Rating: 
Summary: SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!!
Review: This movie is an absolute disgrace. Most will not understand my comments about this movie, but that would be due to a lack of knowledge on their part. It made me so sad for the Veterans of Pearl Harbor, because they had to witness the ignorance of the individuals who said this was a good film. I am disgusted by the Director, and every actor who participated in this travesty.Shame on those who had something to do with this film. Men died at Pearl Harbor. For some one to take an event as sobering as this, and turn it into a joke, such as this movie, is sickening. But, those who took part in this film sure got paid. Blood money!! Shame on all of you, and shame on who ever purchases this movie. You should be thrown out of America!! Go ask a WWII Vet and ask him what he thinks. Most of those guys are pretty humble, so they won't state it like I have, but if you are not a fool you will see it in their eyes. It is a shame what this country is coming to.
Rating: 
Summary: Its a fair target
Review: Personally, I thought this movie was great! I only saw it recently for the first time and thought it was a good achievment. I love modern history and I was skeptical at first that this film might not respect the total truth behind the real Pearl Harbour tragedy. However I was pleased to conclude that "Pearl Harbour" was faithful to the events which also incorperated a moving love story. In a way, this movie reminded me alot of "Titanic", but for those who don't like that film, don't be hesitant to give this movie a shot. Firstly, the acting is very good. This movie stars Ben Affleck (Rave) and Josh Hartnett (Danny) as childhood companions based at the doomed docks of Pearl Harbour. Consequently, their friendship is tested when they both fall for the same girl, a nurse named Evelyn played by Kate Beckinsale (who I would like to add looks undoubtedly like Nicole Kidman!). I thought acting was a high standard in this film, showing true compassion and emotion. Also starring is Academy Award winning Cuba Gooding Jr. and recent nomanie Alec Balwin who play small, but historically important roles. The special effects, are excellent! although not nearly as spectacuar as those seen in "The Lord of the Rings", I was nonetheless impressed and the sound mixing (which won an oscar) is brilliant! The woven love story is beautiful. With clever lines here and there, this ingredient nicely balances the crucial war-epic and brings the film to a charming, yet haertbreaking close. I admit that the finale had me in tears, both of grief and happiness. People argue this film is not worthy to be called a "historical recount", but a spatty love drama, others just rate this film on its use of special effects. I think "Pearl Harbour" is a faithful adaption of those fateful years and the fall and rise of America, inspired by a flattering love story.
Rating:
Summary: A Definate Recommend - Well Done Movie
Review: This DVD is excellent. Even the scenes as you wait between movie or other features is enjoyable. Affleck and Harnett have a great relationship in the movie and there are some interesting twists in the film. I think the hallmarks of the film were the obvious attack on Pearl itself which will actually rock you. Even the DVD was powerful in that respect. I do not have a wide screen, yet the DVD did not take away from the impact of the attack scene. Alec Baldwin as Doolittle also plays an interesting part in the film. The addition of the Doolittle raid gives the film a sense of completion. Most Pearl Harbor type movies end with proclamations, but this ends with the response to Tokyo. That actually added to the flick. There was a war after this attack on America who was really sleeping. Even the length was interesting. It actually added to the movie. I think it would have been a rather barren movie if it was shorter. The relationships in the movie were touching and sensible. Cuba Gooding as our cook turned hero 'Dorie Miller' does a credible job of blending into the movie just as Dorie Miller blends perfectly into the history of the attack. This DVD is very interesting with the additional features especially touching is the unsung heroes of Pearl. This movie is a testimony to the sense of Pearl Harbor history, there are some areas where, though not perfect have a tendency toward reality. Even John Voight as Roosevelt starts out a little edgy, yet develops into character. I liked Pearl Harbor and will enjoy this movie from time to time thinking deeply about the impact that the loss of lives had on our nation.
Rating: 
Summary: The Moose Hole - 'Pearl' is Disney's 'Titanic'
Review: December 7th, 1941 ... It was, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt so bluntly put it, a day that would live in infamy. The attack on Pearl Harbor over sixty years ago was less of an attack on the American people themselves as it was an attack on our military defense, an area we once thought was invincible and something our enemies would never attempt to provoke. But on that fateful morning, the unthinkable happened and from then on things changed but as time went on Americans returned to the isolationistic attitude that had gotten us in trouble in the first place ... It has been said, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That happened on September 11th, 2001, where 3,000 American lives were lost. But the American people are not an intimidatable bunch and we rose to the challenge, just like we did after the event at Pearl Harbor, to root out evil and wreak havoc on those who dared to try and terrorize us. No better moral support could be spoken better then what was said by President Bush, who stated, "We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom's victory". The story centers around a love triangle between two men who fall in love with the same nurse and their struggle to win her heart, all set against the tragic attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Rafe McCawley is a hot-shot flying ace in the United States Arms Air Corp. but it wasn't easy, as it required a young U.S. Navy nurse named Evelyn Stewart to pass him despite the fact that reading ability was slightly below average. From that moment on they fall deeply in love with each other but the time they spend together is short-lived as Rafe has been accepted to a program that sends American air pilots over to Britain to help fight off the German Blitzkrieg, one that he applied to himself. While he is overseas fighting in the war, Rafe asks his best friend Danny Walker to watch after Evelyn but when word came about that Rafe's plane came down over the ocean - basically declaring him dead - things change quickly between Danny and Evelyn from friendship to a full-fledge infatuation. Then suddenly Rafe returns alive and just as a full confrontation between the two friend is about to erupt - catastrophe hits as the Japanese sneak attack Pearl Harbor and throw the United States head first into World War II. The story for Pearl Harbor, as hard as it attempted to stick with historical accuracies, lacks severely and doesn't feel as though the filmmakers were taking this seriously, even by Jerry Bruckheimer standards. Praise must be given to Bay and Bruckheimer for attempting to create a patriotically charged feature but next time they should view The Patriot and see how it is done correctly. Once again Bruckheimer chooses a great group of talented veteran actors and fresh newcomers to head this project but despite several promising, and even surprising, performances, the script is too bland and dull for any one person to really step above the rest. Ben Affleck's performances have often been described as flat and though that can be disputed, that statement would be true for his role in this film. If there is one thing Affleck needs to improve on from this role is how to cry ... He just sounds absolutely ridiculous when he does cry and any emotional quality that was to be retained in those scenes is slightly lost. Despite a fairly handicapped performance, Affleck does manage to work well with newcomers Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale, who both give decent performances with the weak material they are given. Though the script does tend to hinder many of the main performers in this feature, several actors do manage to transcend beyond that to give excellent performances. Cuba Gooding Jr.'s role as Dorie Miller is one of those performance and is based on an actual historical figure that fought bravely against the Japanese Kamikazes at Pearl Harbor. It would have been nice to note that his character went on to fight in World War II after the event and died in combat aboard a submarine but that could be taken as a bit of downer at this film, which was obviously something the filmmakers didn't want. And the biggest surprise out of all the performances was the one given by Dan Aykroyd, who is best known for his comedic performances and often stays away from dramatic performances. But despite the lack of experience in this genre, Aykroyd gives a convincing performance that works well early on but for some reason the character ends up just dropping off around the mid-way point, which wasn't too big of a problem, just a slight issue. Overall, Pearl Harbor gives the Walt Disney Company their Titanic but the film ends up more like the ship rather then the movie in that its enormous extravagance results in its demise. Despite not receiving the same box office success its inspiration received, Pearl Harbor finds similarity to Titanic in that both features suffer from numerous clichés, a flat and unintentionally humorous script, and a time length that feels excruciating as the feature begins to wrap-up at the end. If one were to find even a few compliments for this film it would definitely to be its absolutely astonishing battle sequences that are presented in such vivid detail that it is almost heart-wrenching, though the filmmakers didn't go to quite the level that Steven Spielberg did with Saving Private Ryan. Another worthy aspect of the film was its musical score, which was created by brilliant composer Hans Zimmer who also wrote scores for The Lion King and The Last Samurai. But the breathe-taking visuals and the brilliant musical score aren't enough to save this feature from being nothing more then a poor attempt to cash in on the success of Titanic, as well as the American military men and women who died at Pearl Harbor. Want true patriotism on the big screen? Rent The Patriot.
Rating:
Summary: Ben Affleck Saves The Free World!
Review: Putting an historical event of huge proportion like Pearl Harbor into the hands of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay is kind of like asking the folks who created Looney Tunes to produce a documentary on the Nuremberg trials. "Pearl Harbor" emerges as a big, noisy, special effects laden cartoon with its centerpeice not really being December 7, 1941, but a cliche ridden love triangle between the movie's three stars(but then how else do you get the 12-17 year olds into a theater these days?). The producers and writers of "Pearl Harbor" have taken the event that launched America into the second World War, added an "Armageddon"-like plot formula, some cardboard characters and have come up with a video-game simulation that falls just this short of trivializing history--Heaven help us if in sometime in the hopefully very distant future, this team gets its hands on 9.11.01 "Pearl Harbor" has its moments, though. The recreation of the attack itself is nothing short of magnificent and Jon Voight's FDR is a pleasaure to watch.
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"Pearl Harbor" comes in a two disc package that incudes a "making of" documentary and a featurette about the real heroes of December 7, 1941. Video and sound quality are excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 and a half actually...
Review: Pearl Harbor, I expected, would be a movie like Titanic. I knew it would stay away from past efforts to portray the attack on the harbor, and I also knew the film would be different. The film isn't a masterpiece but I enjoyed watching the portrayal. At some points in the film is was almost like watching a discovery channel documentary, and you lost sight of the plot. There were not any horrible performances. Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, and Cuba Gooding Jr. all did very well. The movie was a little slow at times. The attack was the focal point of the film and everything after that was dull. It is not a failure but definately not a triumph.
Rating:
Summary: Among the top ranking . . .
Review: . . . of the worst war film ever produced. The plot of this film is stretched so thin it's likely to break. It certainly broke me from seeing any more trite films like it. A hot pilot with poor vision stretches his career from illegally flying for the RAF [against the wrong model of Bf109] to being one of the two Warhawk pilots to get aloft during the Pearl Harbour attack to flying a Mitchell bomber in the propaganda raid against Tokyo! Along the way he meets, gains and loses the girl. Of course, he retrieves her again, but this is Hollywood. What else could happen? As if the plot wasn't thin enough, some clown put Afleck in the lead role. Someone should find Afleck a proper day job - cleaning the heads, dumping the honey wagon or robbing graves. Anything but putting him before a camera and inflicting that flat excuse for characterisation on an unsuspecting public. None of the actors in this film are given a proper role, with the sole exception of Jon Voight. Poor old Dan Ackroyd would have been super as the intelligence officer Ellis Zacharias, even if he is a bit plump for the part. Instead, he plays some ephemeral naval officer championing the defense of Pearl instead of the Philippines or Marianas Islands. Alec Baldwin is slipped in as Jimmy Doolittle, a role that, given the story line, should have been the lead. But then, of course, all that romantic lead-up would have been wasted. As was Baldwin. It's difficult to understand the intent in making this film. All sense of why the Japanese launched the attack is blithely omitted. Justified or not, we are left with only the "day of infamy" attitude. There's relevance in presenting that, but Japan didn't launch the War of the Pacific on a whim. Their purpose, in their view, was to prevent encirclement. No lessons are to be derived from the story or the events portrayed. There was heroism on both sides, but you'd never glean that from watching this. Yamamoto's American experience and misgivings are overlooked, except for a single line. The Emperor's role, which was significant, is also omitted. The United States was attacked, suffering a terrible blow. Any military historian will explain it was a blessing in disguise as attention was diverted from the ungainly battleships to more flexible carrier flotillas. All this film portrays are implausible characters, a love story so trite as to be nauseating, and a surfeit of violence.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating:
Summary: More gore, but still a bore.
Review: By adding a lot more gore, including severed heads, limbs, and oozing innards, Michael Bay manages, with his 'Director's Cut', to turn his schmaltzy epic into a more credible war film, although the atrocious acting and sappy screenplay still hold the entire piece down. Racial slurs are far more prevalent, with extensive use of the "J" word, along with some non-repeatable epithets. All of which would be fine, if the film were even remotely credible as an authentic WWII period piece. Alas, by inserting very 21st-century dialogue and a complete lack of historical perspective, 'Pearl Harbor' the director's cut comes over as a poor man's Titanic, aiming for a teen audience while bilking the Greatest Generation out of its deserved tribute. The film is gorgeous, saturated in vivid color and photographed to present the lead actors in full Hollywood glamour, yet the entire effort seems remote and calculated for maximum box office and minimal emotional resonance. The DVD packaging, although quite elaborate, is cumbersome and awkward, including 4 sleeves guaranteed to scratch the DVDs after just a few uses.
Rating: 
Summary: This film WILL live in infamy
Review: If the film makers were to title their travesty more accuratly it would be called, "Ben Afleck has nearly predictable girlfriend problems for like 2/3's of the movie and uh, sorta unrealisticly participates in the nation changing events at Pearl Harbor." I guess that title was too long for them, but never the less, this is certianly not an adiquate depiction of Pearl Harbor. Where this movie fails, is in its own ignorance of the title it shamefully claims. Absolutly no reason was given for the attack itself, or why we faild to prevent it. More so, the Japanese are depected as comming up with their plan for attack not only sponaineously, but OUTSIDE while their kids fly kites!! Think about the absurdity of this: The Japanese are one of only two military forces ever to attack our country since its formation (the revolutinary war dosnt count)with the other attack taking place on 9/11. This was a briliant military achievment that took countless hours of planning. And please,...I highly doubt that the war lords of Japan would hold top secret meetings outside in the open. Furthure more they certianly would never have taken their kids.
Despite all this the depiction of the attack itself was fairly well done, with spectacular CG effects that truly place the audience into the middle of the chaos. This is especialy evident in the hospital scenes both during and after the initial attack; they expertly convey a sense of hoplessness and confusion. However I hardley believed that Ben Afleck could piolet an aircraft. All in all, this is a big bugeted effort that displayes an ausome 30 minute invasion sequence that must convey what really happened, and a furthure two and a half hours of some kind Romance that deserves no place in any serious war film.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly horrendous
Review: Possibly the worst WWII movie ever made. I'm in awe of Hollywood's current estimation of it's story telling abilities. That anyone could think this "version" of the history of Pearl Harbor was either a legitimate or entertaining one is truly beyond me. I weep with the realization than millions of people derive their view of history from this kind of tripe.
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