|
Pearl
Harbor-
Kritiken
The
Movie Pearl Harbour was the first time i noticed Josh the hottie...It
was a brilliant movie, the special effects and story line adn bombing
all seemed so real!! My eyes were sticked to the screen the whole
time. It was a movie that had facts, romance and the works in...but
the romance, hey...bad stuff!! I liked Rave alot! He was like the
strong one of the two of them and so protective of his Best friend
Danny. Danny was the 'good, realistic, down to earth guy' and Rave
the 'adrenalin addicted and focussed on his dreams'. The action
they made together, and how the worked together and how these best
friends did everything for each other was special to both of them!!
What was also good about the movie is it wasn't just focused on
the love scenes...but the history of what happend at Pearl Harbour
The sinking ships had a glimpse of Titanic in...but was good. The
way The nurse that 'cursed' the two best friends, didn't like her...i
liked her with Rave, their personalities fitted, she was a hard
to get and Danny was this calm 'no worries' guy.. When Rave 'died'
and Danny got all mixed up with her...i mean come on...there are
milluions of woman, why his best friend's love of his life.. I was
happy when Rave returned, didn't like Danny with her (probably that
devil called 'jealousy') but when Danny died, i died!! Josh Hartnett
was the first guy that got me crying in a movie!! He's got talent!!
Give
the movie a total A!!
Bea-Hêlêne
(age 18)
Ok,
I really liked the storyline. It didn't really explain why all of
the men got stuck in the Arizona (the ship). It is because there
was a
contest between the ships' bands and the Arizona's won. Their reward
was that the crew got to sleep in late, and so many of them met
their watery grave stuck in the ship. I think the fighting scene/etc...was
very realistic. The love story between them really could have happened,
and I must admit I'm a hopeless romantic so I loved it :] I cried
at the end, I really didn't want Danny to die, because I like him
so much and it was so sad, I am glad that atleast he knew before
he died that he was a father. But if you think about it - don't
you think he would have fought even harder and had even more spirit
if he knew that he was going to be a father? I don't know it was
just a thought of mine...I think he had a lot of morale anyways!
I loved the movie just about until Danny died, but if you think
about it that was realistic too. If he hadn't died then it would
have been a constant thing between him and Rafe (sp??). And would
he just go home; lovey dovey? I don't know...I really kinda wanted
him to live though and maybe have Rafe die ... I'm so meeean!
-mindy-
(age 13)
ps - I give the movie an A- overall :]
Pearl
Harbor
Josh
Hartnett lives, loves, flies and dies as the Japanese Empire attacks
the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor at the beginning of World
War II.
Same
goes for Hollywood-Star Ben Affleck, except for the fact that he
doesn't die, even though it looks as if he had died at least twice.
But, as we know ever since we saw the well-remembered Sci-Fi spectacle
"Armageddon", Ben Affleck has got nine lives at the very
least!
On top of that, both, Josh and Ben, who star as the lifelong friends
Rafe (Affleck, what's "Rafe" for a name anyway?) and Danny
(Hartnett) fall for the same woman; Evelyn, the cutest nurse ever
to be seen on screen or in war (Kate Beckinsale).
If anyone expects a gripping lovestory, they'll be disappointed,
though. The story's is well known, since it has occurred like thousands
of times in various movies: The actual hero (in this case that should
be Ben Affleck) falls for the beautiful and innocent, but nevertheless
would-be tough young woman (Beckinsale), then leaves her to play
the hero he's supposed to be and finally is believed to be dead,
after he has crashed into the icy english sea during a fight against
the enemy (the Germans).
But, naturally, the thought of his one true and everlasting love
keeps him alive, until he's rescued (by a french guy).
In the meantime, however, his best friend (Hartnett) and his adored
love, who believe him to be dead, begin an affair, while she still
cries her eyes out over her hero and is torn between a bad conscience
and sympathy for the best friend, who, unfortunately, falls deeply
in love with her for the first time ever in his young life - and,
as we will find out about two hours and a massacre later, for the
last time.
It makes no wonder that the hero (let's call him Rafe), who returns
after some months he has had to spend abroad, is somewhat dissappointed
when he has to find out that his best friend and the woman he loves
so desperately have paired up. He refuses, of course, to listen
to either one of them, instead of that he decides to be unforgiving
and starts a fight with his no-longer-best-friend Danny in a cocktail
bar.
Unfortunately, the three if them don't have the time to solve their
problem, because the very morning after the fateful night of Rafe's
return, Pearl Harbor is attacked by Japanese fighters and the hell
brakes loose.
It follow loads of scenes with screaming, dying people, breath-taking
special effects and heroic acts from Rafe and Danny, who afterwards
are being send on a mission to revenge the Pearl Harbor attack by
dropping some bombs over Japan as an act of gratitude from their
Commander (Alec Baldwin).
However; before they leave for their mission, from which they're
not expected to return, Evelyn seeks out Rafe to tell him that she's
pregnant with a baby from Danny, which Danny doesn't know and is
not supposed to know.
So Rafe and Danny, who has no clue that he's going to be a daddy,
leave for their mission, during which they both make a mess of their
fighters at the Japanese coast and Danny is finally killed by some
bullets from a Japanese's machine-gun. Rafe returns his friend's
body to America, makes his peace with Evelyn and they bring up hers
and Danny's child, who they call Danny (how very original!).
"Pearl
Harbor", that's "Titanic"-XXL. Not only that both
actresses are actually english and named Kate, also the movies are
basically the same:
A love story leads to a tragic climax, in which at least one ship
sinks and a lot of people die; but in "Pearl" there is
more tragic, there are more ships sinking and it's even more schmalzy,
because the hero doesn't even finish the thing properly and dies,
but leaves that part of the job to his best mate, who's actually
the cutest guy in there. What a mess! The only person in the whole
movie who makes at least some of its scenes worth their money (the
money spent on the production, as well as the money one has to spend
to enter the movie theater), has to die in the end, because they
have to get rid of him somehow, since the two true lovers can't
be kept apart just because Evelyn awaits a baby from another man.
And what would fit a man like Danny better than a heroic death,
which he chooses to rescue his very best friend, who, at least,
cries his eyes out over Danny afterwards. (Wow! The first truly
moving scene in a movie that was supposed to be gripping, shaking
and shocking all the time!).
And, of course, our hero Rafe gets everything: the woman, the kid,
the honor; and he lives happily ever after with the woman he has
loved from the start and the reincarnation of his lost best friend
- the kid named "Danny". Wow! What a plot!
"Pearl
Harbor" is a movie full of heros; pilots, who fight a losing
battle against the superior forces of the enemy. Men, who drive
to a small airport, while being shot at and who, finally, seek revenge,
even though it might cost their lives. But, at least, people like
that existed, whereas one can doubt that at least the government
was as heroic as it is shown in the movie.
Today it is still unsure if the attack was as unexpected as it is
shown in the film, or if maybe all the warnings concerning a possible
attack on Pearl Harbor were ingnored on purpose, while President
Roosevelt took the risk of an attack to have a reason for entering
World War II.
Aspects like that are being blotted out completely, of course, since
the film doesn't want to explain what happened, but rather show
it; in full length and tragic and with an imagery that can rather
make you laugh:
The Japanese superiors rather look like the Imperials in Star Wars,
clad in dark clothes, plotting to attack secretly with their "Death
Star" - the only thing that missed was the Imperial March Music.
In contrast to that, the American president (who is not the one
that ignores the warnings about the attack, in the first place,
that job's left to some no-name General), is a hero, just like everyone
else, who believes everything to be possible and even stands up
out of his wheelchair, even though he has been lame for years. (Oh
yeah! Run, Forrest, run!)
While the Americans are shown for more than fourty minutes, crying,
dying and fighting desperately during the attack on Pearl Harbor,
you don't see one person die when Ben Affleck and his companions
attack Japan later on, quite to the contrary: The "Japs"
make both fighters crash and kill the character in the movie who
has the audience's sympathy from the very moment he appears on screen:
Danny Walker.
Certainly, the attack on Pearl Habor was one of the most violent
and shocking acts of warfare in the history of the U.S., but the
good-and-bad imagery in the movie is so obvious that it rather fits
a fairy tale.
Pearl
Harbor doesn't lay importance on facts, but rather on what's good
for a gripping story. If you can choose between truth and legend,
always show the legend - wow, that's entertainment! Too bad, though,
that the story is so long and the dialogues are so poorly written
that it really begins to bore you after an hour or so.
(If Ben Affleck and Alec Balwin had kept on talking the patriotic
stuff their were talking all the time I swear I would have thrown
up!)
At
least, Josh Hartnett does a good job. He's really the one that makes
the movie worth seeing it (if that's possible). His role is the
one with at least a bit of depth and his acting proves once more
that he is really up to it.
Kate Beckinsale once said about him that he is special, because
he has this certain "prickling appeal"; and in "Pearl
Harbor" this becomes more visible than ever before:
the very moment Josh appears on screen, he draws the attention to
him. I now really understand for the first time, why girls scream
at the sight of him or what people mean when they are talking about
that certain appeal of his. Josh Hartnett is special, he's got that
certain aura that makes one want to see more of him.
And his character, Danny, is the cute, even a little complex guy
in there, who makes Rafe look rather pale next to him.
I wouldn't state that Ben Affleck is not up to it, either, but he
can do better, as he has shown before.
The fact that he can't really convince in "Pearl Harbor"
is probably a result of his character's flattness:
A typical tragic hero, who suffers from war and a dissappointment
in love, but who wins everything in the end and who has just such
a huge amount of text in the script that I wonder how Ben Affleck
could cope. How did he manage not to screw up with those two most
frequently used sentences of his: "Evelyn, I love you"
and "Evelyn, you are so beautiful."? Man, am I impressed!
And Kate Beckinsale just seems to get the best out of it all the
time:
"Oh, Rafe's dead, let's try on Danny, then. Oh my God, Danny's
dead, well, there's Rafe who has resurrected after all."
And
the non-dramatic, non-romantic rest of the movie is patriotic beyond
anything Hollywood has ever produced so far, which is not only visible
in the imagery of the actual attack, but already in the very beginning
when Rafe and Danny are still kids who fly their self-made airplane
against Germany "for America!".
The figure that stands for the patriotic american hero is Alec Baldwin,
of course, who would crash and die together with his fighter, if
he knew that there was no way of escaping the enemy.
In terms of patriotism and glorification of the American government
as the innocent peace-loving victims who only wanted to prevent
a second world war, "Pearl Harbor" is indeed something
that has never been there before; Hollywood has this time outmached
itsself.
Who would not want to be a citizen of a land as glorious as this,
which has "suffered, but won strength", as Kate Beckinsale
basically states in the end?
Of
course, the movie had its highlights, though.
Yes, believe it or not, there were scenes I really liked.
Like this wonderful half of an hour in which Danny and Evelyn share
their own beautiful, and actually romantic, love-story; in which
there are wonderfully shot pictures, such as their flight in the
sunset or their night between the parachutes. This is cinema at
its best:
Beautiful pictures and the right measure of romance and, most important,
text!
I also liked the funny scenes, like when Rafe breaks his nose while
trying to impress Evelyn or when he hurts himself again, when he
tries to open that bottle of champaign. (Don't get me wrong, this
is not because I like Ben Affleck getting hurt!)
And I liked the actually cute romance between that young nurse and
her stuttering pilot and the way Josh Hartnett looked when he came
stumbling backwards out of the beach bar, after Ben Affleck had
hit him in the face.
Yeah, I liked Josh in there, I liked the way he looked, the way
he played and especially that he was the calm one, who was just
trying to survive and to bear the things he saw and experienced,
instead of playing the hero all the time. That's what makes him
look more human than anyone of all the other "heros" in
there.
And the way he stays in the background during most of the film and
the things we get to know about him along the way, make Danny the
actual star of "Pearl Harbor".
Pitty he has to die in the end, but if it hadn't been him, the whole
thing would only have been half as sad, because Danny's the one
who has our sympathy, really, he's the one people cry about.
All
in all "Pearl Harbor" means being bored nearly three hours,
only interrupted by a few bright moments with Josh and a scene of
good drama when he dies in the end.
"Pearl Harbor" rather lays importance on special effects
than on a well-written, truthful and convincing story.
The whole movie leads towards Danny's death, who insistantly refuses
to die and release the unnerved and totally knackered spectator
from three hours of boredom and tearing one's hair about american
patriotism.
-Annie,
BJPE team
Contrary to what the critics say, Pearl Harbour is an excellent
film. The basic plot of the film, is that Ben Affleck, and Josh
Hartnett are involved in the bombing at Pearl Harbour, and Kate
Beckinsale plays the in-between woman. If I say too much about the
plot though, it's gonna TOTALLY ruin it! Although, now saying that,
throughoutthe film, me and my mate predicted it ALL the way through.I
would actually have to say that this film ranks along side with
Titanic, in the soppy region. I was close to tears at the end, wow!
i can't believe I admitted that!?) It is the sort of movie that
can leave you thinking about it for hours.
Now, down to the good stuff, hehe. On a scale of 1 to 10 on the
Josh gorgeous scale, this movie would rate on a 10!!!! I'm so desperate
for more, (now this is sad but true) I went on the Best Josh Page,
and printed out all the pics, THATS how cute he is in this film!
If you need, (now I can't say short, due to the fact this films
3 hours long, but hey, I'm not complaining!) a Josh fix, then this
is MORE than adequate! Finally, on the scale of 1-10, I'd give Pearl
Harbour a 9/10, due to the fact I now envy Kate Beckinsale sooooooooooooo
much, (hint hint).
Go see this film, it's excellent.
Kaia
Proudfoot
Dear
fan of Josh,
I am Wubing, 20 male from Singapore. I am a die hard X-MEN fan.
I am not always into the warfare as I dislike violence and bloody
scences.
But after I gambled my SG$8.00 recently on Pearl Harbor, I love
it so much, not just the cast, but the whole mood. Though some of
my friends dislike Ben turning into Rambo the end, but I think the
story some how had to end this way.
Some of my friends said that the love triangle between Josh and
Ben and Kate are too long winded...but I think it is okie.
Man, after I watched this movie, I had a hard time looking for the
website cos I kept on typing PEARL HARBOUR instead of PEARL HARBOR.
Well fans of Josh, I will definetly watch the movie again and this
time, I gotta plead the cinema to give me a banner or a poster of
this dramatic movie that make my life changed....
It is sad I couldn't took part in the contest in the PH website
to win the posters cos I am situated in Singapore. I hope I could
oneday...
Take care and I really wish Josh and Ben becomes more famous after
this wonderful movie - By the way, Singapore 8Days magazine is featuring
Pearl Harbor on the cover with Josh...check it at this link
Last of all, Josh is very handsome and he act very well.
Wubing
from Singapore
Storm Xpress - my website
The
movie was great. It showed a lot about the history of Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. Plus the love triangle with Josh Hartnett, Ben Affleck and
Kate Beckisale was unforgettable!! Josh Hartnett is completely HOT!!
The acting was great(especially Josh!) I'd go see it again if I
had the chance to. I don't want to tell those who haven't seen it
too much, but if you haven't seen it yet, GO SEE IT!!! It was a
great movie!!
~Melissa
I loved
Pearl Harbor. I have so many pictures of josh from that movie in
my room that you can hardly see any wall. I cried so hard when josh
died that I used a half of a box of tissues. I was even crying about
20 minutes after the movie was over. I love josh so much and if
you are reading this josh I love you and your acting. (anonymous)
|