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Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

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

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Far Too Patriotic
Review: This movie has a good action scene later in the movie, hence the two stars. But other than that, this is an over-glorified wash-up with too many cliches and too much patriotism. Throughout the film we are constantly given the image of the Japanese being completely evil and if you don't feel that in the middle of the viewing, you certainly will when it comes to the voice-over at the end.

The love triangle is just something that should have never been implemented in the first place. Half the time this doesn't even feel like a war movie. Instead it gives off the impression of some sort of bad TV Sitcome hoping to attain cheap thrills. And some of the humor is just downright childish. If this film was hoping to gain respect for it's dramatic story-telling, it has gone nowhere close to it's target.

The characters are just too cliched. Two cocky ace pilots, one beautiful lady and a whole bunch of sterotyped buddies. Cuba Gooding, while I do consider him a great actor, has no real purpose in the movie at all. He has no memorable lines at all, and really doesn't have an effect on the other characters at all. I have a feeling that the people behind this movie simply felt that casting Cuba would guarantee this film becoming gold.

You will overall be better off with Saving Private Ryan. This film is nothing more than a movie you would watch with your girlfriend, and that in itself is a disgrace. And let me close out with this word: Hiroshima. Let's investigate whether or not the Japanese were really that evil.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good action,bad movie.
Review: I saw this movie last night.It was disappointing.The dialogue in this movie was awful,the love story did not work,especially with the... lines that the actors were spraying.The action scenes were impressive but they were not enough to get me to recommend the movie to the whole.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: My mouth was open for the entire movie.......
Review: My mouth was open for the entire movie.....it was that bad.This movie is a total disaster.Nuff said.Apparently I need four lines for this review,but I can't say any more.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrible
Review: The previews for this movie were very enticing, so I went to see it in the theaters with my friends last summer with high hopes. I was thoroughly disappointed. Kudos to those who wrote this movie for disgracing an important period in history by making this movie into a tawdry romance. I was expecting a movie about the WAR, not a twisted love story with a [bad] ending. Most of the people in my school who were raving about it cared nothing about the history; they only saw it because they had a thing for either Ben Affleck or Josh Hartnett. If you want to see a real movie, get "Tora, Tora, Tora."

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not just a chick flick
Review: For people who enjoy action films this film will not let you down. Great visual effects, lots of action and in a way a history lesson. The story line that isn't to mushy, it's a good movie for couples to curl up on the couch & pass the popcorn.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful movie.
Review: This movie is one of the greatest movies i've ever seen because its sad,touching,violent,and depressing to see.I recommend that everyone watches this movie because its good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pearl Harbor
Review: It sure is interesting how this film hits different people. Me, I thought it was really great. I keep seeing the word "cliche" and things like "inacurate history" in several of the reviews. Frankly, I didn't see anything that was so out of place that it bothered me very much. The writers gave a human dimension to the script that I didn't find in "Private Ryan". "Tora, Tora, Tora" wasn't a movie, it was almost a Jr. High School history film without much to remember it for except "the sequence".

Roger Ebert said "The filmmakers seem to have aimed [this] film at an audience that may not heard of Pearl Harbor..."

I dissagree.

People, this film was NOT supposed to be a history lesson! It told the story of the attack in human terms and populated the film with good looking, likable actors. I'm tired of the approach of "at 0300 on Dec. 6, the Japanese fleet crossed so many degrees north of such and such a map coordinate."

In this film I felt the very human helplessness, fear, and anger of the characters during the attack (who I really did come to care about by this time--I mean, how could you NOT care about Kate Beckinsale and company by the time the torpedoes start to splash?) Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett sold their characters to me, utterly. I loved Jon Voigt and Cuba Gooding in their parts, they both managed to convey so much in such limited film time.

What people are not saying too much about was the absolutely fantastic musical score by Hans Zimmerman. I got the soundtrack also, and I loved it (the "Attack" track is especially great).

In closing, just let me say that there are no more original stories, only ways of weaving together cliches in a way that it doesn't seem like you're doing it. I have always wondered what it would be like to be at Pearl on that fateful day. Now, with my friends Evelyn and Danny and Rafe I feel like I was actually there. Yes, I got all teary at the end because I have come to like shmaltzy movies (funny, somehow I seem to have developed this taste for shmaltz along the way).

In the end, what more could you ask from any movie? Roger Ebert, shame on you. This time, I don't think you got it right.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but rather cheesy.
Review: Director Michael Bay certainly created a talking point when he made Pearl Harbour. Most of the critics either hated it, or loved it. To be honest, a fair rating of the film lies somewhere inbetween. It was not the best war film you will ever see, but it wasn't all bad, and carries a terrific sequence two thirds of the way in when Pearl Harbour is bombed. The problem with the film is that the story either side of the bombing is not terribly interesting. Ben Affleck plays Captain Rafe McCawley, who leaves his girlfriend nurse Eveyln (played by Kate Beckinsale) behind when he goes to Britain to help out in the RAF's battle against the Nazis. He also leaves behind his best friend Captain Danny Walker, played by the overrated Josh Hartnett. When McCawley doesn't come back and is assumed dead, Walker and Eveyln inevitably get it together. Their relationship is suddenly interrupted when McCawley does arrive back from Britain, and from then on, there is tension between the two young Americans. It is too much like a soap opera, and Affleck and Hartnett do not really help us to like their characters. It is shame then that the momentous historical events of 1941 are not made more of. The Pearl Harbour bombing sequence itself is brilliantly done, and the film is worth watching for that alone. Indeed, overall the film is shot excellently, and is great to look at. The acting isn't great however, the human story is slightly cliched and boring, and the dialogue is very cheesy, such as when Kate Beckinsale's Evelyn says, "I guess World War Two's started". Bare that in mind when you watch the film. It is fairly entertaining although at times it drags, but do not expect to gain a great deal of historical insight from the film. I recommend hiring the film out rather than immediately buying it, because I don't think it stands up well when watched more than once. However, the critics are so polarised on Pearl Harbour that you may well be one of those people who loves it. If so, buy it, and enjoy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Quite possibly the worst movie ever
Review: There are not enough bad things I could say about this movie, but I will try. First off, there are two good things: 1) the battle scenes are beautiful, and 2) the part played by Cuba gooding is historically acurate (check it out, he won the Navy Cross!). Now beyond that, this movie is a love story. Yes, its a love story that makes Titanic's look good and interesting. Two friends, one woman, a mistaken death, then he returns to mess it all up. My God, Soap Operas do better than this! Ben Affleck, while cool and likeable, plays this part like he does all of his parts. You can't tell if he is from 1942 or 2002.

If you're looking for a good war movie, this is NOT it. Go see the Thin Red Line, Von Ryan's Express (Frank Sinatra in a WWII POW movie) anything but this. If you want to see a good Pearl Harbor movie go buy Tora!Tora!Tora! That movie is acurate and doesn't have the sappy, horrid love story in this movie. This could go down as the worst movie ever.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bad. Very, very bad.
Review: This movie makes Battle Field Earth look like an Oscar winner. Even as someone who collects WWII movies, I cannot bring myself to own this film.

With the exception of the 30-minute bombing sequence, the movie (plot, acting, script, etc.) is so unbearable that even a reasonably well done action sequence can't save it. The love triangle is pathetic; there is no chemistry between any of the actors; cliches abound in the script; the abundance of unrelated stories is perplexing (it's about pearl habor... no, it's about American pilots in Europe... no, it's about a love triangle... no, it's about the bombing raid on Japan ... no, it's about ... oh heck, forget it.) What it is not about is a decent movie.

With so many great war epics thoughout history, there is no reason to buy or even see this one. While no one should forget Pearl Habor, they will hopefully forget this setback in American movie making. If I had to say anything good about the movie, it would be that the opening scene with the kids admiring their father's crop duster made for a very promising open. Other than that, I can't imagine anyone thinking this was a good film... and I mean even if they were one of the people who worked on it.


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