i saw Pearl Harbor for the first time last weekend. 183 minutes of a patriotic, crowd pleasing masturbatory session. who needs that claptrap? and the love story? please. are all future 'historical' films going to be love stories using as a backdrop the event their supposed to be about (although it was kind of fun to quote Titanic as the warships sank: 'Jack! Come back! I'll never let go! I'm flying!' and whispering "Give me what I want and I'll go away," everytime Admiral Kimmel [a.k.a. Andre Lenoge] was onscreen). the movie tries to tug the heartstrings, but just ends up making a clumsy grab that doesn't actually work. the best thing about the whole experience was the History Channel program on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shown after the credits to the movie finished.

i give this film a big ass torpedoed battleship for the cheesy love story (blech. get over it Ben. she's a whore)(no, wait, get over yourself, you cocky bastard) and a squadron of downed fighter planes for everything outside the actual PH attack scene, which is the only reason those fighter planes got off the ground in the first place. otherwise, this movie would have died in the hanger.