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"Nurses? Hmmm.
Maybe War Isn't So Bad" |
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Directed by Michael Bay
- Written by Randall
Wallace
Starring Ben Affleck,
Josh Hartnett, Kate
Beckinsale, Jon Voight
Distributed by Buena
Vista - 2001 - 184mins -
Rated PG13 |
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Jacob Hall's
Review
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C |
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December 7, 1941. |
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Bay attempts to do for the attack on Pearl Harbor what James Cameron
did for the sinking of the Titanic: tell a romance during on terrible
tragedy. The major difference is that Cameron is a great director and
Bay is a terrible one. The romance in "Pearl Harbor" is flat and
uninspired, made worse by the "acting" of Ben "Cardboard-Face"
Affleck. The attack itself is treated like an action sequence. What
should have been a tragedy is a slow-motion action extravaganza
complete with a black man spewing comic relief, fake CGI, and our
heroes hopping in planes and shooting down Japanese Zeros because
apparently Hollywood can't accept the fact that we couldn't get any
planes off of the ground. Hmmm, let's alter history entirely just so
we can make America look better. How typical. To make matters worse,
it should be over after the attack, but in order to make the audience
feel better, the bombing of Tokyo led by Doolittle provides an upbeat
climax and America strikes back. Somehow, Bay forgets to mention that
thousands of civilians died in these attacks. After all, all Americans
in this movie are utterly perfect and those Japanese are soooo evil. |
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© Written by Jacob Hall -
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Me! |
TC Candler's Comment
One of the most astonishingly incorrect and
embarrassingly inappropriate lines in the history
of cinema... 'I think World War II just
started!' is uttered by one of the leads in this
film... ahem, it's December 1941!!!
I liked the first 30 minutes or so but the film
then heads directly into overt melodrama.
Aesthetically this film is beautiful. The
cinematography is quite spectacular. However,
the BIG problem with this 'Titanic' wannabe
(some scenes are blatantly ripped off from the
classic disaster film, along with the basic
narrative structure of the Jim Cameron epic) is
the fact that the romantic triangle is exactly
that... a triangle. First she loves one, then
the other, then back again... we never really
feel that this is true love.
Also, there is really no mistaking that this
film has nothing whatsoever to do with Pearl
Harbor... the attack sequence just takes up
thirty minutes while we try to sort out in our
heads which of the two boys she likes from
moment to moment.
This is another bomb from the hideous coupling
of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director
Michael "SLO-MOTION" Bay.
Richard Propes' Comment
n/a
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