I don't care what the critics say, I like Ben Affleck and I loved this movie.

Rating: 9/10 (5 July 2001)

Pearl Harbor kept me in my seat from start to finish. I could have lived without the love story (or at least with a different version of the love story, which is the most I can say without giving it away), which probably would have made the movie 45 minutes shorter and a little less commercial. But Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett made great war heros and their relationship brought a warmth that often doesn't exist in a war movie. Yes, Pearl Harbor was written to be a blockbuster rather than a critical success, but aside from Alec Baldwin's badly written part I thought it was a great lift-your-spirits patriotic movie in these times where we are no longer proud to be Americans (or at least afraid to show it). And it was a good portrayal of young soldiers during that time.