Review of Pearl Harbor (2001) by Mrmoviebuff — 29 Sep 2016

Director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckhemier decide to do their best when it comes to re-telling the story of Pear Harbor in 'Pearl Harbor'... a love-triangle romance film disguised as an epic and tragic war film.

Ben Affleck stars as Lieutenant Rafe McCawley, who is best friends with his childhood buddy, Lieutenant Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett). The two of them seem to be respected by Major Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin), despite their sometimes eccentric behavior. We see that later on Rafe seems to be infatuated with a Nurse named Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), and you get the simple, cliche love story of how the soldier has to go off and fight while the woman just has to remain where she is and hope that he writes back to her indicating that he's still alive.

Rafe goes missing in action, and when Evelyn is told the terrible news, she later ends up becoming infatuated with Rafe's best friend, Danny.

This film is filled with some of the worst dialogue, considering that it is written by Randall Wallace (of 'Braveheart'), with such conversations including Rafe saying to Evelyn; "You're so beautiful, it hurts", then she says "It's your nose that hurts", and then he comes back with, "I think it's my heart". You'll be sure to throw up in the popcorn bucket.

The film doesn't do much justice to showcase the horrors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, there is a lack of suspense and disturbing imagery. It doesn't help that it's exactly what it is, a PG-13 war epic. It's trying to be 'Titanic' (1997) meets 'Saving Private Ryan' (1998), and you'd think that combination would make a great film, but instead, does the exact opposite.

Michael Bay only wanted to focus on the romance between three characters we really couldn't care for, instead of focusing on the attacks that shook millions of innocent people.

There are better war films, and there are better romance films... not sure these two are the right combination for an ideal film.