Pearl Harbor, Hollywood style

Rating: 5/10 (16 December 2002)

The film's amazing battle sequences are murdered by its foolish love story, which seems more like a TV commercial. If we skip the first 80 minutes of the movie, its rating would be much higher.
Aside from the cliched story, the studio has to use good-looking male leads to attract female audiences. Predictably, the guy who got second billing must die so that to solve the love triangle.
The most unbelievable part of the film is a pilot could take off with a nurse without permission from superior officer. Moreover, he then proceeds to screw her in their military base freely. (What are those nets for? some set decoration!) The screenwriter must have learned something from THE DEER HUNTER, because he also let two childhood pals enlist in the same squadron for plot convenience. Obviously, the director and the writer don't know anything about military service. I suppose beautiful photography and realistic special effects are much enough for them.
When fighting the Japanese in the sky, our two heroes keep yelling at each other through radio. They're certainly the most talkative pilots in film history. Perhaps they were playing computer games while filming, that's why they're so excited!
There is, however, a very true moment: nurses are being shot at by Japanese planes while running in the street. Would they actually shoot at women? Yes, indeed. Anyone who knows a little about how Japanese soldiers did to Chinese women during the war would firmly believe it.