History vs. marketing.

Rating: 5/10 (5 December 2001)

The elements of this movie don't mix well. The best part is the 'sneak' version of the trailer they showed in theatres. A laconic Sunday morning, suddenly the air is full of Zeros! Yow! By the time we'er following the bomb down to the ships deck, they had me. Trouble is, WW2 was still big news, much talked and written about when I was a kid, 20 years ago, so I not only recognized the vessel under attack (the Arizona, I built a little plastic model of it once), but I have heard and read the Presidents speech at about 7 minutes and NOT re-written. Ouch. How did that happen? Why? I would have handeled the whole thing so much differently. About 40 minutes of this movie are computer-graphic and live action combined to re-create actual events so we can watch what they might have looked like. No problem. Call me ghoulish but I'd pay to see it. There are also about 40 minutes of really good service comedy/drama. Then there are 40 minutes of stuff I don't care to remember. Corny, fake. Too bad we didn't get two 90 minute movies. One a grim anti-war picture that would make strong men weep, and a really fun movie about crazy nurses socializing with Air Corp guys.