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Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just terrible
Review: If you liked Titanic, you'll love Titanic 2 A.K.A. Pear Harbor.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Titanic 2
Review: If you liked Titanic, you'll like this movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Titanic 2
Review: If you liked Titanic, you'll probably love this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pearl Harbor
Review: This is a great movie. One of the best movies in years. This movie is better then any other world war two movie made in the past. I own it on dvd. I would tell any body to buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I LOVE IT!
Review: Pearl Harbor is an AWESOME MOVIE! The acting is TERRIFIC and who cares about how Rafe acted when he first meets Evelyn. If he didn't act that way, then there would be no love story. The special effects are totally COOL! I am so surprised that a lot of people have turned down this movie. It is a great love story, and I think that it portrays the war very well. I recommend anyone to see it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the best!
Review: this movie was amazing thats all there is to it. i can't help but recommend it to others.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Musical since "Muppets Take Manhattan"
Review: Director Michael Bay breathes much needed new life into the war movie genre by making "Pearl Harbor" a crowd-pleasing musical in the tradition of the great MGM extravaganzas of the forties and fifties. Bay introduces colorful song and dance numbers into the Sunday morning tussle that welcomed America into WWII, and thereby turns what would otherwise be a pedantic history lesson into a popcorn-munching good time.

The film opens with the performance of the jaunty "Rots of Bombs". The Japanese pilots are quietly performing pre-attack calisthenics on the deck of a carrier when Admiral Yamamoto (Akio Mikuni) appears and begins a spirited, samba-tinged call and response. Jumping jacks turn into rumba dancing as Yamamoto sings out questions and the pilots merrily reply: "Who has bombs?/We have bombs/How many bombs?/Rots of bombs."

Back in Oahu, American pilots Dex and Dewey (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett)share the affection of nurse Rhonda (Kate Beckinsale). The three are tangled in the afterglow of a night of tropical lovemaking when the attack begins. As they drive their jeep to the airfield, Affleck and Hartnett show off heretofore unheard vocal talent when they sing the haunting ballad "Snuggle Time", which includes: "When we kissed our baby bye-bye/We tasted last night's mai-tai./Now we've lost our morning mojo/Thanks to Admiral Tojo./We should be sandwiching our baby /But they're torpedoing our navy./There is no bigger crime/Than missing snuggle time."

The only misstep in "Pearl Harbor" is an ill-conceived hip-hop tune by Alec Baldwin as Lt. Jimmy Doolittle. Leading his squadron on a reprisal bombing of Japan, Baldwin flips his fighter cap around backwards and begins rapping: "Whacha bomb my homies for/It's disrespectful, doncha know?/Now I gotta even up the score/And jack some pain on Tokyo." It seems disingenuous that onboard the bombers are coolers of malt liquor.

Otherwise, "Pearl Harbor" combines the magic of Hollywood with the mirth of war. The seamless merging of rousing show tunes with exploding flight decks will leave you feeling proud and prickly. And what's Yamato with that?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer
Review: I put off watching Pearl Harbor for some time, largely due to the dissatisfaction expressed by some viewers. Having now watched it, I have to say I was pretty much blown away by the movie. Certainly, this is no Tora! Tora! Tora! or any kind of definitive film about the events of December 7, 1941, and I think it is important to note the fact that it did not try to be such a film. The moviemakers tried to achieve a sense of realism but most of all they sought to recreate the experience of the event; no movie can even begin to show what the disaster was truly like to those involved, but Pearl Harbor comes as close as humanly and technologically possible. I don't really have any quibbles to make over historical accuracy because that is not a critical issue for me in this context. Certainly, the portrayal of certain characters is not necessarily correct, the main characters are not based on any real individuals, and a lot of the background story is not used to set the record straight on the unbelievably incompetent and, perhaps, treasonous decisions and actions that made our Pacific fleet a sitting duck to the Japanese attackers. In turn, very little of the Japanese side of the story is told. On the other hand, I was happy to see mentioned such things as the pre-attack interception of a Japanese sub entering the harbor and a recreation of Doolittle's Raid which gets far too little coverage in the history books.

The love story bothers some people, but I understand what the moviemakers were trying to do in this regard: to make a story as poignant as possible, it has to be shown through the eyes of someone the audience can identify with and care about. The love story in this case is rather complex, but in my opinion it strengthened this movie's overall impact, at least on me. All of the actors were fantastic in my opinion, particularly Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, and Josh Hartnett. Cuba Gooding, Jr., had a tremendous impact on the film through his rather small role as the true hero Dorie Miller. Seeing Alec Baldwin portray a military hero took some getting used to, but he was terrific as Lt. Col. Doolittle. Another unusual casting job that came off well was having Dan Aykroyd portray a high man in naval intelligence. I appreciate the fact that the filmmakers actively sought out Pearl Harbor survivors and tried to integrate many of their stories into this monumental film; while a certain thing may not have happened to a given character, that thing most likely happened to someone who was there. Seeing the nurses and doctors trying to save lives in the most hectic of circumstances was a poignant reminder that the fighting and suffering did not end suddenly when the Japanese pilots returned to their carriers.

The special effects, I have to say, were amazing, among the best I have ever seen. The explosions are huge, the lifting up of the deck just before the Arizona exploded was quite impressive, the sight of Japanese planes zooming over Pearl Harbor just above ground level was breathtaking, the sight of bodies being literally thrown into the air as a result of explosions was incredible, and the listing and capsizing of the Oklahoma was downright amazing. I was eager to watch the making of Pearl Harbor featurette included with the DVD to see just how the visuals of this film could possibly have been created. That featurette also features sound clips from a number of Pearl Harbor survivors, and this helps make clear the intentions of the filmmakers to make the real heroes' stories an integral part of this motion picture. The History Channel program on The Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor was another fascinating video that is probably the most important thing included in this very impressive DVD package. Others may criticize the love story or dwell on historical inaccuracies, but I found this movie compellingly indicative of the Pearl Harbor experience and it was, for me, an honor to watch it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What were they thinking? Worst big film in years.
Review: Disney's executives claimed (before this movie came out) that it was a sure blockbuster. They were disappointed, but not nearly as disappointed as were those of us who paid to see this turkey. It is not often that a movie made in this cynical day and age is sappy and corny, but this one is. This is a movie that takes itself far too seriously, and it contains every overused cliche' in its pointless love triangle story. This could have been a pretty good movie if it had just stuck to its theme--the period immediately before Pearl Harbor through the Doolittle Raid. This was a pivoltal time in the life of America, and there is a great story waiting to be told. This movie fails to tell it, and instead disappoints the viewer.

I have tried three times to watch the DVD all the way through (I won't write a review unless I've done that). Finally made it one rainy afternoon but it was a cheerless task--a tiresome chore. Excepting the excellent combat scenes, this movie is essentially a caricature of a good war movie with a pointless love theme that fatally distracts from the real theme of the movie while failing to hold the viewer's interest.

I rate this movie not even good enough to buy the DVD.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This degrades the survivors of that fateful day.
Review: Thousands of lives lost. The USS Arizona with thousands of men trapped inside. An affair between two friends and their girlfriend. I thought it was supposed to be about Pearl Harbor and the men who died and survived, not about some soap opera where the best friend takes the girl then dies. This truly does degrade the survivors of that fateful day. I will admit, I gave it 2 stars because the Doolittle raid had its moments-until the end: "Don't die! You can't die, because your gonna be the daddy of my girlfriend's baby!" It seems more like a soap opera than a tribute, and although it has some parts to it, your better off seeing Tora! Tora! Tora! or even a WW2 documentary.


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