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Find more information regarding Pearl
Harbor from the Internet Movie Database Website (www.imdb.com)
Amidst a love triangle where two US Army Pilots (Portrayed by Ben AFLAC and Josh Harnett) and a Navy Nurse (portrayed by Kate Beckinsale), War breaks out in 1941, when Japan attacks the location they happen to be stationed at.
Great special efffects that don't take up enough screen time to offset the relative familiar and otherwise pedestrian war/love drama that anyone who's seen more than a half dozen war movies has seen time and time again.While it's not bad, it's nothing we haven't seen before. One minor surprise on a war movie cliche, but otherwise, predictable (both storywise, and historywise).
As for the retelling of the suprise attack, you're better off seeing Tora! Tora! Tora!, which is truer to the story, and has more details. Kudos to Jon Voight, who plays a believeable Roosevelt (albeit with a fake chin) and Dan Akyroyd, who, for once, doesn't suck as an American Intelligence officer. Cuba Gooding plays the first black man, Doris 'Dorie' Miller, to ever win the Navy Cross.
You'd think that all the chaos and sabre rattling surrounding Pearl Harbor would be enough, but the movie continues into 1942, and manages to end on a high note.
Contains: Wartime Violence, Adult Relationships, and more Wartime Violence.
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Hey, guess what? The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, which starts the US involvement in World War II. That's all well and good, but the director, Micheal Bay, saw it fit to overwhelm that story, which in and of itself was fundamental to the history of the US (and the world), with a very hackneyed love triangle that anyone who's ever seen a war movie has seen many times before (boy gets girl, boy goes off to war, boy Missing In Action, girl falls for boy's best friend, boy returns, tempers flar, then the war interrupts things and ruins everything).
Ok, for those who haven't seen too many war films, this may be new to them. Go see it, god bless.
We've seen much of the attack footage in the commercials, but we haven't seen the over-the-top acting from most of the people in it. Alec Baldwin portrays Jimmy Dolittle, the commander of the flyboys when they're in training, and in the fourth act, where the story continues after the attack. There was a bit of scene chewing by Alec, but not quite on the level of Jon Lovitz' character THE ACTOR! I'm probably overstating it.
This movie could've and should've been shorter then the three hours it was. I did some watch-glancing both before and after the attack, which is not a good sign of how much I like a movie. I also felt that I wouldn't miss anything by taking the two trips to the restroom that I did.
Historical purists will balk at some of the ships used in the periphery, when they had to use real ships. I spotted some "modern" missle frigates being used in the background for "fill", but all of the stuff with the battleships was either manufactured, or animated rather well. I know they tried - they spent $135 million making the movie.
There was a bit in the beginning where I tried to determine how many of the planes used were real, and how many were computer generated, and from what I could see, there were a handful of P40s, Spitfires, a Messerschmidt or two, but I don't believe any of the Japanese fighters were real. The planes I mentioned were involved in combat scenes that seemed a little too real. Of course, I could be wrong.
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