Not as good as I had hoped, but great for matinee prices....

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2001)

CONTAINS SPOILERS
I didn't expect much coming from Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer. Don't get me wrong, I own quite a few of their movies. But, as in those movies, it was extremely similar: (Armageddon - Ben Affleck goes into space and she loses her father) (Pearl Harbor - Ben Affleck goes to England, is thought dead, she gets pregnant by his best friend, Ben comes back, and she loses his best friend). Now, I love Ben Affleck. I think he's turned out some pretty good performances.
I was impressed with the majority of the cast. Explain something to me though, why is Cuba Gooding,Jr. doing so many period peices? Jon Voight was great as Roosevelt,Mako as always was great, Kate Beckensale was good as Evelyn, and I was pleasantly surprised with Dan Ackroyd. I had no idea he was in this movie. William Fitchner was excellent as young Danny's father. You may recognize him from Armageddon. Again, seeming to refer to Bruckheimer's "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" theory. Find a pretty girl, throw her into a tumultuous love story, lots of explosions, and a happy ending.
My father was in WW2, and for him this movie was pretty much dead on, once it got to the fight scenes. He was an aircraft engineer, and was at Pearl after all the fighting. He saw the carnage first hand. Said that was how it looked in the aftermath, so at least they got something right.
In a way, Im glad this movie was made, as much as Im dogging it. It was a good film, I didnt check my watch once (although I did get up to go to the bathroom). My son will hopefully never know war, but I want him to know what the U.S. went through as a country to get to where we are today. The closeset Ive ever come to war was when my older brother was sent to Desert Shield/Storm. That didnt really seem like a war to me, though. I was able to watch it on CNN. I feel M*A*S*H was more of a war to me. Sad, isnt it? A television show that was on when I was a child seemed more real to me than an acutal war that happened when I was 16.
I just hope that we never have to face world war 3, since we would all be demolished. We would never know what hit us.
Thank you to all the people who kept America free, after this sleeping giant had been awoken. Especially you, dad.