If there was an Oscar category for "most trite dialogue"...

Rating: 1/10 (2 January 2005)

This was on in the evening of New Year's Day, so as a way to kill 4:00hrs of your life it fulfills its function. Dr. Zhivago (1965) was on at the same time, and I kept switching to it to get more believable dialogue. And Dr. Zhivago is one painfully long, Harlequin Romance of a movie.
They try to follow so many characters in this movie, and switch between them so often, it is hard to get any continuity, or develop any sympathetic feelings for the characters. Despite this being set during a major historical event, this approach left me not really caring what would happen to the characters. There is little required anticipation, as what will next happen to the characters is basically the most formulaic and dramatic thing you can think of:
** SPOILERS - plot and dialogue ** Geez, I wonder if the pretty nurse who ISN'T Kate Beckinsale will die during the attack? Sounds predictable and dramatic, yep that's what happens in the movie. Geez, I wonder if the Kate Beckinsale pretty nurse will get between the two leading men? Of course. Geez, wouldn't it be ridiculously predictable and dramatic if pretty nurse Kate was pregnant, and wouldn't it be even more dramatic if these fighter pilots became bomber pilots, and then went on Doolittle's raid on Tokyo (not one of the other Japanese cities) and then the unborn child's father is killed but the other leading man in the end being with pretty nurse Kate? Oh, and what if the daddy-to-be doesn't even KNOW she's pregnant? Now you're getting the hang of it!
I can't exactly remember the dialogue, but I believe there are lines such as: "My heart aches for you", "Whenever I see a sunset I'll think of you", etc. and any memorable lines Roosevelt ever delivered relating to the historical incidents are in the movie too of course. As a rule, a few minutes of chatter are interspersed between the "dramatic speech" or "dramatic scene" by someone as there appears to be some need to have a really, really dramatic or CGI-filled or heart-rending scene every 5 minutes or so throughout the entire movie. It's like watching a musical in that regard, which I honestly don't like either. Add camera angle changes every 5 seconds, going off-focus and you have yourself one expensive, 3hour music video.
This film was manufactured to be what it is -- like a toaster oven, a dishwasher or a wheelbarrow. So long as there is adequate profit made by the corporations involved, such films will continue to be written, produced and edited. Because films like this are made by committee, and nobody takes ownership and so long as they're getting paid nobody gives a dang.
I give this 1/10, because I can't rate it 0/10 using the drop-down menu.