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Pearl Harbor (Vista Series Director's Cut)

Pearl Harbor (Vista Series Director's Cut)

List Price: $39.99
Your Price: $35.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Unevenly paced action/romance film
Review: What PEARL HARBOR strives to be is the "Titanic" it never was. Sure, it's a blockbuster, but the movie is far from getting a Best Picture Oscar nomination, except probably for the special effects and sound effects.

PEARL HARBOR is counting the days until and after the Day of Infamy, December 7, 1941, all the while spinning a somewhat uneven romantic triangle between Kate Beckinsale, Josh Harnett and Ben Affleck. Affleck and Harnett are top-notch pilots, while Beckinsale is an adorable nurse whom they both love.

PEARL HARBOR is a uneven movie that tries to be the "Titanic" of 2001, and turns out to be a pale imitation. Sure, it's not good, but it's far from being a expensive piece of eye candy. What we get from the movie is countless cameos from Cuba Gooding Jr. and dozens more; an uneven romantic subplot with the most awful romantic dialogue there is; a frightening, realistic 30 minutes as the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; and a sad ending.

I prefer TITANIC over PEARL HARBOR because the story focuses more on the characters and events surrounding them, whilst PEARL HARBOR unevenly paces the many subplots it's sagging with, no tension as the battle rages on and off the battlefield, and all of the characters aren't fully fleshed out.

If you're looking for a good tear-jerker, this isn't your flick. If you're looking for mindless entertainment with terrific special effects and hokey dialogue, this is what you're looking for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT MOVIE
Review: I THOUGHT PEARL HARBOR WAS A VERY GOOD MOVIE. I WASNT BORN THEN AND FELT THAT IT GAVE ME A GOOD IDEA OF WHAT THE ATTACK WAS LIKE. LIKE TITANIC, THE LOVE STORIES AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS ON THE SCREENS WERE IMPORTANT SO PEOPLE COULD "FEEL" THE EFFECTS. I BELIEVE ITS TOO BAD THEY DID NOT GET ANY MORE GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS. THEY SHOULD HAVE. MAYBE THE OSCARS WILL ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR HARD WORK.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Movie
Review: The first time I saw this movie was at the theater and although I am not a person who likes many action movies I really liked this one. When it came out on video I had to watch it again.
I found it to be a movie to make me laugh at times and also cry at times. It is a movie I will surely be watching again and again.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Note You Should Know
Review: Historic title aside, it's a Hollywood love story. Consider yourselves warned

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sad
Review: If it was possible to rate this movie less than a single star I would have. As an historical portrayal of WWII events, "Pearl Harbor" is the motion picture equivalent of "Hogan's Heroes." But as silly as that series was, it had much better acting, writing, directing, and sensitivity to the actual victims of the war than this latest Bay/Bruckheimer waste of celluloid.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Highly recommend for war film fans...
Review: While I highly recommend that people buy this DVD, it deserves much of the negative press it has received and should spur lots of discussion and critical analysis both outside and inside the filmmaking industry.

The fact that the producers, directors, and writers did such an incredible poor job in preparing the screenplay rivals any similar blunder in the history of filmmaking.

The love story almost ruins the film, even some of the scenes between Evelyn Johnson (Kate beckinsale) and each of her two lovers (actually buddies since childhood) are absolutely pathetic, contrived to the point of becoming something out of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

I certainly don't object to a ficticious love affair being inserted into what should be basically a docudrama, but this ridiculous triangle, involving Rafe (Ben Affleck) joining the RAF in the Battle of Britain, being shot down, escaping from a sinking plane, and a prison camp, returning virtually unannounced to surprise his former lover and boyhood friend is simply too stupid beyond words.

What I'd really like to know is why this screenplay was ever approved in the first place?

It's obvious that the filmmakers didn't want to simply remake "Tora, Tora, Tora," but why not? It's been thirty years and with computer assisted production techniques it would be certainly worth the effort. Why didn't they take some time to more fully develop the Japanese expansion into China and Southeast Asia, as well as the isolationist climate in the United States?

Another weakness of the film is the second ending, Doolittle's Raid on Tokyo. Alec Baldwin is not the least bit convincing as Jimmy Doolittle. And, once again the screenplay stumbles by including the two buddies (Rafe and Danny) in the raid. Of course, one doesn't make it back to the U.S.

What's good about this film? Well, nearly everything else. The special effects alone are worth the price of the DVD.

The accompanying extra features attracted me and added to my appreciation of the film.

Even though I come across extremely negative, I highly recommend this DVD, especially for collectors of World War II films.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I think most men would hate this movie....
Review: all the women in our little home audience liked this movie while I gotta admit it made me absolutely VOMIT .......

This movie has NO idea what it wants to be; is it a war movie, well there are war parts somewhat disjointed though; is it a love story, well supposedly not since it's called Pearl Harbour rather than 'Conquering Love during Pearl Harbour' ......

Even as a soppy love movie, it stinks, the scenes are contrived, and when they tried to make our sodier boys look like they came from the back country, instead they made them look totally stupid. Even the gratuitous stutterer cast in the movie as comic relief, I think, was totally, I mean totally unfunny. I mean , if anyone was looking for a remake of 'An Officer and a Gentleman' please please ... forget it ... that was a great movie and it made sense ......

By the way on the technical side, I thought the Dolby 5.1 sounded a little washed out and hey give me a break they put and enhanced ide screen on this DVD not an actual wide screen ... what I got was wide screen of the letterbox format .... so lame .... I guess they ran out of money ....

If you can leave your brain at home you may enjoy it otherwise give it a pass and save your money .....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved this movie, exciting!
Review: The special effects were beyond awesome, and the fact that the director based many scenes on eyewitness accounts of the original Pearl Harbor survivors lent the film a rare authenticity. I enjoyed the "making of" as well.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What else can you say about this movie?
Review: I didn't think this movie could be as bad as the critics made it sound, but after seeing it they were kind. What a load! Bruckheimer and Bay never made great films, but at least sometimes they've been entertaining. Like Armageddon, this movie is neither. What a shame, because their was a good enough cast and budget to make a last act tribute to the Greatest Generation. As a bonus, Bay and Bruckheimer ran an uncontested 60th anniversary tribute film.

We've all heard about the script, and it's all true. It's both unintentionally funny and unconsciously ridiculous. Give this team credit for not using irony as a safety valve. Who else would dare put lines like "There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer", or "Do me a favor, pray for both of us", or "Don't worry, you've trained us well" over foreboding mood music? It's priceless. If you watch Alec Baldwin closely for each of his stilted lines, he looks like he's having trouble keeping a straight face. You'll have an even harder time.

Then there's the love triangle where Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett (or Affleck, depending on the scene) stare at each other doe-eyed. It's like From Here to Eternity without the chemistry. It's consistent with the rest of the scenes in that no cliche is left unused. It might be a waste of time to point out the gaffes if that's what they're supposed to be, like why would at least 10 kids get together at 7 am on a Friday morning to play baseball? Didn't Hawaii have school in December? And how did Red suddenly lose his stutter after the raid? You'd think in a movie like this that other characters would at least mention it.

The historical discrepencies are understandable, except for the scene where FDR rose to his feet. Weren't the attack and the bomb raid important enough without bogus scenes thrown in? That's part of the problem. If you're gonna call a movie Pearl Harbor, spend 9 figures making it and premiere it in front of actual survivors at the scene of the crime, the story and drama of the attack are enough for a movie. Save the Tokyo bomb raid for another movie and spend the time and money that you would have spent on some 3 dimensional characters, the attack itself and the aftermath.

This isn't the worst war film ever made, but it won't be forgotten. To all future schoolchildren who will inevitably have to sit through this movie during a social studies class, we all apologize in advance. Unfortunately some current and future teachers will have a dubious grasp of history and even more dubious taste in film, so they will make you watch. It is not necessarily because they want to punish you. Now if they force you to watch it in detention....

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Boring melodrama with occasional special effects
Review: As soon as the film opened with Soap Opera style melo-drama (which is never addressed in the remainder of the film) I knew this was going to be a tough one. The action sequences were brilliantly done, the story completely predictable and contrived. All of this could also be said about Titanic. However Titanic works because it embaces its sappy melo-dramatic nature. Pearl Harbor doesn't work.


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