boring and flat

Rating: Null/10 (15 December 2001)

I found Pearl Harbor impossible to watch all the way through. I read a review of it which suggested that in terms of plot, it could have easily been a soap opera called "The Pearl of the Harbor" and I have to agree. Plus, I felt as if someone simply forgot that even megabucks productions need a little editing. Or in this case, a lot. It would have been much more tolerable at 100 minutes.
Editing or not, the script was the biggest weakness. No depth, no real character development, no decent dialog for much of the time, and no fun moments at all! Come on, even the Big Boat movie had some fun lines! Few, but still... Of course, I should have realized what I was in for considering Randall Wallace also wrote the ridiculously overrated Braveheart, which was an even bigger waste of time than PH. (Though high in terms of unintentional comedy, something Pearl does not have going for it.)
All actors - including those who can't act - are sadly wasted, ranging from Hartnett who's been better in every movie I've ever seen him in, to Affleck who's usually more entertaining, the underused Cuba Gooding Jr. (where have you gone, Rod Tidwell?) and on to the rest of them. Well, not everyone, actually, Alec Baldwin had an okay part, much better than what I've been seeing him in lately.
Rent something else. Watch something else. 4.5 out of 10, and all of them for production and design, and because I've still got to rate it higher than Braveheart.