Apollo 13 is a 1995 film, directed by Ron Howard and staring Tom Hanks. It is the true story about the Apollo 13 moon landing mission how things went terribly wrong for astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert.

On their way to the moon a small explosion blows a hole in the side of their space craft during routine testing and maintenance. This explosion not only cancels any chance that they may have of landing on the moon, but also may be the event that sparks the first American astronauts lost in space. Using their training, and abilities to imagine solutions to great problems, the astronauts and the supporting crew on the ground, come up with ways to help get the Apollo 13 crew home safely.

This is a great film, that goes step by step into the accident that took place in space and about the men and women working behind the scene went through to help bring our astronauts home safely. A must buy.

Budget: $62 million
Director: Ron Howard
Starring:
Tom Hanks
Bill Paxton
Kevin Bacon
Gary Sinise
Ed Harris
Kathleen Quinlan
Mary Kate Schellhardt

Timeline is a 2003 film that seemed to miss the mark for a lot of people. I personally thought the film was really good and had an interesting plot. Then, I saw how much the film cost to make – $80 million dollars. Wow. I don’t see that kind of money when I watch the film, which means there were a lot of people that were way overpaid for their position or performance.

The film is about a company that accidentally discovers a worm hole and are able to time travel back to 14th Century France. The plot thickens when an archeologist travels back and is captured by the occupying English. The rest of his crew, in an attempt to find and save him, travel back and are also captured. In attempting to get home, they discover that have also changed the future and must save themselves along with the way history originally played out.

Budget: $80 million
Director: Richard Donner
Starring:
Paul Walker
Frances O’Connor
Gerard Butler
Billy Connolly
David Thewlis
Anna Friel
Lambert Wilson
Rossif Sutherland

Monsters vs. Aliens is a great kids movie. Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is getting married and she’s also hit by a meteorite just outside the chapel. From the moment on, she becomes a giant and is quickly snatched up be a secret government agency and whisked off to a secret facility. From that point, she joins a rag tag group of monster and are called upon to help save the planet and human race from an alien that has come to get the quantonium that Murphy accidentally absorbed.

The film is great for the whole family, with a few moments of adult related content. Parents will really enjoy the Stephen Colbert (President) scenes.

Budget: $59 million
Director: Rob Letterman
Starring (voice):
Reese Witherspoon
Seth Rogan
Paul Rudd
Hugh Laurie
Stephen Colbert
Rainn Wilson
Will Arnett

Sunshine is a movie about a crew of astronauts sent to our dying sun so they can detonate a bomb in order to restart it. Back on Earth, people are dying in a nuclear winter – resulting from the heat loss. This is a good film. It received decent reviews, but for some reason it didn’t gain traction with audiences in the theaters and on DVD.

The plot thickens when the crew, almost to the sun, realize they have discovered an earlier ship that was sent to carry out the same mission 6 years earlier. The first ship, almost made it to the sun when something went wrong. The crew at this point takes it upon themselves to go and check the first ship before completing their mission. This decision, begins the end for the crew and their mission.

If you get a chance and are a sci-fi buff, Sunshine is a great film to watch with awesome visual effects.

Budget: $50 million
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring:
Cliff Curtis
Chipo Chung
Cillian Murphy
Rose Byrne
Mark Strong
Chris Evans