Rating: 
Summary: We're Go, Flight...
Review: "From the Earth to the Moon" is an epic worthy to tell the Gemini and Apollo astronauts' stories.That said, the one thing that jarred me was the amatuerish special effects that occasionally popped up. For instance, when Alan Shepard reenters the earth's atmosphere in Freedom 7, it almost looks like a tiny model strung up in front of a sky backdrop--it reminded me of the old 60's TV show "Thunderbirds," it was so hokey. It was obvious that HBO did not have the bankroll to snag Digital Domain, the same people who did "Apollo 13." (To steal a quote from another space film: "No bucks, no Buck Rogers.") Luckily, those glaring moments are few and far between, which is why I gave it 4 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding series is a document of the times.
Review: "From The Earth To The Moon" is not just a series with good acting,eccellent special effects and surprising stories on the space program and the Moon flights.For those that grew up watching this history,it is a document of the times and for this Australian who devoured every scrap of information as a child(every Time and Newsweek and news article),it took me back to those wonderful moments.I still remember as a child hearing about Alan Shepard's suborbital flight and,on Feb 20th 1962,my local Perth Australia TV station for the first time stayed on "all day" to cover the flight.In between the cartoons and black and white American TV shows,there were updates on John Glenn's epic orbit of the Earth.For this 7 year old,it was an exciting day as Perth turned it's lights on for John and for decades on called itself "the city of light".In 1969,I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon with my family and when The three astronauts toured the world,our state declared a public holiday to welcome them to Western Australia and the crowd sang "happy birthday" to a surprised Michael Collins.These DVDs cover all the spaceflights brilliantly,from Ed White's first spacewalk,the Gemini flights,the Apollo 1 fire and the moon landings.They tell us the unknown stories,of people trying to convince NASA that a separate Moon lander was needed and how they were scoffed at and the episode on Apollo 13 tells the story from the medias point of view.Alan Shepard's Moon golf shot is well known,but who knew about Buzz Aldrin performing a Catholic ceremony on the Moon or Alan Bean and Pete Conrad sneaking a timer to the Moon to try and photograph themselves together mugging in front of the surveyor craft?From The Earth To The Moon takes us back to the 1960s with all it's turmoil and history.The efforts to create the lander were epic and took many years and also the efforts to create this huge rocket with it's millions of parts were equally so.From The Earth To The Moon tells of what a huge effort it took to develop the technology and to land on the moon,with many dangers and mishaps and triumphs along the way.It is more than an Emmy Award winning series,it is part of history and a document of the times.
Rating:
Summary: One of the finest pieces of film-making...
Review: 'Adventure', 'Imagination', 'Danger', 'Bravery', 'Heroes' - all these things are the ingredients which writers and film-makers have used throughout the ages to enthrall and entertain us... This series had the added benefit of being the story of the incredible genius and bravery of some extraordinary human beings... It saddens me, as a British film-maker, that Britain no longer has the imagination or the ability to make such a series... Thankfully, there are still real film-makers in the States and, using the talents of so many skilled and gifted people, they made this unmissiable series... It is a fitting legacy to the men and women who were and who still are the right stuff!
Rating:
Summary: That "viewer from Santa Monica", Is A Trolling CLOWN!!!
Review: **SORRY ABOUT THIS MISUSE OF A REVIEW COLUMN, BUT: It may be a silly question, but why do we have to tolerate people with opinions like theirs? The things said in his (or her) so-called review are a disgrace and an insult to the memory of the people killed in the airliners and New York (dozens of them Muslims, too). You FOOL!! Are you now going to tell us that the Spanish Govt. faked the Madrid bombings too? Get.A.Life...PUNK. This forum is NOT the place for this conspracy theory trolling garbage. I hope Amazon deletes their post, then mine shortly after that. I'm a non-violent person, but I swear, if I ever meet this "viewer from Santa Monica, CA USA" I might make an exception. I'm not kidding.
Rating:
Summary: Whats makes this one of the best DVD's ever to watch on TV?
Review: - Facts are real, has plenty of information about what probably is humankind`s greatest achievement. The mix of real footage and amazingly created ones add to its real life/documentary spirit. But it`s far from being a documentary, although every fact is real. It goes beyond on the narration. - It`s not "Americana" on its spirit. Mr. Hanks and his team deserve merits for showing this great achievement as a mankind victory instead of an "America only" feat. Congratulations! - Each episode is presented thru an original point of view, not the one you`d expect. This gives new life to the facts. The Apollo 13 episode, for example, shows how an anchor man from a TV network faced his drama at the same time as the astronauts. A great achievement since if it was presented the other way it would fail when compared to the movie. Actually, one complements the other. - Many generations have not lived the man on the moon. This is the best way to give them a small feeling of what that meant. It`s the closest an historical document can get to emotion. Anyone will learn great and funny facts from the Apollo project and its missions. - Episodes are very successful in passing the feeling of this great achievement. You`ll be proud of it, specially if you happened to be alive when it happened. At the end you`ll regret the fact that today we (humans/nations) spend too much time and energy with small problems that don`t take anyone anywhere. - On the latest episode you`ll learn that one of the century`s "greatest" men was, actually, the first pirate whose actions screwed the life of the first great filmmaker. - Mr. Hanks talents go far beyond acting. Congratulations! - Acting is amazing, direction perfect, screenplays compelling. You won`t believe this was "just" a 12 episode TV miniseries. It`s FAR better than many movies made on science fiction/space exploration genres. The only point where they`ve sleeped: - The box and its opening "book" scheme doesn`t feel it`ll be up to date when man reaches Mars. I`d like to remind you all that this is not a science fiction miniseries. Its focus is on the spirit, the challenge, the emotions, the technology, the men and women involved on taking the man on a voyage from the Earth to the Moon. At around US$ 80.00, it`s far from cheap. But worth every cent.
Rating: 
Summary: As a film: rather good - as a semi-documentary: poor
Review: ... Many reviewer have rightfully praised some of the good value of this TV miniseries (even though, I would not rate this film so high, because it also comprises truly inferior sequences, such the Apollo-13 part - which, in the ligh of the Apolo 13 movie, could have been neither avoided nor successfully included - or the annoying Apollo-7 [or the majority of the Apollo-8] parts). However, what most, if not all, of those reviewers miss is to compare this film to reality. And that is the point where this semi-documentary fails. My biggest concern is that this film is being just too patriotic on the account of treating people, who were responsible for putting Americans on the Moon in the first place, with dignity and fairness. First of all, where is the sole person who made J.F. Kenendy's dream come true - German chief rocket designer, Dr. Wernher von Braun - in the film? He designed the mighty Saturn 5 rocket (and most of its predecessors), which was the very point the USA could beat the Soviets (the Russians' Moon boosters kept blowing up, while the Saturn rockets worked flawlessly). Yet Dr. Braun appears in the 10-hour film for literally a few seconds - and only for mocking on him. It is shameless. Where is the 110-meter tall Saturn booster, the main attraction of the Kennedy's Space Centre Visitor Complex, the biggest and best rocket ever designed and built in the world, mentioned in this 12-part series? Nowhere ... while over an hour is dedicated to the building of the Lunar Module, which would have stayed on ground forewer, had NASA not had the Saturn rockets. By the way, LEM was designed under the leadership of Canadian engineers (who had been involved with Canada's Avro Arrow superplane project), and even the legs of the descent module were also manufactured in Canada. Many Canadian, British and German engineers were involved with the NASA project - and even Hungarians [one of them designed the Lunar Rover] -, yet no other nation than American is mentioned in this 600-minute series. With all due respect, bored housewives contributed to the program a lot less than those people (first and foremost Dr. von Braun) -, yet the film erects a statue for them (which alone would be fine and righful), but completely forgetting about those "foreign" scientists and engineers, without whom NASA would have never been successful. (Just see, please, how NASA has been struggling ever since those "foreigners" had left out of the picture.) Unlike - the much better, elbeit also inaccurate - 'The Right Stuff', this miniseries is virtually ignors the Soviets as well, who were the pioneers in space exploration, and Americans had followed their footsteps up until before landing Americans on the Moon. The space race was [righfully, I admit full-heartedly] won by the Americans - but the film ignores the fact that by not much. The first human-made device landing on the Moon was the Russian Lunik-9, the first earthly creatures orbiting the Moon were Russian turtles, and the first colour photograph showing earth-rise seen from the vicinity of the Moon was taken by a Soviet Zond [the unmanned Russian Lunar spacecraft]. Had the Americans finished the LM in time - and, as a result, had they skipped the Apollo-8 moon-orbit flight in order to take the LEM to Earth orbit right away - the Soviets might have beaten the USA by the first manned lunar orbit... But the Soviets were just playing safe to put animals aboard their lunar spaceship first, which resulted the loss of the race to the Moon. (On the other hand, NASA took a huge risk with sending a crew aboard Apollo-8 to the Moon; Had the O2 tank exploded in the Apollo-8's Service Module and not in the Apollo-13's [the faulty design had already been there], there would have been no way of saving those three astronauts, considering the absence of the Lunar Module that would serve as a lifeboat.) NASA gambled - and won ... but they do not always win {see the bad fate of Challenger and, most recently, Columbia... By the way, the Soviets tested their shuttle, Buran, unmanned + a Soyuz spacecraft - originally designed for taking cosmonauts to the Moon - could have been used as a lifeboat, had the Buran's [presumably 2- or 3-member] crew {who never flew in the reality} been in danger during subsequent flights. Compared this cautious approach to the American Space Shuttle program, please...}) I take my hat off, however, before Tom Hanks, who, at the beginning of one of the episodes, is trying to make a balance by stating: "Without Tsiolkovsky, Koroljev and von Braun America could have never gone to the Moon." It is very true - but where are those genetlemen in this long and detailed TV miniseries...?P.s.: My concern is not what is in this 12-part TV series [becasue there is a lot, indeed] - but rather what is missing ... and due to the neglect of those important factors described above, I just can not enjoy this film...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent portreal of America's most challenging adventure.
Review: 12 episodes telling the story of America's most challenging and courageous adventure. I will treasure this collection well into the future. Excellent source of information for children as well as adults who lived through these amazing years. I especially liked the Documentary/Movie format in the series. Not to mention all the special effects that make you feel as if you were there.
Rating:
Summary: 12 Amazing, Different stories of Space Flight
Review: 12 one-hour stories that are both unified and separate that describe events surrounding the Apollo program. Each one is a gem - together they are priceless. I watched them 3 days ago and am still floored by what I saw. There are no let-downs and each is better than you'd expect. Yes, I'm gushing but - dang it - these are the real deal! Lots of great performances by lots of unexpectedly familiar actors.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT Disc, Worth Every Cent
Review: A 12-hour epic that spans the US Apollo space program. If you liked Apollo 13, you'll love these. The presentation is first-rate, with outstanding video and audio quality, as well as some of the most novel DVD menus yet. The set includes 4 DVD discs, with Disc 4 reserved solely for Extras. Having seen all 12 episodes, all the little untold stories behind the scenes are what make NASA so special -- the engineers who have a hard time letting go of the lunar lander, the directors who feel guilty for the tragedy of Apollo 1. The list goes on. Bottom line, a must-own set.
Rating:
Summary: An entry point to the "romantic era" of NASA
Review: After watching the series, if you want to learn more, NASA has an amazing amount of historical books and stuff online on their website. Try the following url, and scroll down to the "Project Histories" section. The title of the webpage is "NASA History Series Publications". http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/series95.html. Warning: These documents aren't light reading for the TV crowd, but are more for the space nuts who might have a copy of the "Space Shuttle Operator's Manual" in their house. The main entry point to the NASA history site seems to be: http://history.nasa.gov/
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