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Pearl Harbor Customer Reviews (130 - 132 of 144 Reviews)

A $200 million mediocrity...
This disappointing and emotionally bankrupt take on Dec. 7, 1941 pulls out every manipulative trick in the book -- the soldier who comes back from the dead, the love triangle, the hokey ending -- and yet still fails to ultimately engage the viewer.

The 40-minute battle scene, seen as the best part of the movie by most reviewers, is undeniably stunning. But for all of the technical prowess and craft displayed, the combat itself takes on a video game-type quality lacking in the visceral emotions that one would expect to experience in a war movie. To me, this was the Disneyfication of Pearl Harbor. One of the most brutal days in American history, and yet most of the blood is not up close and in your face, it's comfortably in the background, perhaps not to offend their apparent target 15-year-old girl Titanic audience. Even the hospital scenes have a gauzy white sheen between us and the wounded, a technique that does not work and further removes us from the action. The scenes of soldies being strafed while swimming in the water could have been far more powerful, but in this rendition the bodies look like ants on the screen. Worse yet, unlike in Titanic, where we came to know the cast and were thus interested in their various fates, the main characters here are removed from the action, until they stage an improbable (but somewhat true to history) aerial defense with two planes. To the viewers, the deaths of thousands of soldiers has about the same impact as a laser rifle striking down a Storm Trooper in Star Wars, because we don't know the soldiers in the thick of the action -- they are merely fodder for the special effects.

As far as the ship capsizing scenes, it was extremely Titanic-derivative.

The love story, which takes up an astounding 2 hours of the 3-hour epic, is neither horrible nor good; it's simply pedestrian. You don't spend $200 million on a movie for pedestrian, do you? There are plenty of hokey plot developments, oodles of laughable dialogue, and some bad accents thrown in for good measure.

The thing about this movie is, despite all of my complaints, I actually came out of the theater thinking that it was pretty good -- a three star flick. But over time, the visual impact of the special effects fades and you are left with disappointment in a war movie that wasn't, a $200 million mediocre piece of schlock that gets its by-the-numbers two stars, but ultimately a missed opportunity for greatness. (I would have loved to see the James Cameron version of P.H.!)

By the way, watching this movie on video or DVD will likely lessen the impact even more, since those special effects will be reduced and those ant-soldiers will become dust-mite soldiers. If you are going to watch P.H., at least watch it on the big screen.

Last week, I saw Apocalypse Now Redux, which, while it shares a three-hour-plus length, is ten times better than Pearl Harbor. If you want to see what a real war movie looks like, do yourself a favor and watch Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece.

Five stars for hilarity! (but one, really...)
In this amusing Michael Bay effort, John Hartnett and Ben Affleck star as pilots in love with the same woman, a for the time surprisingly anorexic model-type played by Kate Beckinsale, of 'Emma' fame. This love triangle gets so convoluted and unbelievable throughout the film that one almost expects Hartnett and Affleck to end up together, or possibly even a sexy soft-core three-way (Beckinsale: "Oh... I just can't decide between the two of you, so I'll have you BOTH!").

Equally hilarious is the complete lack of historical accuracy, from the Germans bombing DOWNTOWN London (and where would this be, pray tell?), to the fact that Hawaii is populated by nothing but rich Caucasians, dressing their kids as angels and chasing them down hills in slow motion. Also of course absolutely nobody smokes, despite the fact that this is the frickin' '40s. Not to mention the physically impossible flying scenes during Bays action scenes, apparently an intended homage to Star Wars - or so they would be if Bay's direction didn't immediately disintegrate into a rampageous helter-skelter mess of atrocious takes, clumsy acting, irritatingly gut-wrenching hand-held camera wiggling, and music-video editing.

The movie's politically correct portrayal of the Japanese should also not be missed, planning their attack with toy boats in a little pool while lamenting the unfortunate fact that they have to attack the United States. "A brilliant man would find a way not to fight a war", Yamamoto says, "but they have given us no choice. Due to some economical reason or other, possibly to do with trade routes or something, we must attack the U.S., even though we really don't want to. In fact, we love America and are really, really sorry for having to attack it. Please accept my most sincere apologies for this heinous act. [*starts sobbing*] Oh, why? WHY must we do this? WHHHHYYYYTY!"

FDR: "You see, because I can get out of my wheelchair and walk, our sneak attack on Japan will be successful!"

FDR's advisors: "You truly make a persuasive argument, Mr. President!"

If this has not convinced you to watch this hilarious comedy, nothing will.

Why dont you do some research?
For those of you who only give this movie one star and say its inaccurate, maybe you should do some research yourself. Did you know that the characters Danny and Rafe, represented represented airment in real life, Taylor and Welsh, who also shot down six planes? When Evelyn used panty hose as a turniqette, surgeons in realife had to use torn sheets as masks when they ran out of supplies!? What about "Dori" Miller played by Cuba Gooding Jr, the first black service man to shoot a gun and knock down a plane. What about realife Roger S. Moran, who resembled the red headed character with the speech problem, who tried to wake his fellow officers TWICE the morning they were hit!? There are many more to choose from, but take you pic and do some research...while this movie does have a love triangle to pull veiwers in and get them to empathize with someone else, it is historically accurate.

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