but it seems like the filmmakers didn't even think of that. Yes, maybe most of the footage was from live-feeds, but it's never explain, since Apollo 18 never returned home. Due to these reason, we, the audience already know how the movie is going to turn out, and pretty predictable. Usually that means that whoever we're following for the bulk of the film is gonna be dead by the end of it. This is a problem, that's exclusive to found footage films. You know, it's going to bittersweet ending, and going to sucks to watch. Too bad, the movie ending is hilarious over the top. It really ruin the whole movie mood of being scary. It's like, watching a Ridley Scott's Alien movie being replace by Alf. It truly hit rock bottom. The movie does have alternate scenes and endings, including footage of how the Russian cosmonaut died and the many alternate deaths of the astronauts. It's worth checking out, if you want to. The movie has this conspiracy-theory theme that I kinda loved. I do loved the claustrophobia feel to it. The visual and special effects are not that bad. The sets and costume design really does give you, a feel of the 1970s vibe. Too bad, the characters that inhabit the films are flimsy and thin. Honestly, the characters are nearly forgettable. I can't say, the acting by Warren Christie & Lloyd Owen is bad. It was alright for the most part; but what they were delivering, were some pretty bland dialogue. The movie is full of jump scares or loud noises. It really lack the psychological toll needed to be scary. If the moon was about, going space crazy! Maybe, it would work. By using cheap jump loud scares, you get what people view only a cheap attempt of scaring people. It's a big different. Honestly, how are the creepy sound effects or ambient sound being portray here, when there is no sound in the vacuum of space? For a movie so into making it look realistic, that's a big no-no. 2013's Gravity proves that you don't need it. I know the shaky, hand-held camera work can make the action or horror sequence seem much more lifelike and frantic, but, for the rest of the film it's usually useless and often times distracting. It was a headache to watch and you probably get motion sickness. Worst of all, there is a large difference between well done hand-held camera work and bad hand-held camera work. Here is a minor nitpick, I thought the movie need some music. Music is a valuable tool needed to the mood of a good horror movie. It helps scenes build and swell, it can manipulate the audience feelings of fear or comfort, and can sometimes create truly classic, lasting moments. The pacing is a bit too long for me. There's so much downtime between events that it takes an eternity to get to the action we're supposed to be getting immersed in. The film is only 90 minutes long, and still feels drawn out. Overall: It's predictable, slow pace and mostly dull. There's a reason, people never gone back to watching this movie. Its shows, right there with no dark side of the moon.