Tries to be three movies and misses out on being one

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2004)

I had really been looking forward to "Pearl Harbor" when I saw the previews. Once I saw the long string of bad reviews, I decided to hold off and watch it on video. Well, it earned those reviews. "Pearl Harbor" really tries to be three movies: 1) A historical account of the attach on Pearl Harbor; 2) A love story framed by that attack; 3) A story of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. I imagine that the producers were banking on audience having no interest in older films, because each of these themes was done much better in "Tora, Tora, Tora," "From Here to Eternity," and " Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." If you're interested in the story of Pearl Harbor, a torrid romance framed by the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Doolittle Raid, just rent these three films and you'll get a much better sense of the whole thing. Yes, I admit that some of the action scenes in the attack were good. But there's an awful lot of bad movie surrounding those scenes. It's a shame because I'm sure many Pearl Harbor survivors were hoping that their experience would get the same respectful treatment (and intensity), that Speilberg gave the guys from D-Day. That treatment is still to come.