Film Review : PEARL HARBOR * * 1/2

Pearl Harbor (2001)

CAST Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alec Baldwin, John Voight, Ewen Bremner, Tom Sizemore, James King

DIRECTOR Michael Bay

"I'm fear all we done is to awaken a sleeping giant."

That line spoken by a japanese general is one of two accurate things I can think of about Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor. The other, December 7th, 1941. I'm certain that did happen.

The film begins with young Rafe and Danny playing around with Rafe's dad's airplane. They actually get it off the ground and semi-crash land. This is where we are supposed to learn how close the boys are, how long their friendship has been sustained, and their love for flying. We fast forward to the two guys being in the military as pilots. Major Doolittle, played solid by the ever reliable Alec Baldwin, gives Rafe and Danny a chewing for performing air stunts and hot doggin' it.

Kate Beckinsale plays Evelyn, a nurse who is stationed at Pearl Harbor. I think anyway. She's their when the attack begins, but she's also in the beginning when Rafe and Danny are getting vaccinations. I think the film makers wanted everybody to stick together as much as possible in order to build a love story, which...is ludicrous.

The acting in this film is overall pretty good. It's the script which suffers here. What I wanted to see was a film about Pearl Harbor and what happened. Not a story about a love triangle involving best friends and a parmiscuos nurse. In the middle of the movie is where almost all of my 2 1/2 star rating goes. The sequence at Pearl Harbor is riveting, realistic and sad. It is a horrific thing to imagine and comprehend, yet it happened. This film's faults lie in the hoaky love story which seems unbelievable in the first place. Titanic, without a boat but war instead. A fatal flaw for a movie which is trying to depict one of the most terrible things in american history. I can't recommend this movie. However, I'll say this. Rent it, watch the middle 45 minutes where we get the hell bombed out of us, then take it back and get your money back. I am so dissapointed with this film. It's a shame.