Ignore the critics...Make your OWN judgment.

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2001)

Let me start out by saying that I loved this movie. I went into it expecting something and walked out having seen what I expected. How many times can you make that claim?
I went into this movie with the idea that it would be Titanic meets Private Ryan meets Armageddon, and I was right. It's all of the above. The sweeping love story, the intense battle and a visual style that I can only describe as beautiful. This is what Gone with the Wind would have looked like if there had been MTV. It's a classic tale of young love set against the backdrop of one of the most painful events in American history.
Some people are no doubt going to disagree with me. They're going to take the above paragraph and use the exact wording to point out its flaws. That's what makes this country so wonderful, we can disagree. And those boys and girls at Pearl did their part to make sure that was possible.
Before I went in, people were telling me that it wasn't going to be what I expected. It wasn't a war film - it was a love story for God's sake?! For me, a war story IS a love story, if not for some hot nurse, then for the country the soldiers are fighting for.
I'm telling you, this is no Gladiator, by any means - not everyone is going to see it for the epic it is. There's a stigma attached to films that Jerry Bruckheimer makes. There's a stigma attached to the movies Michael Bay makes. And there are people who will dislike Pearl Harbor for those very two reasons - possibly without having even seen it.
All I can really say, the point that I can try to get across, is that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I liked it for the action. I liked it for the love story. And most of all, I liked it for the way it made me feel as an American. For me, movies like this have to tug on your strings a little, and this one tugged mine, just like The Patriot and Private Ryan did.
Go see this movie. Ignore what the critics have said. Make your own judgment. You may love it, like me, or you may find it to be a piece of crap. But you will have made that decision, for yourself. And isn't that what being an American is really all about.