Simply Dismal...

Rating: 3/10 (27 May 2001)

I came in with some lower expectations for this film and it still didn't meet them. There is no connection at all between any of the leads here, although it's the fault of the story and script as much as the actors and the director. Cuba Gooding Jr. turns in a fine performance despite being in the movie 10 minutes tops. It's a shame, because his character and FDR are the only characters you'll care about in this movie.
Our fearless leads are paper-thin, there's NOTHING different between Danny and Raph...we're supposed to like them because they used to always dream of flying...their nurse girlfriend in the love triangle Evelyn has absolutely no background at all, we don't know where she's from or what she did before back home and it doesn't really matter because she's a hot nurse, right? There's another guy in the lovable crew that stutters and some assorted nurses no one cares about. Pretty awful stuff.
The film is shot pretty well and the SFX are generally good (but not a blow-away great as one might expect). But they are used in a way that's not nearly as effective as Saving Private Ryan or Titanic, which the battle scenes will make you think of. There is not much else redeeming here, the score is quite forgettable and generic despite coming from Hans Zimmer. The attempts at humor fall pretty flat. The whole movie is extremely predictable to boot.
Let's not forget what happens after the Pearl Harbor attack itself; the ending hour or so of the movie should have been completely cut as it only serves to make the film worse... this is really when the movie sinks into "The Perfect Storm"-level badness. Most of what did actually work in the movie gets thrown out the window for a completely pointless attempt to give us patriotic feelings or something, I guess.
Bay's other films like the Rock and Armageddon (both of which I enjoyed), however maligned they are, are vastly superior to this one. At least those films had some characters to care about. There was tension there that this movie lacks... this movie is truly lacking heart.
Still probably worth a rental just for the 45-minute battle scene but the rest is very worthless. 3/10 (just for the Battle Scene), rest of the movie (1/10)