A disgrace!

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2003)

Believe the terrible reviews. This movie sucks more than the latest vacuum cleaner technology and is not even half as much fun. It is also highly offensive cinematically, historically and racially.
Cinematically this movie falls on its face from the first shot. Director Michael Bay seems to think we are more interested in the spectacle of the event rather than the people involved. Therefore we get lots of eye-candy but minimal character development. Therefore the actors can't do anything but look the part. Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett are awful in the leading roles, and Kate Beckinsale is nothing more than a one dimensional skirt. What is worse, we are supposed to get an adrenaline rush from watching innocent people die (i.e. the numerous explosions).
Bay even has the cheek of showing Pearl Harbour as a US victory, when it was anything but.
Racially, this movie uses all the Japanese stereotypes and then some, presenting us with a laughable set of villains. If this is the point, then this movie is even worse.
I don't have a problem with films that promise you pure entertainment. I do have a problem with films that try and pass themselves off as profound and sensitive when they are really about making money and brainwashing teenagers into thinking this is how things really are. Its not entertaining, its not clever and its downright pretentious. Pearl Harbour is terrible. Enough said.