A Surprisingly Good War/Romantic Movie

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2004)

I have read alot of the negative publicity which surrounded this movie on it's release. It seemed to me few critics had anything good to say about it. In fact everyone seems to be calling the film a failure saying it bombed at the box office. Yet according to this website the budget was $135 million and it made $450 million worldwide, which seems like a decent profit to me.

Anyway When I watched it recently on TV I was Pleased to find that this was actually a good movie.
I enjoyed the 3 hour experience more than Saving Private Ryan (although it was probably not as good critically). Pearl Harbor was well made, the acting from the three main leads though not spectacular, was certainly adequate, Ben Affleck was quite good as the square jawed all American Hero type, Josh Hartnett was not bad either as his quieter best friend and Kate Beckinsale proved an attractive and quite engaging female lead (this was actually the first time I had seen her in a movie). The special effects were superb and the battle sequences realistic. Also some of the smaller parts, most notably Alec Baldwin as Affleck's commanding Officer & Jon Voight as President Roosevelt were very well acted indeed.
I rated this film 6 or 7 out of 10, Ignore the bad reviews watch it and judge for yourself.