Dumb, Dumb, dumb

Rating: 5/10 (18 July 2002)

Despite its stirring subject matter, "Pearl Harbor" is a high-priced failure. The action sequences are effective, sometimes moving, and largely historically accurate. Nevertheless, these virtues are not enough to overcome a love story that is lame even by the standards of WW-II propaganda pictures, which it tries to emulate. In its romantic subplot, boy gets girl; boy loses girl because she thinks boy has died a heroic death; girl then falls in love with boy's best friend. Has boy really died? What do you think? I could go on but you get it. Had I not recorded the movie on TiVo and been able to fast forward through some of its sappy excesses, I would never have been able to get through its turgid three-hour running time. I rated it 5 out of 10, and the only reason I gave it that much was because of the action scenes, which are (mostly, but not entirely) excellent and true to history. If you miss a movie this year . ..