Rating: 
Summary: EMPTY-HEADED BUT ENGROSSING
Review: Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer hit you over the head with their films, and this movie is no exception. However, do not believe all of the hateful reviews you may have read in the [news]papers -- this movie definitely holds your attention, even though it is a glossy Hollywood piece of fantasy. Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsdale hold their own as glossy movie stars, while Ben Allfeck once again delivers a wooden, paper-thin performance with no heart. The love story, set up like a carbon copy of Titanic, does not pull you in with the same emotion as that similar fictional story set against a true historical event -- but the battle scenes, which roar on for nearly 40 minutes, are exciting and well-shot. Without the emotional lift, sadly, the tragedy of Pearl Harbor does not resonate with the kind of power it might have in other hands.
Rating: 
Summary: Seriously the Best Movie EVER!!
Review: OMG! You have to see this movie. The trajedy of death mixed in with a tense love triangle, this movie will bring a waterfall of tears down your face. Anyone with enough sense on how to make spending your money worth it, WATCH IT!!
Rating:
Summary: Not what I was expecting
Review: I saw the preview of Pearl Harbor and I was amazed. I'm 15, which yeah I'm gullible for the next big movie. I finally saw it, and I was disappointed. This movie isn't about the Pearl Harbor incident, it's about a love triangle that took place during the Pearl Harbor incident. Pearl Harbor was a sad time in America's history, so why make a 3-hour movie about two best friends who fall for the same girl, then back it up with the Pearl Harbor incident? Many people died that day; it was horrible; yet the film-makers here didn't seem to be inspired by the history. I was more interested in the history than the generic love story, but the movie didn't give much insight. This movie is a love story/action flick with no inspiration for that tragic day. The dialogue of Yamamoto and the other Japanese were pathetic. They seemed to recite a play rather than conversing with each other. Another glitch is that they were victorious that day, yet they're shown in this movie without a single smile. Just what in the hell is that? I rate this movie 2 stars. It is one of the worst movies I've seen this year. Some good points? Passable acting and nice special effects. The rest of the movie could've been so much more. This isn't the right movie to coincide with Memorial Day.
Rating:
Summary: I Just Saw the Movie
Review: This movie, in my opinion, was one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. I feel that everything welded together perfectly; the love story, the battle scenes (which were incredible), and the actual information you receive while watching the movie. At times it did remind me of Titanic, but this movie goes into a totally other direction than Titanic did. For adults, teenagers, boyfriends or girlfriends, or basically anyone that likes a good yet sad movie, i HIGHLY recomend Pearl Harbor.
Rating: 
Summary: The Tragity of Peral Harbor (the movie, that is...)
Review: Although being liked by most, I found Peral Harbor to be a boring movie. Besides it being 3 hours 8 minutes long, its story was very very thin. A sappy friendship/love story during the whole first hour of this movie is only a preview of how drawn-out this movie truly will be. Only when the most increadible bombing sceen starts, it is well worth it. Being only 15, I came only to see this part. A long sceen in itself, it should only be witnessed in a theater. The movie is a failed attempt to put story into something with no story. Take my advise, you could still enjoy the movie if you were about an hour late. Also, we spent the whole first hour wondering when Matt Damon was gonna show up, which he didn't; and dissapointed us. Ben Who?-ffleck should stick to doing more comedy roles; such as Jay and Silent Bob Strick Back.
Rating:
Summary: Pearl Harbor: 2nd Viewing..Buy one now, you'll want one
Review: I just returned from my second visit to "Pearl Harbor", I must say the second one was more fun, more touching, and I'm glad I went. The theater, one of those stadium types was packed. The show before was sold out, but that's not the story. This film will play every Dec. 7th for the rest of our lives. It's not perfect history, it's a love story, not a love triangle, the critics blew that completely, so that let's you know the quality of everything else they said. It's an American film that tells an American story the way Americans expect it. It's not a documentary. Forget Baldwin's politics, he does fine in his role...don't be as petty as he might be. There is no sex. You see more skin and sex on Baywatch. They have a Matt Drudge character, only in the 40's he uses a 16mm movie camera and we don't meet him until the action starts....You'll recognize the hat right away. I knew for sure it was Matt cause they kill him, but the character is definitely a salute to Matt and how he would have operated back then...and they respect him, cause he dies covering the story on the front lines...no wall flower our Matt... This time I over looked all the stuff I picked up on as a professional the first viewing, and just let the movie take me along....it was a wonderful ride, and I wouldn't trust any bad reviews unless they'd seen the picture more than once...it's just too big to take in, in one viewing.....The hospital scenes and the horror in the aftermath of the attack was something none of the other films really showed, Not even Tora, and that tells you a lot you need to know about war. As we left there was a middle aged guy and his wife sitting in front of us, he was leaning on the seat in front of him and his wife was kind of rubbing his back that soft way wives do when their men hurt deep inside, like us men aren't supposed to do......that really says it all. The critics did a great disservice to this film. First, they played up the love triangle that didn't exist, ask any woman who saw it....this was a love story between a man and a woman, they kissed like love and held each other at the right times. There was never any competition for her heart. Fortunately, Americans don't really give a damn what critics say, (they write for each other, anyway) And America will cherish this film for a long, long time. And rightly so.
Rating:
Summary: focused name for an unfocused movie
Review: After viewing Pearl Harbor on its opening day, I walked away from the theater confused and disappointed. First off, Pearl Harbor was like watching 3 movies in one. The first movie that was played involved a love triangle between Josh H., Kate B. and Ben A. This love story intermingled with few action sequences gave a boring start to this major motion picture. The second movie was the actual battle of Peral Harbor that had awsome and amazing battle scenes, and the third movie was about the doolittle's raid on Tokyo. For the title to be Pearl Harbor, there certainly was not enough time spent on the actual battle itself. For starters, the battle did not key in on some of the big faults of both the US and Japan. They did not mention once about the destruction of an emeny submarine, and did not mention the fact that the United States' four Pacific fleet aircraft carriers were not in the Harbor at the time of the attack. Also, the movie should have ended when the battle was over, the part about the raid on Tokyo should have been left out-possibily for the recreation of other WWII movies. Although the battle scenes were more realistic than those of other movies portreying Japan's attack, I believe that Tora!Tora!Tora! was a much better movie and more historically accurate than Pearl Harbor.
Rating:
Summary: Pearl Harbor: Mickey Mouse Goes To War
Review: "Pearl Harbor", in terms of story structure, is sort of a remake of the 1953 classic "From Here To Eternity". It mainly concerns a love triangle, which is briefly interrupted by an attack on the U.S. fleet by the Japanese Navy. The only thing missing from "Pearl" is 'Eternity"'s intelligent script, engaging characters and challenging ending. This being a Michael Bay picture ("Armageddon", "The Rock") they do eventually get around to making stuff go kerblooey real good. As James Cameron did with "Titanic", Bay focuses on fictional star-crossed lovers who make goo-goo eyes at each other until history intervenes and spoils all their fun. Specifically, it's a love triangle involving Rafe (Ben Affleck), his boyhood friend Danny (Josh Hartnett) and Evelyn (Kate Beckinsdale). Rafe and Evelyn laugh and love together in slow motion until Rafe joins up with the British Royal Air Force (one of the real howlers is the scene where Rafe prepares to depart for England from New York - via Grand Central station. I didn't know you could get to England from New York on a train) and is presumed dead in a nasty air battle. Danny gets his chance with Evelyn, but a while later, Rafe shows up alive, enraged that these two would carry on like this just because they thought he was a goner. The nerve! The rivalry between the boys is forgotten when those dirty, rotten Japs start bombing the heck out of Pearl Harbor, and everybody takes his or her station to repel the attack (or, in Navy nurse Evelyn's case, tending to the wounded). Here's where the movie comes alive; the 40-minute attack sequence is unforgettable, undoubtedly the most intensely sustained combat scene since the D-Day invasion in "Saving Private Ryan". George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic outdoes itself with this segment, making the explosions and sinkings of the huge American ships absolutely believable. The problem, and it's a big one, is everything that comes before and after the attack. The love story is so painfully boring and hackneyed, you almost find yourself yearning for the Japanese to start dropping the bombs on our guys - just so you can actually watch something interesting. The dialogue is on a par with some of the worst stuff you've heard on soap operas and in every B-movie ever made: "If I had one more night to live, I'd want to spend it with you." "Let's play chicken with those Japs!" "You're not gonna die! You can't die!!" That's just a light sampling. I think someone actually says, "We've lost the battle, but we'll win the war." And who in God's name cast this movie, anyway? Ben Affleck's name above the title?!? That might be one of the signs of the coming apocalypse. Affleck was mildly diverting as Matt Damon's loyal pal in "Good Will Hunting", but in a John Wayne role like this, he's way out of his league. Hartnett basically manages to look good without stumbling over his lines. You could call him the next Keanu Reeves. Beckinsdale's main asset is her natural beauty and her '40s-era features. Sometimes, she even makes the laughable dialogue sound kinda nice. The supporting characters, who happen to be real people, don't get much justice with the exception of black Navy cook Dorrie Miller, who manned an anti-aircraft gun during the attack and won a medal for his bravery. Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. imbues the role, small as it is, with gusto and dignity. Washed-up cinematic fossil Jon Voight sleepwalks through his role as President Franklin Roosevelt; you'd think a has-been like Voight would be happy to at least have landed the gig, but he gives his performance about as much energy as Marlon Brando has in recent years. And what happened to Alec Baldwin? Didn't he used to be really good, even great? He's so lethargic as Col. Jimmy Doolittle, I suspected a crew member might have had to keep him propped up during shooting (or maybe two or three crew members - Baldwin's seen too much of the buffet table lately). I longed for movies where Baldwin really distinguished himself, as in "The Hunt For Red October", Malice" or "The Edge" (rent "Glengarry Glen Ross" and check out his explosive cameo as a foul-mouthed creep. It's seven minutes of pure brilliance, maybe because he essentially played himself). Another thing that didn't make me laugh but disturbed me greatly was the way the film treats the Japanese with such kid gloves. This is no doubt a result, not only of 21st Century political correctness (we can only demonize our enemies now if they're white Europeans), but of financial considerations for Disney, which bankrolled this mess. They'll be releasing "Pearl Harbor" in Japan soon, and Disney has an aversion to offending anyone except - you guessed it - white Europeans. According to the movie, the Japanese attack was provoked by our oil embargo against them. They had no choice, you see? What the film fails to mention is that our embargo was a response to sickening, unspeakable atrocities committed by the Japanese forces against unarmed civilians throughout Asia (read Iris Chang's remarkable, haunting book "The Rape Of Nanking" to get a sample of what the Japanese considered to be honorable warfare). In the end, for all their talk of honoring veterans of Pearl Harbor, Bay and Producer Jerry Bruckheimer have actually done them a disservice. The real deaths and sacrifices that occurred at Pearl Harbor are used primarily as a backdrop, a subplot used to serve a shallow, stupid Harlequinn romance. If Michael Bay's trying to be taken seriously as a filmmaker, he has a long way to go.
Rating:
Summary: Another big budget Hollywood disaster
Review: In my opinion, Pearl Harbor was a poor film. The movie is way too long and can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a love story or a war movie. On both counts, it fails. The dialogue is corny and Ben Affleck is so annoying with his country accent. The film just doesn't seem to have much connectedness. It feels more like a bunch of disjointed subplots. One moment its about the relationship between Affleck, Beckinsale and the other guy, the next moment its about Cuba Gooding Jr., next moment it focuses on the president and the pressing matters that he must deal with. Since there is no virtually no interaction between these separate character stories, shifting the focus and point of view between them is just a bad idea. Although the love triangle is the backbone of the movie, it fails to hold up the rest of the film and is simply cliched and uninteresting. The attack on Pearl Harbor itself had good special effects and was done well enough, but in this day and age with the sinking ship in Titanic and the graphic battle scenes of Saving Private Ryan, its not all that spectacular. When it gets right down to it, Pearl Harbor does not reflect any sort of good storytelling or creativity. It is a film that simply tries to cash in on the WWII fad while throwing in a formulaic love story, obligatory political correctness and big budget special effects. It will defiitely make tons of money initially but it will not have any lasting effect and will not be remembered as a great film.
Rating:
Summary: Worth The Money
Review: Pearl Harbor is a pretty decent movie, considering all of the [junk] that has been released in the past years. If you are looking for another Titantic, this is not it. Titantic, to me, was little more than a teen appealing love story. Pearl Harbor is worth seeing for the action scenes alone. The love aspect is interesting and adds to the "effect." I particularly liked the scenes of the Japanese preparing for the attack. The dramatic effect is captivating. The scenes of the harbor after the war are wonderful. Some things included though are not as historically accurate as I would have liked, but it passes. One thing that annoyed me was the lack of locals during the course of the movie. According to several historians, there were more hawiians working in the harbor, but I enjoyed it none the less. The actors in this movie were well picked. I believe the criticism going twoards them is because of their appeal to younger audiences, not their over all preformance. I thought the love triangle was a little to convieniant for dramatic purposes, but it adds to the film's appeal i guess. I believe the symbolism at the end is wonderful. If you really notice the things said in the movie, the end stands for something. I have seen the movie twice, and it has kept me interested both times. I think that this movie is going to be a big hit. It is one of the best blockbusters released in a fairly long time. I think that this movie is enjoyable for all audiences, and all of the criticism is based upon the actors and directors previous films. If you don't like the actor, chances are you won't like the movie, so instead of whining about it later, just don't go see it. I give major applause to all participants in the film. Very good!! It's a must see!
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