a worthy effort

Rating: 10/10 (22 September 2001)

I can't deny this film was overhyped and ridiculously compared to Titanic. They were both love stories with a historical disaster as a backdrop but the similarities end there. Pearl Harbor's story was less straightfoward and the characters weren't as well-developed as Titanic's. You don't see the love developing and growing in Pearl Harbor. However, the acting was decent enough to make you care about the characters. No one was miscast. Although Ben Affleck's Tennesee accent was overdone, he was able to convey Rafe's emotions very well. Jon Voight and Alec Baldwin were exceptional, though I don't see why Doolittle knew they were gonna win the war through Rafe and Danny. Plus, the historical aspects were woven smoothly into the main plot. The humor was also well-done, especially the opening scene. The opening foreshadowed how funny the rest of the movie was gonna be.
For those of you who say the Japanese were depicted poorly, they weren't supposed to be developed. They were only supposed to be there for the sake of being there. For those of you who criticize the PG-13 rating, fear not. The DVD is gonna have all the rated-R stuff that Disney made Bay cut out. So when you turn on your VCR/DVD player to play this, kick your feet up one more notch.