Rating: 
Summary: OH... What could have been????
Review: I had a lot of preconceived notions about Michael Bay before I watched Pearl Harbor. You couldn't have dragged me to go see this at the theatre. In fact, I waited till $1 rental day to watch it. I personally think Directors like Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich are everything that is wrong with hollywood... and I wasn't disappointed.Too many movies go straight to production because of a concept, rather than taking the time and making sure the story is in place and it's something worth telling. Of course Pearl Harbor is something worth telling, but it has to be more than that. It's the personal stories that make it such a great and tragic story. Too bad Director's like Fred Zinnemann, Michael Curtiz or Alfred Hitchcock weren't around to give this movie some substance. Director's of that class are a dieing breed. Meanwhile, young, visionless, money hungry, let's blow some stuff up, lets keep it moving director's are taking their place. I can just imagine the pow-wow sessions that started Pearl Harbor: "Lets see... the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor is coming up, gotta do a movie. People loved Titanic. We can't do a sequel to Titanic, but we can do another disaster. It can happen. Let's make Pearl Harbor the biggest POPCORN MOVIE of all time." Popcorn movie.... yes, it is... and it's too bad. Because popcorn movies are forgettable movies. Ten years from now, we'll remember movies like Saving Private Ryan and Titanic because they had substance. Pearl Harbor only joins the list of movies that made big money, but made no impact, like Independence Day, Armageddon, Godzilla and the Patriot. On a positive note. The movie wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The performances were good. KATE BECKINSALE was as beautiful and confident as ever. The action sequences are incredible and intense. It is a movie that has its merits. Yet, it could have been so much better had the producers taken their time, instituted more ACTUAL and FACTUAL stories and spent more time on the methods of telling a story, rather then pouring all their efforts into attack sequences. Don't buy this DVD. Another example of what I'm talking about. The 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor came up and they had to capitalize off of that, so they rushed out a lesser version of what they're offering later down the road. That way they can get your money twice. The movie is divided onto two disks and the subtitles are hard to read. If you do want to buy this, wait for the special edition director's cut DVD coming out on May 14.
Rating: 
Summary: Pearl Harbor was amazing
Review: Pearl Harbor has an excellent cast, and did a wonderful job of grasping both the emotion and action of war, making it one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen. The way that the beginning was so happy between Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale really showed the devestation of war when Josh Hartnett is hurt in the end. I also liked the details, like the dog, and the other nurses, they made the plot and the story seem so realistic (and it definately should be). The end was so sad, Ben A. is so devestated... I actaully found tears in my eyes, and that is very uncommon because I have never cried at all during a movie, not even Titanic... major accomplishment! This is the kind of movie that you just want to watch over again because it captures human life and tragety and the facts all in one. I also loved the way they showed the romance between Josh H, and Kate B., it was so romantic and beautiful that it made the end devestating even to the viewer... very powerful. The cast and crew did a great job of portraying the battle in the eyes of young, american men who want to make a difference.
Rating: 
Summary: Pearl Harbor: After First Half Hour is Pure Gold
Review: I'll be the first to admit, the first half hour of this movie is really cheesy (with lines like Beckingsale writing to Affleck that she "watches the sunrise and tries to take out each last bit of energy from it" or some line that makes you want to throw up). After that however, it is a great, gripping film. Affleck, after the first half hour, is terrific and Beckingsale is adequate. Hartnett I believe is the real star of the film, in a true star making performance. The special effects are top notch as every one knows, and the ending gets you on the edge of your seat. Even as a guy, I welled up with tears when Cuba Gooding Jr. got his hands on the big machine gun and started firing away. Flawed movie? Yes. Great movie? You bet.
Rating: 
Summary: Too bad the ratings do not go negative!
Review: Other than special effects, I find nothing memorable about this film. The misinterpretation of historic fact borders on the hysterical, and to some degree almost criminal. The film does a diservice to all those who perished in the attack, and especially those who survived and fought to keep America free. For those who are interested in Pearl Harbor, and are looking for a more accurate portrayal, get Tora Tora Tora. This movie should die a unlamented death.
Rating: 
Summary: Great special effects, really bad timing
Review: Even before Sept. 11, there was controversy over the lingering gaze upon human suffering and tragedy director Michael Bay takes in his war-and-romance epic "Pearl Harbor."
More than just convey a sense of the events that took place on Dec. 7, 1941, Bay's cameras hover over floating bodies, capture carcasses and appendages flying through the air, await the dying breath of men trapped below the surface. "Pearl Harbor" crosses the line from interpretation of emotions to an almost voyeuristic fascination with the ravaged.
I was among those who defended his literal and graphic depiction of the human slaughter that occurred during the sneak attack on the Pacific Fleet. "To soft pedal these events would dishonor those who suffered and died for real," I recall saying, before Sept. 11. "We must experience the human tragedy in order to understand its magnitude and thus feel."
Now, I'm not so sure.
With so much real tragedy unfolding about us daily, I'm not so sure we need this graphic reproduction.
Besides, replicating events onscreen isn't nearly so challenging as exploring how events transform people. Explosions are entertainment. Human response and transformation in time of crisis or tragedy - that's the story.
As the movie makes its way to home video, I've just finished watching it again. When the time comes to depict Sept. 11 on film, and that day will come, I don't want a Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer to make it. I don't want a plastic country queen like Faith Hill to sing the theme song and turn it into a music video for some hillbilly cable TV channel. I don't want pretty boys like Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett to run around performing superhuman feats of bravery while mouthing memorably heroic catch phrases.
I don't know what I want. I just don't want this.
I know commercial movies are a form of entertainment. Sure, they're not documentaries, but they can enlighten. They can challenge. They can inform. But primarily they entertain. They bring revenue to their makers, so they can make more entertainments. By their nature they need to appeal to large audiences. To do so, they need to follow certain rules of character, content and pacing - rules that don't usually apply in real life.
The attack on Pearl Harbor, like the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, created many heroes and some cowards out of ordinary men and women. In a movie, you can have only so few heroes and they must be of marquee stature.
That is why in the course of a few minutes in "Pearl Harbor" we see Rafe McCawley (Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) recover from hangovers, mobilize their disoriented comrades for combat, scramble into planes to shoot down Japs, hustle over to the harbor to help rescue trapped sailors and still find time before lunch to give blood to Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale), the nurse they both love. Barely able to catch their collective breath -- they seem to breathe with one lung. -- our flyboys join Jimmy Doolittle for his infamous bombing raid on Tokyo. Even before the attack, Rafe was an ace Eagle Squadron pilot, shot down and given up for dead in the chilly English Channel.
I don't mean to be flippant but if I were a Pearl Harbor survivor, I'm not sure how I'd feel about all this. I know my own Dad, a survivor of the "second" attack on Pearl Harbor with a Purple Heart stashed in a drawer somewhere, has not been able to bring himself to watch this movie. And now, I'm pretty certain he never will.
When I first saw "Pearl Harbor" in a theater I remember wondering how they were able to blow up whole ships in slow motion, follow bombs straight down through seven decks on a ship, send bodies flying before hellacious fireballs of destruction. Now I wonder why. How does one separate the creative process from the very real events they mimic?
I don't condemn Bay and Bruckheimer for wallowing in ultra-realistic filmmaking. They didn't create the art form, this faux documentary style. Before Sept. 11, maybe we of the Boomer, X, Y and digital generations needed hyper-realism to understand, so insulated were our lives. Now, even the most abstract expressions of pain, tragedy and destruction are within our grasp.
We get it.
Even without Sept. 11, "Pearl Harbor" has its problems. It is long and broadly conceived -- a big, overgrown galoot of a movie. It is damp with political-social correctness. Danny has low self-esteem from an abusive childhood. Rafe is dyslexic. Cuba Gooding Jr. is a black Navy cook whose spare minutes on-screen are noble but superfluous. Red, another pilot, stutters (excuse me, is speech impaired). Hey, no gay guy?
"Pearl Harbor" starts out as a buddy picture, then becomes a romance, then an action-adventure. In between scenes we get history-based scenarios worthy of public television - Japanese espionage and military maneuvering; Naval intelligence tantalizingly short of deciphering coded messages (Dan Akyroyd); governmental wrangling over war and peace (Jon Voight as a fine FDR). It seems to badly want to be taken as historical artifact, while compositing characters, fabricating drama, warping time and most importantly, maintaining a high level of entertainment.
It throws everything at the audience in a shameless attempt to be loved. Even such groaners as mouthed by a dying Danny in Rafe's arms: "Rafe, I'm so cold. I'm so cold." (John Wayne would be so proud...)
And yet, some lines that seemed hokey last summer now resonate. Jimmy Doolittle rallying his pilots: "Victory belongs to those that believe in it the most, believe in it the longest. We're going to believe. We're going to make America believe, too."
From Doolittle's lips to George Bush's.
Rating:
Summary: A very good movie
Review: I can't beleive the bad reviews for this movie. It was the most amzing movie I have ever seen.
I think that people who gave it bad reviews were just expecting this to be an action movie. I'll admit it was kind of a teen, chick-flick (josh hartnett, & ben afflek, hotties!) but it was still a good movie. It did have a few titanic flashbacks like the plane at sunset(I'm flying jack) the boats rowing through the bodies, and the underwater shots of the arizona; they probably could have gotten a little more original with that. But all in all it was a great movie.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is a truly magnificent film. My primary criteria for any film is whether it entertained me, and this one did the job handily. This is not just a historical film focused exclusively on the attack on Pearl Harbor that plunged America into war with Japan 60 years ago. It goes beyond that day of infamy to show us the relationship between two men who grew up together, and found their lives profoundly affected by that event. It also shows how their relationship with one another, and with a woman they both love, are affected by the events unfolding in their time. While the film is somewhat long, running just over 3 hours, it holds viewer interest all the way through. The dedication displayed by director Michael Bay in portraying the era with accuracy is evident throughout. Everything from costumes to sets, from automobiles to planes and ships is faithfully rendered as it might have been in 1941. You feel that you have been transported to that era, and are witness to a different time and more innocent culture. It feels like 1941, and is rendered with complete believability. The only flaw I found in the film is their employ of 3 battleships of later vintage than those that would have been at Pearl Harbor at the outset of World War 2. This is a minor flaw, and easily ignored by all but the most hardcore purist. The special effects are enormous, and buffeted by incredible CGI work. The explosion of the USS Arizona, in particular, is rendered in heartbreaking detail. This particular special effect is totally amazing. So too is the scene of the USS Oklahoma capsizing. Much of what is included in the film are vignettes culled from eyewitness accounts of those who were there and witnessed the events unfold. You will see, throughout the attack, individual details that were provided by the men and women who were there on that fateful day. These individual incidents were faithfully and accurately rendered in the film as they happened on December 7th, 1941. These lend credibility to the film, and help us experience what happened on that day. This film is altogether wonderful, entirely entertaining, and totally marvelous. The cast, led by Ben Affleck, give us believable characters with whom we can identify. The immensity of the project is evident throughout. The audio quality is absolutely breathtaking, and the special effects outstanding! Get this film, enjoy the show, and marvel at the effort involved. I am confident you will find it a rewarding film experience that you will watch time and again. I totally recommend Pearl Harbor. This is a great movie.
Rating:
Summary: Pearl Harbor
Review: I enjoyed the combination of a wonderfully real depiction of the historic events that "Changed the Face of History", and the emotional love story that is woven amist the events of the attack and the days leading up to it. It was one of those movies that my family will watch again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth its weight in gold as far as action films go
Review: I had heard a lot of the negative reviews on this film ranging from its absurd length to the "sappiness" of its love story. Well, that's what remotes are far. Yet that aside, the action sequences in this film are unbelievable and bring out both the viciousness of the attack itself as well as the stories of hope and courage and all that - of bravery - that most all of the soliders who were there that day lived through. It's a great piece of work in that respect.
Rating:
Summary: Totally Lame Chick Flick
Review: Actually, my wife didn't even like it. Her comment? This is targeted for 13 year old girls. The special effects are pretty good but are only slightly less boring than the rest of the movie.
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