Will Definitely Make a Case for Biggest Bust of the Decade.

Rating: Null/10 (31 July 2002)

Oh gosh a pure disaster of a film that is to the 2000s what "Dune" was to the 1980s and "Wyatt Earp" was to the 1990s. A totally disappointing would-be masterpiece that never does find its way and bores with a sappy love story more than it intrigues with a loud and empty action sequence that is interminable. It is 1941 and the U.S. is on dangerous ground as the attack on Pearl Harbor looms as Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale fall in love, but when it appears that Affleck is dead, Beckinsale starts to fall in love with his best friend (Josh Hartnett). A torrid love triangle gets in the way of the tenseness that made "Tora! Tora! Tora!" such an interesting, albeit under-achieving, production. The attack comes, oh does it ever come, and Pearl Harbor is left in shambles. So now Affleck and Hartnett must put their differences aside when the U.S. couter-attacks in the almost unknown Dolittle Raid (which is not written about much because it too was such a disaster for the U.S. military). A long and sometimes incredibly dull film that does best when Cuba Gooding, Jr. is on screen. He co-stars as an African-American sailor who tries to earn respect from his contemporaries in a military that is fueled by racial unrest. Gooding, Jr.'s character is based on a real person who actually shot down several Japanese attack planes and was awarded a medal that was later taken back by the government. That possibly intriguing story is only given a minute glimpse as Michael Bay gets carried away with corny special effects and Randall Wallace's irritating screenplay. A major downer of epic proportions. 2.5 out of 5 stars.