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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: 4 stars
Summary: Low expectations rewarded.
Review: Ok, I admit it- I like "Pearl Harbor." Does this movie have faults? Sure it does: the mismashed plot of "Titanic" meets "Saving Private Ryan," scriptwriter Randall (aka The Hack) Wallace's silly dialogue, the goofiness of Ben Affleck's character fighting everywhere, and its way too long. But I honestly enjoyed it, and, at times, was quite moved by it. I saw it in the theater during the summer and was near tears during the fantastic Pearl Harbor sequence- especially when the Oklahoma capsizes.

The funny thing is I was really expecting to hate it. I read the vicious reviews it received. And I was well aware that Michael Bay's reputation as a moviemaker is based on his ability with explosions not plot or character. I went to the theater with the lowest of expectations and actually ended up pretty surprised how much I liked it.

On a sidenote: I've noticed some of this film's critics are hailing "Tora Tora Tora" as a superior alternative to "Pearl Harbor." And that might be true for people looking for a film more about the history of the attack. However, "Tora Tora Tora" was a collassal bomb among audiences and critics weren't very nice to it either referring to it as "Bora Bora Bora" Non-history buffs will probably find "Tora Tora Tora" to be pretty heavy going- so if you're just looking to be entertained then "Pearl Harbor" is the superior choice.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Not So Good Movie in a Bad DVD Presentation
Review: First of all, this movie does not have a good storyline nor script. I have a feeling that the main characters were ripped off from some other story. And personally I think Josh Hartnett is the only one doing a decent job while the rests fall below standard.

Secondly, the DVD presentation is extremely disappointing. The only reason I choose to buy DVDs is to get the whole movie uninterrupted. Of course I prefer DVDs with lots of extra features. However, I feel that just because there are not enough extra features to fill up the second disc, the studio actually divided the movie into 2 parts!

This movie is only 3-hour-long, the same as "Meet Joe Black" and "Braveheart", so I don't see any reason why the studio needs to split it into 2 discs. I must say that I'm extremely disappointed with this DVD.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Actually, less than one star.
Review: This movie is garbage. It is useful for two things. One, as an instructional video on "How To Recognize Horrible Movies", and two, as a comedy. A comedy in the sense that the acting and dialogue is laughable. Don't buy Peral Harbor for the laughs though. Wait till A.I. comes out. It's much funnier.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The additional features on the DVD helped
Review: I originally thought the movie was OK but not the great movie I was hoping for. However I don't think it is deserving of the harsh criticism in some of the previous reviews. I would cut some of the movie before the bombing because I think they achieved whatever character development were going to in about 45min and the movie is too long as it is.
Personally I liked the Doolittle follow-on to the Pearl Harbor attack as at least it makes people aware of that incredible piece of history.
The "Making of the movie" feature on the DVD helped me understand better what the writer/producer/director was trying to do. I was also impressed by the behind-the-scenes special effects presentation on the DVD.
I think the plot came off as a little unrealistic because some of the plot is a patchwork of things that actually happened to real (but different) people, that in the movie was woven into only the main characters.
The DVD includes short interviews of several sailors as well as a history channel documentary.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Pearl Harbor Bombing: Hollywood style!
Review: I have not seen the movie Pearl Harbor since it first came out in theaters back in May 2001 and hadn't intend to write another review for it. But after a recent experience, I could not help myself from writing another review.

Recently, in my history class, we were discussing about how Hollywood changes events in history to make movies more entertaining and commercial. One person brought up Pearl Harbor, asking if Hollywood messed up the history or not. If I weren't so in control of myself, I would have gone off on that person! I told him that why should an important event in world history be toned down for a PG-13 rating and why we pay to see a three-hour love story that should have been a war movie. Being in a classroom full of MTV Generation morons who wouldn't know good movie making if it smacked them in the face, I was told by several people to shut up. But whose has the last laugh.

Pearl Harbor, admittedly, is entertaining. But shouldn't this event in our history be taken seriously? This could have been as realistic and brutal as Saving Private Ryan, but sadly it's battle scenes solely relied on CGI graphics, making it look more like a big video game. Then again, this is Jerry Bruickheimer and Michael Bay we are talking about (The same duo behind such loud summer movies as The Rock and Armageddon). Also, since it was unrealistic towards the attack, it defeated another purpose of the producers; to encourage young people to study more about the attack and to fin out the real truth behind the bombing. If that student in my class had read a book on the attack, he might not have asked if the movie was unrealistic.

There are several other problems with the movie. One of the big ones is the reasons why Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. In the movie, the only reason given was that the U.S cut off fuel supplies and trade. Japan decided to show the U.S not to mess with them. If one were to study up on the attack, they would realize that Japan was invading islands and lands in the pacific. Thus, the fuel that the U.S was providing would have been used for the wrong purposes. The Japanese, who launched the air strike and thus brought the United States into war don't even have a big role in the movie. Even the title place of the movie doesn't have a big part, being only the mere backdrop for two young lovers. It is almost like using the World Trade Center, that is, on September 10, 2001.

One might call me a hypocrite, for I trash a movie like Pearl Harbor for lack of combat accuracy and praise something like The Longest Day, which has some inaccuracies in its view of the D-Day landings. But one also has to know that these movies were made in two different time periods: The Longest Day came out in 1962, a time when censors had more control over film content and thus wouldn't permit Longest Day's producers to show a bloody D-Day landing (This was also the era of the war epic). Pearl Harbor, however, has been released in a time of more leant censors and could have been the definitive movie of December 7, 1941. Instead, it was only made as the ultimate M.M.M (MoneyMaking Machine). When will Hollywood learn to stop cashing in on the dead?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good...Not Great
Review: I found the movie to be very enjoyable. I liked the story line because it made me laugh, it made me cry, I felt emotions on many different levels and that is what makes a movie worth watching. I rented it and liked it so much I've been bugging my boyfriend everyday about buying it for me for Christmas.
I do have some complaints though. The beginning of the movie moved quickly and the scenes did not flow well together, they were choppy. About 40 minutes into the movie the bombing took place and everything started coming together. The special effects were great.
I hope everyone enjoys watching the movie as much as I did.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: believe the other reviews (at least the bad ones)
Review: I believe the main reason why everybody seems to be hating this movie is that they are expecting more from this.

The storyline has some "fact-based" things in it besides the entire Pearl Harbor thing like the two friends that became heros and I don't wanna give away the rest. It starts off with two kids that seems to enjoy flying a lot and they grow up and join the arm forces in which they both become involved in the war and they really test out their friendship throughtout the movie. I had just one little problem with the movie. For about an hour, they just had little comedy and no action at all but after that hour is over it will be worth the wait. The special effects are way up their. This would be the perfect DVD to test your surround sound system out.

The movie is over 3 hours long and the DVD version has two disc. The first disc ends saying "Intermission: Please insert disc 2" at one of the most crucial part of the movie. Disc 2 only has about 35 minutes of the remaining film. Disc 1 has no special features but only audio options and the normal chapter selection. Disc 2 has everything on disc 1 and the special features that has the trailer and the teaser, the faith hill video, a documentary, and other minor things.

Overall, this dvd is not worth the money. Maybe if they drop the price... then I might consider buying it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Why all the hate???
Review: Pearl Harbor gets a lot of flack...why?? It basically did what it was intended to do, which is REMEMBER Pearl Harbor. Plus, if Bay's vision/movie was so bad, they wouldn't have gotten permission from the PENTAGON to use some of the REAL naval boats you see in film. A lot of people say this movie was computerized, but that is REAL fire and dynamite. They are REALLY blowing things up! The only real thing that was computerized were SOME Of the planes (cuz they didn't have a LOT of the REAL zeroes from 60 years ago), and the Arizona that sinks (cuz obviously, you can't sink a boat that huge).

A lot of people said that this movie was very one-sided, showing mainly American view points. IN actuality, I was VERY surprised to even find that Bay used at least SOME Japanese footage/thoughts at all. Remember "Armaggeddon"?? That was TOTALLY one-sided. So, I was actually very impressed that this movie "Pearl Harbor" not only showed some of the Japenese viewpoints but also, BAY didn't portray the Japanese as "BAD guys" like SOME people have done in previous movies to certain characters. He simply showed WHY Japan felt it neccessary to bomb us. Plus, I'm not 100% sure if Japan showed AMERICAN view points in THIER Pearl Harbor movie..(if they even HAVE one). SO, Bay really didn't have to add that in, but I'm glad he did. I'm sure Tora Tora Tora however, probably had even MORE Japan view points. Perhaps Bay felt that since Tora Tora Tora was already good for IT'S aspects, maybe HIS version could be different. WHo knows??

Like someone said before me, this DVD is AWESOME!! The sound...excellent! The arial views and camera shots are very much to be desired. MUCH BETTER than "Titanic" as far as camera angles and shots.

I know this movie "Pearl Harbor" gets so many conflicting views, but maybe that's why it's so great. It evokes a LOT of opinions from people, which is a good thing. If EVERYONE LOVED it, maybe discussing the movie would be boring, but since it's getting differing viewpoints, it's interesting to talk about.

~*Pearl Harbor may not be what some call "excellent" (although, I LOVED it!), but let's not forget the TRUELY most HORRIBLE film EVER made in HISTORY!! That movie is "Battlefield Earth". Wow....I don't think I've seen a movie flop so bad. That movie makes me sick to my stomach. *~

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great movie just a little too long
Review: This was a great film with gorgeous scenery, explosive sound and exceptional acting led by Ben Affleck, . In short, the movie was at first a love story followed by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and lastly a top secret mission to bomb Japan. The plot flowed well and the character development was quite good. Some may find the love story to be over-the-top for a movie such as this but it threaded through the entire movie seamlessly.

(TV: 32" Sony Trinitron (KV-32S40))
(DVD player: Panasonic RP-56)
(Cables: Acoustic Reasearch top-of-the-line)

Picture quality: Excellent. Crisp and clear as paper.

Sound quality: EXCELLENT. I cannot say *enough* about the DTS soundtrack with this film. I was blown away at the quality and authenticity of the sound.

It gets 4 stars instead of 5, however, because it's a bit too long (3 hours).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Come on. it's a movie...
Review: Ok here we go...

Technically this dvd is flawless. Great video along with an array of sounds brings the theatre home, although having to get up in the middle to flip the disc could have been left out.

The movie itself is entertaining. As for everyone saying this movie is historiclly inacurate, so be it, that is what "historical fiction" means.

This movie would have gotton five stars, but the love story is kinda campy and some scenes appear to be taken directly from "Top Gun", otherwise, this DVD is well worth the money!


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