Great Recreation of Attack-Cringeworthy Plot and Dialog

Rating: 4/10 (24 May 2020)

What's good: The recreation of the actual attack on Pearl Harbor is stunning. Told from the point of view of both the Japanese and Americans, the movie captures the surprise and the destruction. Second only to that is Kate Beckinsale. This woman should be required to wear 40's style red lipstick and hair. Drop dead beautiful. The bad: Almost anything having to do with Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. I have seen them in other movies. They can be very good. The dialog they work with here makes me thankful for my fast forward button. The one line that sticks out (and sticks in my throat) is Affleck during the attack who says (more than once), "Somebody get me into a damn airplane." Savor that for a moment. People are dying. War has just started. And Affleck wants "somebody" to pick him up and deposit him in an airplane. If only we had known. We may have saved the USS Arizona-maybe even won the war right then and there. Once "somebody" does get Josh and Ben in airplanes (in their Hawaiian shirts), they commence to shoot a bunch of of Japanese down down and outfly veteran Japanese pilots so badly that they actually cause the Japanese to run into each other! By the way, all the air combat takes place at an altitude of about 75 feet. In real life, I don't believe any Japanese planes were shot down by American fighter planes. This movie is a real mix. Bring your fast forward button.