Apollo 18

What if the Apollo program hadn't ended with 17? And what if those subsequent missions were Top Secret Department of Defense missions?
This is the premise that lies behind Apollo 18. Starring Warren Christie as Capt. Ben Anderson, Lloyd Owen as Cmdr. Nate Walker, and Ryan Robbins as Lt. Colonel John Grey, this film is supposedly an edit of 84 hours of classified footage from the Apollo 18 flight in 1974.
Aside from a brief scene at the beginning of the movie that shows the three astronauts with their families at a barbecue at one of the men's houses, and the voice of Houston NASA control and later the voice of the Deputy Secretary of Defense; the three men are the only characters in the movie. There are a pair of Soviet cosmonauts that figure into the story, but not as characters.
While filmed in black and white and in color, much of what is filmed in color is washed out - the film version of sepia tone - which would be fitting for a mission carried out in 1974, there are lots of effects applied to the film to give it that "old" look, scratches and flaws added in to make it seem authentic in appearance.
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Wowsers. I didn't know what to expect from this film. I had seen one trailer that had made it seem a bit like a horror flick, which it is not. I almost didn't watch this because of that, but am glad that I did. This movie is a suspense thriller and science fiction, we hope. A good chunk of the film is Ben and Nate on the surface of the moon - so it's really watching the way these two men deal with each other and the news that they discover.
The special effects were pretty good. I had no trouble believing these men were on the moon, or in the case of John, in orbit around the moon. The special effects for the anxiety causing bits is very good as well, quite understated and a completely different take on "we're not alone" Sorry if I jsut ruined the film for you. Yes, it's about first contact, or actually second contact. It's handled in a very believable way.
I really enjoyed this movie, but hope that they don't do a sequel - it is implied that there is at least one more Apollo mission after 18 to recover the film that has been shot by the astronauts...perhaps some stories are best left Top Secret.