Titanic Made Me Do It

May 27, 2001

So I dragged myself to the second blockbuster of the season yesterday, Pearl Harbor. What was I thinking? I knew it would be fairly lackluster going in, but I went anyway. The three hour running time actually isn’t that bad, as the movie picks up the pace considerably once the pyrotechnics start. The first hour is ridiculously painful though. About 30 minutes in I was rooting for the Japanese to come in and bomb the smiles off of Affleck and Hartnett. I don’t know if this was the intent, but that’s how it ended up playing out to me.

The actual bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Doolittle Raid are both exciting enough to justify the film. Unfortunately, the night before I watched the superior Tora! Tora! Tora! I say unfortunately only because it makes Pearl Harbor look utterly ridiculous. While “Tora!Tora!Tora!” is 30 years older, the special effects are competent enough to tell its story. The even-handed documentary style approach to the events of December 7th also lends the film an air of credibility and accuracy that “Pearl Harbor” desperately lacks.

Posted in Moving Pictures