2001, 2 hrs 50 min., Rated PG-13 for sustained intense war sequences, images of wounded, brief sensuality and some language.�Dir: Michael Bay. Cast: Ben Affleck (Rafe McCawley), Josh Hartnett (Danny Walker), Kate Beckinsale (Evelyn), Tom Sizemore (Earl), Jon Voight (President Franklin D. Roosevelt), Alec Baldwin (Doolittle), Ewen Bremner (Red), James King (Betty), Sara Rue (Martha), Catherine Kellner (Barbara), Jennifer Garner (Sandra), Michael Shannon (Goose), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Doris 'Dorie' Miller), William Lee Scott (Billy), Mako (Admiral Yamamoto), Colm Feore (Admiral Kimmel), Dan Aykroyd (Captain Thurman), Reiley McClendon (Young Danny), Jesse James (Young Rafe), William Fichtner (Danny's Father).

I'm going to post this spoiler warning, because with a film like this I'm most likely going to give away plenty of little things that could affect your moviegoing experience. So you might want to wait until you see Pearl Harbor before reading my review:

I'm a sucker for rah-rah patriotic films and can set aside my brain and enjoy silly summer flicks (i.e. Independence Day, Armageddon), but was a little worried about Pearl Harbor, which has more to do with the real-life historical aspects than anything else. But, I settled in for Disney-fied popcorn entertainment (and at nearly three hours you better buy the biggest bucket available) as the pure red-blooded American male that the studio sought, so please enjoy my contribution.

The team of director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Bad Boys, The Rock and Armageddon) will never challenge the status-quo of blockbuster movies --after all, they need to recoup some $135 million for the cost of making it -- but they are masters at painting a Norman Rockwell-ian picture of Americana pre-World War II. It's an ideal world of brave soldiers risking it all with beautiful nurses taking care of them.

One of my few concerns had to do with style, where one gets the sense that the filmmakers' golden moment -- the 35-minute Pearl Harbor attack -- may be more of a spectacle than a dedication, such as Saving Private Ryan's bookend battles.

And, there's a lot of cheese. More than makes up the moon. A lot. 50 pounds of Velveeta to go, please. What this means is that I'm a bitter single 25-year-old male, and there's more than enough lovey-dovey schmaltz for the ladies, and some men too, I guess, if you drink Chianti and own several Bette Midler records.

Because of the action, cheesy dialogue and lovey-dovey elements, one can't help but think that Pearl Harbor tries to be a mix of Titanic, Saving Private Ryan and Top Gun. However, it doesn't achieve entirely favorable comparisons to any of the three, so I have to try and leave these out and see it as an individual.

That's pretty difficult, though, when more than once during the airborne scenes I was expecting a pilot to request a fly-by only to get rejected: "Negative, ghost rider, the pattern is full." During a dogfight I kept expecting Affleck to say "I'll hit the brakes, he'll fly right by." Heck, there's even a co-pilot named Goose, for crying out loud. After hearing his name, I almost did. And the studio can't pretend that the guy's name is "Gooz"; when said in the film it is pronounced Goose.

Let's look at the actors and their characters (the majority of which are fictional, but that's to be expected, even in historically based movies):

It's so hard to dislike Ben Affleck (hush up to those who just rose up and yelled "no it isn't!"). Okay, to me, he's a likable fella who has a more promising career than his buddy from Good Will Hunting (Matt who?), if only that Ben can range from action hero to romance lead and not miss a beat. Sure, his dialogue elicits groans and awwws in the same breath, but he pulls it off affably. Besides, America needs gentle Ben; it's a good thing Affleck was in England or the Battle of Britain would have been lost! (<--sarcasm)

Pretty boy Josh Hartnett overdoes the melodrama while hamming with those rosy cheeks.

Kate Beckinsale, however, is the essence of lovely. She's the girl next door, if you live in England. But who says fantasies can't travel across the Atlantic? Apparently, though, to woo her it is important to break minor laws and regulations.

Alec Baldwin has a small yet meaningful part as Jimmy Doolittle. Yes, that Doolittle. Actually, Baldwin thought he was making good on his promise to leave the U.S. after Bush was elected by filming in Hawaii, only to discover that it is now a state, and no longer a territory. "Dang, how could I have missed 1959," he must've thought, and then immediately buying a flag with 49 stars on it. Shh, don't tell him about Alaska, it may ruin the surprise for his next role as the captain of the Exxon Valdez.

Jon Voight is capable, but his entire portrayal of President Roosevelt is over-the-top. When he struggles to stand at the table it becomes downright silly.

Running through some of the rest...the stutterer becomes a tad annoying after approximately 7.45 seconds...model James King as Betty (James is a she, not a cross-dresser) is fun and looks like a WWII pinup...Tom Sizemore has a little role as an airplane mechanic...Cuba Gooding, Jr. gets one of the few real-life roles, as Dorie Miller, a mess attendant who becomes a Pearl Harbor hero...Dan Aykroyd has a small yet dignified bit as an intelligence officer in D.C.

And now for the reason it took me a few days to get this review posted: the history of Pearl Harbor. On my one day off this week, I took the time to watch many hours of programming dedicated to the attack. These include ABC's award-winning look from a decade ago that was hosted by David Brinkley, NBC and National Geographic's two-hour remembrance (forget Tom Brokaw, I was just glad they used my fave historian Stephen Ambrose), the History Channel's two-hour special, an hour on Doolittle's Raid as well as a special on Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor, and my favorite, their "History vs. Hollywood" program. So I've got a lot of info swirling around in my head.

Amazon.com's review is a snide aside about the film:

"According to a Hollywood tradition that stretches all the way back to From Here to Eternity, there's never been anything quite so romantic as the idyllic days and hours before torpedo and dive bombers from the Japanese Imperial Navy blew the bejesus out of the unsuspecting U.S. fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. Far be it for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay to, er, rock the boat."

But there is some validity in others who disagree with the decisions made by the folks at Disney to insert political correctness into a situation that deserves none. First off, their Mickey Mouse ears must be on too tight when deciding how to explain why Japan attacked us. Sure, guys, Japan's assault was all about an oil embargo we imposed on them. Heck, it must be all our fault, since you seem to leave out a few key points about how Japan raped and pillaged Asia and the Pacific for over a decade leading up to World War II. Despite the fact that the Empire was unchecked in its brutal occupations, we had it coming to us, and the sneak attack on Pearl must have been for our own good.

Other notes:

• Why did we never see the USS Nevada battleship try to get out of the harbor, the only ship that got underway that morning?
• There were four planes that made it in the air that morning.
• The Eagle Squadron existed, but none of the volunteers were in the U.S. military; all were civilians, and some had been rejected by the U.S. armed forces.
• During the attack on the Hawaiian harbor, the movie shows the character played by Gooding standing behind a twin-barreled anti-aircraft gun and shooting at Japanese planes. This is entirely true. Dorie Miller, a mess attendant on the USS West Virginia and the ship's top boxer, was gathering up laundry when the attack came and commandeered a gun to fire on incoming aircraft. Miller was decorated for heroism and died at sea in 1943 when a Japanese submarine sank his ship.
• In the movie, U.S. Adm. Husband Kimmel, who had charge of the fleet at Pearl Harbor, criticizes Washington, saying: "For four months now Washington's been blowing pink smoke about the threat from Japan. It could make us lose our fighting edge. I'm determined not to let that happen." In fact, Kimmel had received intelligence warnings about the Japanese threat but felt these were vague and incomplete and chose not to place his forces on full-scale alert. He was forced to retire after Pearl Harbor.
• The code-breaker played by Aykroyd says in the movie that he expected the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor, but no real code-breaker ever believed the Hawaiian harbor was the target.
• While the attack was a surprise, it was not without warning. Pearl Harbor correctly mentions how the USS Ward fired on a Japanese minisub at the mouth of Pearl Harbor, and radar picked up Japanese planes flying in from the north, but these were thought to be U.S. B-17s that had been set to arrive.
• Doesn't capture enough of the terror of the soldiers and civilians, or the horrible injuries, such as trash cans full of body parts or skin falling off burned soldiers, the mayhem of the hospitals isn't in depth besides Kate spinning blurred. Then again, they had to keep it PG-13, so real-life experiences like veteran Denver Gray of Atlanta wouldn't hold up well with a younger audience, such as "seeing a human skull - an American's - rolling around after an explosion."
• Doolittle's Raid hit multiple cities, not just Tokyo. Also, for your information, the Japs slaughtered up to 250,000 Chinese for helping the American crews that landed and/or crashed there.

Vets who survived the battle were interviewed, and most said that it's half history, half Hollywood, leaning more towards a Tinseltown recreation. BUT, all agreed that it's a positive sign that the day of infamy is "back into focus of the American people" and hope it will rekindle some patriotism.

Like Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor hopes to do just that (while making a billion dollars), and actions like that taken by Congress and President George W. Bush will only help, signing legislation to erect a monument to the veterans of World War II on the Mall in Washington.

History discussion over:

As to the look of Pearl Harbor, it was apparently very important to Bay and Bruckheimer. Their films are always eye candy, but here they succeeded in taking the audience back to the ideal time pre-World War II, celebrating traditionalism, true love and nostalgia for the way it was.

Yes, there were many shots of the lovely Kate's hair flowing in the breeze, of planes flying through thick smoke, brave men walking in slow motion into battle. Beautiful, sure, but after a couple of times it's overkill. There's also an abundance of a blurring effect that I suppose signifies how everything's happening so fast and you can't focus amid the horrors. But I kept wondering if the print was messed up.

My favorite shots from the trailer, of Japanese planes flying so low coming into Hawaii that they could cut the lawns, are there, and in stunning contrast to boys playing baseball, a woman hanging clothes (wow, that WAS a long time ago!) and Boy Scouts (no doubt homophobes) urinating outside their tent.

But those are little complaints to what was a glossy photo of not only the paradise of Hawaii but also rough and honest shots of the second war to end all wars.

Summing up (finally!), there's nothing new to Pearl Harbor. It's predictable (and not just the we-lost-the-battle kind, but also the love story), cliched and as a whole all about looking good, as planes swoop in the sunset and the beautiful woman reads letters on the rocks as waves crash behind, as Zeros target defenseless Americans in the water, it looks good. And the audience feels better for seeing it.

The verdict: -- It's not art, but it's worth the price of admission.

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