A mesmerizing movie from beginning to ...near-end

Rating: 9/10 (20 April 2008)

I am not your strong nationalist type, yet I enjoyed Pearl Harbor tremendously. One of the reasons virtually anyone could endure a watch or two of Pearl Harbor is for its incredible cast. Cuba Gooding Jr., as a patriotic cooker, Jon Voight as the unforgiving President with guts, Dan Aykroyd as the intuitive and barely able to get himself heard of subordinate, the list goes on forever.
Secondly, CGI-based special effects in P. H. were used for the better. That is to say, if you tend to agree with other reviewers about the script sounding dull at times, I could nearly allow myself to suggest renting this movie solely for those amazing scenes bearing special effects. The hovering over the fleet scenes and the subsequent bombing are remarkably rendered, blended with black & white presumably historical footage transitions.
The photography, the nurses and soldiers uniforms, the make-up, the settings and the soundtrack of Pearl Harbor are nothing short of extraordinary to those eyes and ears. Kate Beckinsale looks gorgeous and most of all sincere all throughout the movie, thus one can't help but feel bad for her when she swears she was not intentionally doing harm to Rafe while he was away. Another movie in which one may find echoes of Rafe / Dany somehow confrontational friendship is Gattaca.
Of course, you get your moment or two of bravado, especially when some of the pilots attempt to climb into their planes after the zero's attacks over the bay is acknowledged. Such is the case when Tom Sizemore runs for cover, grabs his gun shouting "I need more ammos, ladies!" but that should not distract viewers excessively.
Concerning the ending of the movie, the predictable nasty counter-attack in the "an eye for an eye" tradition, I feel it could have been cut off or shortened. We know for a fact that Americans would have their revenge on the japs after that massive blow, anyway! **Review hopefully slightly improved over the previous one, or let's say rephrased**