By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Neil Armstrong made it to the moon first  but his “giant leap” comment has to come second now in space quotes to “Houston, we have a problem.”

This week marked the 40th anniversary of the ill-fated, most successful failure of the American Space program, Apollo 13.

Fittingly, Universal Studios Home Entertainment chose this week to commemorate the occasion with the release of the 15th anniversary edition and first time on Blu-ray Ron Howard movie, Apollo 13.

I have to clear up one small detail before I heap praise on this fine film, one of director Howard's best.

“Houston, we have a problem” has be-come a cliché in the American lexicon for any kind of major snafu. But that famous radio transmission, first uttered by command module pilot Jack Swigert and repeated by lunar module pilot Fred Haise was actually “Houston, we've had a problem.”

Apollo 13, the movie, is something rare in cinema. With All the President's Men being another excellent example, these are both real-life films where we know the outcome very well, but the story is told in such fine fashion, that it is still gripping drama.

I have seen Apollo 13 literally almost countless times, from pan-and-scan versions on traditional “box” televisions, to an IMAX version at the Kennedy Space Center (which had commander James Lovell as a guest speaker for the opening.) The presence of Lovell aside, viewing this Blu-ray has to be the most rewarding presentation ever of Apollo 13.

Aside from the first-rate cast — Tom Hanks as Lovell; Bill Paxton as Haise; Kevin Bacon as Swigert; Ed Harris as flight director Gene Kranz; and Gary Sinise as astronaut Ken Mattingly, Apollo 13 marked a big leap forward for Howard as a director. He had success before with Cocoon and Parenthood, but Apollo 13 gave him a real sense of legitimacy. The film also garnered nine Academy Award nominations.

Not only is this a well-told story, but Howard decided early on that all of the space shots would be original, and not use any of the footage from the original mission.

NASA even offered Howard use of Mission Control in Houston, but Howard opted to make his own replica instead. In the bonus materials included with the DVD, Lovell and others who were there remark how even they didn't know it was a Mission Control set, or wondered where the director got this “new film” of the Apollo 13 launch. It can even fool an astronaut, it is that convincing.

Apollo 13 also is notable for its several minutes of actual filmed weightlessness. Bacon, Hanks and Paxton (and film crew members) flew in a KC-135 which provided bursts of weightless for 25 seconds at a time. That was probably fun for a while, but the flying and diving process was repeated over and over again, but the end result looks great.

There are a lot of bonuses in this 15th anniversary edition, and many of them delve deeply into the amazing filmmaking process. It is well worth the time for fans of the film and the Apollo program.

There are other behind the scene bonuses including Lucky 13: The Astronaut's Story, a Dateline episdoe recounting the events of the mission; and Conquering Space: The Moon and Beyond, a recap of the last 45 years in space. There also is a feature commentary with director Howard, astronaut Lovell and his wife Marilyn.

oooo

The Apollo 13 crew really could have used Bear Grylls, that crazy survival guy from Man vs. Wild.

Discovery Communications has just released season four of the show, and all I can say after watching Bear jump out of planes and trees, crawl into water-filled caves, swim around in sewage and eat live spiders the size of a Sticky Note is ask why...why..why.

There had been some early criticism of this Discovery Channel show, produced in England. The first few seasons were not completely forthright that some situations had been staged for greater effect. Even so, it would have been hard to imagine Marlin Perkins leaping from boulder to boulder, or traversing a 200 foot deep gorge on Wild Kingdom. And that show was staged too.

There certainly is a lot of planning before Grylls, and his crew members, are dropped in some remote location. In season 4 he is in the back-woods of Alabama, the Texas desert and the extreme icy conditions of the Arctic Circle to name a few. There is even an episode where Grylls has to survive in an industrial wasteland in eastern Europe so he can demonstrate survival skills in an urban wasteland environment.

A lesser man would last a few minutes in some of the Man vs. Wild scenarios. Grylls seems to genuinely welcome each challenge.

Season 4 also includes a guest appearance by an “everyman” type, Will Ferrell. Ferell and Grylls spend days together in the extreme north of Scandinavia. Ferrell is joking about their situation for at least a little while, but it becomes clear quickly that there is a major distress level here.

Also included in the set is an episode showing the usually unseen crew members. It shows that even though Man vs. Wild is a thoughtfully prepared show, the risks are certainly high and the unexpected can and does happen.

Not so surprisingly, Grylls broke his shoulder in late 2008 working on a project independent of the series. His still sore shoulder is an issue on the some of the episodes here.

Bonus features on season four include deleted scenes and an episode from the Animal Planet series River Monsters. The DVD is available at Discovery.com.