Its not that bad!

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2002)

I think sometimes people find it easier to jump on a bandwagon, that way they don't have to think for themselves. As Brad Pitt's character said in '12 Monkeys', "there's no right or wrong, there's only popular opinion."

That seems fitting in the case of this movie. Its just not as bad as I was led to believe by movie reviewers, movie fans and Joe Sixpack on the street.
Believe me, I know bad..I hated 'Armageddon' and that was bad!
Of course its corny. Of course the romance is strained at times and sugarcoated. This is where the gap between the generations shows its teeth. Audiences today are unwilling to transport themselves to a time and place when life was probably a lot more joyful. Crime was not that much of an issue, there was no television, and a slice of Wonder Bread was as good as it got. People talked corny because the movies they were seeing at the time were like that! So I think you have to remember that when jumping all over the script.
I do see a problem with some of the acting, for part of the movie at least. I didn't buy Affleck for a second and for my money he made a ton of bad acting choices. He had no chemistry with either Hartnett or Beckinsale and I just don't see him as a leading man at times. I did in 'Chasing Amy' and maybe he's more comfortable in movies like that, so maybe he should stick to that. He knew this was a romantic war epic and Kevin Smith was nowhere to be found. Hartnett is much more emotionally available but still has a lot to learn. Beckinsale also seems a little uncomfortable with the material at times.
But all problems were overcome with the extensive attack scene, which is exceptionally well-done from all angles. In movies like this, if I can sense the terror, if I can get a glimpse of what that must have been like, then I am grateful. The terror was encapsulated in the screaming plea of an extra, 'I CAN'T SWIM!' Whoever that guy was, he acted his pants off and showed me a soul in distress. That is probably very hard to do, also..show that in two seconds of screen time. Then the hospital scenes were also very well done. The chaos that occured had to have been unimaginable.

As a New Yorker who was 2 miles from the WTC when it was hit, I cannot begin to know what being attacked was like..but I do live here so it did happen in my hometown. That day I had to walk home (that's not a complaint) and on the way I spoke to several people (that's not a complaint either). I remember saying to one guy, "This is Pearl Harbor" and that was before I saw the footage of the buildings going down, or this movie. But the movie hit me harder than it normally might have because of the 9/11 attacks. Seeing Americans being murdered in a surprise, cowardly act does not get all that much easier with time, unfortunately. For the people around in 1941, these events were profoundly disturbing.
Everyone that complained about 'Titanic' and 'Pearl Harbor' was really just complaining that no one in either movie had a cell phone. 8/10.