Pearl Harbor

Rating:
Summary: FALSE ADVERTISING!!!
Review: This is what you get when your target audience is a big fan of "Anne of Green Gables". No intelligent man or woman should be forced to suffer through this horrible depiction of one the most epic events in world history. All of the action scenes would have been just at home in a PBS WWII episode. These three individuals were supposed to represent the american people?? pleeeeeeease!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Moral love triangle
Review: With all the negative things said about this film, I want to defend it a little.
It does have a long love story introduction, but war destroyed lives and we appreciate more the sacrifice of those lost when we appreciate more what they gave up.
I was really worried when I learned before watching the movie that it was a love triangle (2 boys after the same girl) but I'm glad that in a sense it was a moral conflict since boy #2 thought boy #1 was dead, so when he hooked up with the girl he wasn't maliciously stabbing him in the back.
Not a bad movie.

Rating:
Summary: Disney productions really over-blew this movie....
Review: They spend well over 100 million on this movie and it only turned out to be mildly entertaining. Way overblown production with so little story to it. Too much CGI effects, I think that's what really blew it.

See Tora, Tora, Tora instead.

Rating:
Summary: Underrated war epic.
Review: "Pearl Harbor", directed by Michael Bay, is by all means no "Titanic", but it is definitely what I'd call underrated. People have rated this film so harshly and even after reading their reviews, I still don't understand why. But maybe it is just me. Anyway, "Pearl Harbor" involves around two childhood best friends, Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck), and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett), who have grown up together and now have joined the military and are based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. While there, Rafe meets the lovely Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), who is a nurse at the Pearl Harbor hospital and they soon fall in love. But then Rafe gets assigned to go off into aircraft battle and his plane is shot down into the water. Back in Hawaii, everyone thinks Rafe is dead when he doesn't return. So the devasted Evelyn and Danny are forced to move on and they eventually fall in love. But then Rafe comes back! And Evelyn must choose between Rafe and Danny, but that's all before the Japanese strikes Pearl Harbor. After the horrifying attacks on Pearl Harbor, Rafe and Danny are assigned a top secret mission which could be deadly. And while on the mission, another devasting tragedy occurs, and only one ends up coming back alive.

I thought this film was done brilliantly. The cinematography and the visual/sound effects were simply outstanding. The acting by the entire all-star cast (which also includes Alec Baldwin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jon Voight, and Jennifer Garner) was superb. "Pearl Harbor" is a long film (183 minutes), but definitely well-worth it...I almost cried at the ending. The script was also well-done, and I saw nothing wrong with the love scenes--I thought they were a sweet touch to the film. The DVD is also not bad, packaged well with extras. The extras on the two-disc DVD set includes the making of "Pearl Harbor", a History Channel documentary on the unsung real-life heroes of Pearl Harbor, DVD-ROM features, and the Faith Hill music video "There You'll Be". The DVD is available in wide screen format.

I highly recommend "Pearl Harbor".

Score:
98/100
A+

Rating:
Summary: Titanic Rip-Off
Review: This film is too long (3 hours), too sappy and overall not a good film. With the romance clouding up the real events that happened on December 7, 1941, I was immediately reminded of "Titanic". There is no real historical accuracy in this film and it was a high-budget waste of time and money. Another thing: It was just too dramatic and sappy...sound familiar?

Kate Beckingsale, who I loved in "Brokedown Palace" left a sour taste in my mouth after this flick. I highly recommend "Tora! Tora! Tora!" instead of this. If you love history, rent that..it you want romance and other distractions, get "Pearl Harbor".

Rating:
Summary: Long, so long
Review: This movie was longer then any movie I've ever seen. I aged five years during it. Never in my life have I been more bored or filled with more hatred for a film.

Rating:
Summary: Asinine pseudo-epic
Review: This movie produced about the same reaction I might have if I walked into my bathroom to discover a large rat sitting on the counter using my toothbrush.PEARL HARBOR (presented here in an elaborate multi-disc special edition, as though it was the filmic equivalent of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) posesses all the epic splendor of a video game, the brains (and, for that matter, the behavior patterns) of a tumblebug, and a visual style familiar to anyone who's ever sat through a loud, flashy, TV commercial. The entire war in the Pacific is presented as being of critical importance because...it will determine which boy-toy hottie- of -the- week Kate Beckinsale will wind up with! (Spoiler Alert: WHO CARES!) A truly staggering compendium of war movie cliches, PEARL HARBOR displays about as much period atmosphere as an episode of "Happy Days", and as much historical accuracy as the Monty Python sketch where the Batley Townswomen's Guild reenact the battle by flailing at each other with their purses while rolling in the mud. This movie was, of course, perpetrated by the modern version of Irwin Allen, the apallingly ever-present Jerry Bruckheimer, and his little trained minion Michael Bay. For anyone with even passing familiarity with with that actual, obscure occurrence known as World War II, viewing this movie is apt to cause something rather like the "emotional dry-heaves", a nearly indescribable feeling that both the future of American movies as well as all of human history itself are being ground into paste by the arrogance of Hollywood studio heads with far too much money, and far too little talent. In spite of all this, the movie is not without entertainment value. It's possible to become fixated watching that loaf of French bread they glued to Jon Voigt's jaw in an unfortunate attempt to get him to resemble Franklin Roosevelt. It really can be mesmerizing, watching it go back and forth, around and around, across the screen.In addition, the audio commentaries are worth hearing, being among the most extended examples of smug, self-congratulatory egotism that can be imagined. Listening to Bay's old film school teacher flattering his former student is an unearthly experience. And yet, for all of the sheer, pompous awfulness, I'm not sure that the movie isn't better than the Ron Howard / Jim Carrey HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS. That's something to be proud of, I guess. Or maybe not. A really contemptible moviegoing experience.

Rating:
Summary: don't watch this movie
Review: This movie is a disgrace to all who fought and died at Pearl Harbor. There is very little historical accuracy in this film. I am not usually one to be very critical of this, but considering the subject matter of this film I felt that it was very significant. Also, the whole stupid love story part was totally unnecessary and very poorly done. The ridiculous love triangle made me feel like I was watching an episode of Jerry Springer. Also, I felt as though the last hour of the film was also unnecessary. The only reason that it was in there was to show that we got our revenge which isn't really even true. In truth, that mission had very little effect on anything. However, I must commend the action scene. It was very good. If you want to watch this movie, fast forward through the first hour, watch it for 45 minutes, then turn it off. If you want to see a real movie about Pearl Harbor, watch Tora Tora Tora!

Rating:
Summary: Award Material
Review: This is one of the best films of this proportion that I had seen in a long time. The Director, Michael Bay has done a superb job of creating a realistic setting of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The actors do a wonderful job of portraying characters who may have lived during that time in history. Ben Affleck plays Rafe McCawley, Josh Hartnett is Danny Walker and Kate Beckinsale plays Evelyn Johnson. The three main characters become involved in a love triangle unknowingly, the two men are in armed forces and she is a nurse. The war scenes seemed realistic and all the while the love story was still engaged. This film brought back a lot of emotion for people who had not forgetton this tragedy. This movie aided younger Americans in connecting with generations who had lived during this horrible period in time. I feel this film has not received the credit it is due unfortunately. I wish this film would have preceeded Titanic, maybe then it would have received some much deserved honors. I recommend this film to anyone who is interested in war/history films or just plain love stories.

Rating:
Summary: Bad movie about a bad moment in history.
Review: I give the movies special effects 4 stars, but the actual plot and acting negated it back to 2. Ben Affleck is just plain horrible and Josh Hartnett did little to improve my low opinion of his acting skills. And I'd like to ask what happened to Alec Baldwin? He used to do movies like Hunt for the Red October, now he's doing bad General MacArthur imitations? Guess he shouldn't have passed on 'Patriot Games' for 'the Shadow' huh?
Well now that I've given my opinions on the actors, if you can call them that, let's get to the plot. It's not enough to recreate the film based upon the tragedy itself that occurred, we've got to have a love story in it? One that made me laugh histerically.
I mean this movie is just an over-budgeted flop that has attempted to get some of the attention that was stirred up when they recreated another tragic event to film, the Titanic.

Just like that other Affleck flop, Armageddon , this movie is great for those with the attention span of about 15 seconds. You know, like the average MTV viewer.