Rating: Summary: A Bomb? Well, yes and no...... Review: Pearl Harbor turned out to be the movie I was expecting. Almost no historical accuracy (then again, if you want accuracy--go read a book on it), and a schlocky love triangle/subplot which went horribly bad. One of the saving factors of this film was the outstanding performance of Jon Voight as President Franklin D. Roosevelt. I have seen Mr. Voight in a number of films but, this has to be his most defining role to date, he was utterly convincing in this role! The bombing of Pearl Harbor sequence was excellent, even though you could thoroughly tell it was about 95% computer generated. I would have to give the sound fx a thorough 5 stars, however. The explosions, planes flying all around, and the bullets zipping and zapping everywhere rivaled Private Ryan. Alec Baldwin was his usual stoic self in the role of CDR. Doolittle. However, he also gave a lot of realism to the part, and brought a real war hero back to life. The major stars are what ruined it for me. It was a "let's see how cute our lead actors can be", rather than a Speilberg film that is a "lets get great actors who look the part, rather than flashy cardboard cutouts". Afleck sure as heck wasnt convincing with that so-called accent (by the way, what kind of accent was he trying to attain anyway?). All-in-all, it was an ok film with really good fx. Like I said earlier the sound is excellent (especially in Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, which the theater I saw it in had). But other than that, it falls flat and is really predictable.
Rating: Summary: Expected more Review: I wanted to see this movie before everybody was talking about either how good it was or how bad it was, so I went last night, the second day after being released. The theatre was packed just as I suspected, everybody waiting for the movie we have all heard about for the last several months. Pearl Harbor, unlike what many people expect, is not really an action movie, nor is it a war movie. It mainly focuses on how two soldiers fall in love with the same woman, and what comes of their friendship. The problem with this is that they're angry with each other one minute, and best friends the next. I didn't completely understand that. Second, the battle scene, which was 40 minutes as advertised, wasn't as breath-taking or as shocking as I expected. Don't go in looking to see the next Saving Private Ryan as I was, because you'll be disappointed. And finally, the first hour and a half seemed more like a war-comedy than a serious film. Jokes were being cracked left and right. I laughed at them, yes, but I didn't expected director Michael Bay to want such a funny edge in an apparent "epic" film. All in all, Pearl Harbor should be seen on the big screen. I truly think that if you wait for this movie to come out to rent, you'll like it even less because the battle has to be seen with surround sound and all the works. However, this movie was not nearly as good as Saving Private Ryan or Braveheart, and won't end up being a classic film one day. Ben Affleck did a decent job, Cuba Gooding Jr. was barely in the film, and Alec Baldwin had a sub-par performance. Overall I think Jon Voight was most convinving as president Roosevelt. 3.5 stars for Pearl Harbor...could've been at least 4.5, but maybe the decision to have a director known for action films was not the rest choice.
Rating: Summary: Waste of three hours Review: Very predictable and overly long. You've got your required ultra-realism and special effects which are par for the course these days. Then you've got a bunch of contrived scenarios to build some semblance of a plot, and the main story is your basic love triangle, neatly resolved. Oh, and Alec Baldwin is a disaster - handing out the steak knives just like in Glengarry Glen Ross. Really not worth seeing in the theater, and before you rent it, there are other, more interesting movies available.
Rating: Summary: A theatrical masterpiece! Review: Finally, a movie that lives up to all the hype! This picture was exceptionally written and the characters portrayed beautifully! Ben Affleck was sensational as usual, but newcomer Josh Harnett certainly held his own. It was a perfect cast! This movie was entertaining and informative. What an amazing accomplishment to recreate a moment in history so accurately and adding such a interesting romance story to it!I was certainly impressed and would recommend that everyone see this theatrical masterpiece as soon as possible!
Rating: Summary: Once again, history comes alive on the silver screen. Review: Most people who were not there talk about Pearl Harbor and say what a tragedy it was. We look at statistics and possibly view photographs of what happened on December 7, 1941, and said how awful that must have been. In most cases, we feel for the people who died on that day, but this was the first time I actually felt like I was standing on the decks of those anchored ships with them. This film puts you in the middle of the attack with astounding visuals and encompassing sound. The story presents you with characters that you can empathize with. It makes you realize that these events were not just numbers or pictures in a book, they were young Americans who got caught in the middle of a world conflict before they, or their leaders, were ready for it. This story has been given to us almost sixty years later, during a holiday weekend that is meant to honor the men and women like the ones who died in battles such as this one. The film is presented to us as a remembrance for those who were there and did not survive the day. As I said, almost sixty years have elapsed since that day in 1942. The technology that brought these events to film was, probably, nothing more than a dream at that time. It was the creative vision of this film's actors and production company that made the technology tell such a powerful story. To use an old cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words and, as some may already know, a movie presents us with twenty-four pictures every second. Multiply that into a 165-minute movie, and you get more words than I can possibly present to you in the small space that I have been provided here. All I can tell you is to celebrate the bravery of those who were at Pearl Harbor by going to see this movie. Open yourself to the images and sounds that are presented to you. And, never forget the anguish that the whole world, not just America, was going through during this tragic period in human history.
Rating: Summary: Pearl Harbor lives up to hype (4.5 stars) Review: I knew before I saw this movie that it was a guaranteed summer blockbuster. It had all the elements: love, action, valor, tears, and an all star cast to pull it off. Further, after having been to Pearl Harbor before, I was interested in an interpretation of events of the tragedy. The movie plods along slowly at the beginning, setting up a heart-wrenching love triangle before the explosive scenes of Pearl Harbor. Mind you, these scenes are not just la-di-da pyrotechnics, and for that reason I urge you to see this movie in theatres. Above all, because I did not live through the WWII era, I thought the portrayal of Hawaii in the 1940s was very nicely done and glamourously shot (whether it is accurate or not is not for me to judge). Though long with a twinge of predictability, Pearl Harbor is one of those movies we see because has blockbuster potential, but grow to love. A final note: check out Jon Voight's excellent portrayal of FDR. Brilliant.
Rating: Summary: Why I was so disappointed Review: Although I paid the senior rate of $6, I overpaid. Three-fourths of the movie is a banal, meaning uninteresting, love story. Most of the rest is Bruckheimer's obsession with explosions. As to the physical tragedy, it is so Hollywood-ized it is hard to take seriously. On the other hand, I felt like a voyeur, since I knew it was based on history. I had hoped the movie would give some idea of the psychology of America during and before WWII, but it did not. Just some laborious boy-girl stuff done much better in, say, Luzhin Defense or American Beauty. It did feel contemporary in showing the obtuseness of our military "leaders" (done better on The West Wing). There is one truly excellent scene involving President Roosevelt. To the best of my knowledge, that scene is 100 percent fiction but whoever created / scripted that scene (surely not the screenwriters who did the rest of this sub-par movie), deserves a lot of credit. The acting? Ahh, the acting. Actors were props, not characters.
Rating: Summary: laughable bad! Review: This movie stinks! Ben Affleck is overrated and can't act at all. This movie is a slap in the face of veterens and True Americans. Dont see it just because your curious. We must send a message that this type of garbage wont be tolerated! The only way to do that is if the movie loses money. Stay home and rent Tora Tora Tora!
Rating: Summary: romance, not history Review: see this film because it is a romantic jumble compairable to casablanca, not because it is historically accurate.
Rating: Summary: Best movie of war Review: This movie is absoutely incredible. It shows the whole bombing of pearl harbor and what happened to the men and women that went through it. It's as graphic as schindler's list and better than Private Ryan. I think a lot of ppl really don't understand the full effect of pearl harbor and what happened. I know that i didn't until i saw this movie and realized what a tragedy it was!
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