Flag waving at its worst

Rating: 1/10 (1 May 2002)

Pros: Cinematography, Costumes, Sound, Special effects.
Cons: Historical innacuracies, Hammy acting, Sloppy directing, Unbelievable characters.
Pearl Harbor represents everything bad a movie can get. It claims it was made for the veterans of pearl harbor but really it is a formulaic blockbuster whose purpose it seems was to beat Titanic at the box office. Ben Affleck thought this was the film that would make him a star after Armageddon failed to do so. The only star this film made was Josh Hartnett. The Girls including Kate Benkinsale were basically downgraded to giggling schoolgirls and the guys I guess was how every military men in thier days concucted themselves. I mean, who in the H**l gets drunk, wakes up the morning of the attack, flies a plane and shoots down enemy japanese planes, gives blood after the ordeal, then gets picked for the doolittle raid. This is physically impossible. Cuba Gooding Jr gets relegated to a token black guy's role and Jon Voight portrayal as Franklin Roosevelt is downright corny. The story isn't even told in the Japanese point of view and why did they have to show the doolittle raid. History shows that it was nothing but a morale booster for america. In fact the pilots hit nothing but hospitals and schools. Hollywood doesn't trust the audience to figure out that we won the war instead of the japanese so they decide to end the movie on a good note. At least if you dedicate this peice of dreck to the veterans, the least you can do is show at least 1/20 of the death's of thousands of americans who died on this day. The love story seems like something that would come out of Jerry Springer.
Premise: Group of friends experience disaster at Pearl Harbor.
Pearl harbor was nominated for four Academy awards and won one.
Grade: 1.2/10 (Bay's worst)