The Film just doesn't work!

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2001)

Yet another piece of hollywood drivel by Ben Affleck - the actor who can't seem to find another Oscar hit after "Good Will Hunting" or a performance that would actually challenge him (Chasing Amy). Pearl Harbor was a movie whose whole purpose is to try to please as many people as possible, and fails to do that on all fronts. While a lot of the big details ARE historically accurate (The lipstick, Cuba Gooding Jr's character, the fact that two planes DID get off the ground to fight back at Pearl Harbor, and other small things) the story just doesn't really "take off". Without spoiling the movie, one can say that the love triangle portrayed was a typical hollywood romance with no dynamics. Invariably, anyone who's seen a romance can see where the romance will head. The battle scenes show gratuitous violence. There were many more explosions in the movie than there probably were in Pearl Harbor or Tokyo. And, as it turns out, Dan Ackroyd gives the most convincing performance... and he's monotonous, with only a few lines! Also, while there are several scenes that seem to skip around, and are used to portray the plot and describe the history (ie, FDR standing, the Japanese planning the battles), it also distracts from the movie. They even try to portray the movie from the viewpoint of the Nipponese, by having a "voiceover" read the letter than one of the Nipponese pilots is writing home. In the end, I gave this film 6. Generous, because of the somewhat historical value... The movie itself goes nowhere for 3 hours. They tried to do a Titanic/Saving Private Ryan... but in the end, they got the worst of both movies. Just rent Tora! Tora! Tora! and give that a go...