Pearl Harbor [Region 2] |  | Director: Michael Bay
Actors: Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jon Voight
Category: DVD
Buy New: $19.95
as of 3/21/2010 04:12 EDT details
New (2) Used (3) from $14.74
Seller: rsamonte1
Rating:  1965 reviews
Sales Rank: 287563
Format: PAL
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language), English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 2
Discs: 2
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 183 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017188883078
ASIN: B00005QB7O
Theatrical Release Date: May 25, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Sometimes bigger is actually better. Nearly matching the size of director Michael Bay's ego, this massive four-disc set is a veritable Pearl Harbor archive, and ironically, Bay's film remains the least interesting component. It's a purely conventional Hollywood take on the tragedy, using a clichéd love triangle between two ace pilots (Josh Hartnett, Ben Affleck) and a Pearl Harbor nurse (Kate Beckinsale) as an "intimate" means of spectacularly re-creating the attack that thrust America into World War II. The director's cut adds little to the previous DVD release, apart from authentic R-rated carnage during the Japanese raid, and minor expansion of the Hartnett-Beckinsale romance. Commentaries range from superfluous (Bay and film historian Jeanine Basinger) to highly entertaining (Ben Affleck and costars) and technically informative (primary production team), and a spirited examination of visual effects (with Bay and ILM supervisor Eric Brevig) is guaranteed to fascinate anyone interested in physical effects and CGI. A broad "making of" documentary is noteworthy for one-time viewing, while abundant historical records make this a valuable compilation of definitive materials. The History Channel's "One Hour over Tokyo" and "Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor" provide depth that Bay's movie lacks, and Charles Kiselyak's interactive timeline is arguably the finest feature included, providing an in-depth historical perspective on U.S.-Japan relations. Even a brief reenactment of a Pearl Harbor nurse's journal is moving in a way that Bay's film can only try to be, while the "Interactive Attack Sequence" provides a multifaceted exploration of the entire production process (a highly educational feature for aspiring filmmakers). All in all, these four discs offer an admirable balance between Bay's technically impressive but ill-conceived epic and a thorough, fitting tribute to those who endured hell on that fateful Sunday in 1941. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1965
 3-Star Rating for Visual Design Only -- Very Bad Screenplay February 17, 2010
Mikhail Yusuf (San Francisco, CA)
A better Pearl Harbor attack film is 1970's Tora Tora Tora, made at a time when CGI didn't exist (and before Ben Affleck's career existed). Those filmmakers had to rely on models, matte shots, and sometimes real airplanes, ships & explosions for their special effects. Also, Tora Tora Tora takes a straightforward, almost docu-drama approach to this historical event -- no cheesy love triangle, thank heaven -- and its performances and dialogue are almost like Citizen Kane next to 2001's Pearl Harbor.
What does Pearl Harbor (2001) have going for it? Very good, often thrilling, visual design -- photography, sets and mostly (I'd guess) computer-generated special effects...and not much else. The attack on Pearl Harbor is excitingly shot & edited. Otherwise I thought the equally dumb characters & dialogue from Independence Day had been digitally copied and pasted into Pearl Harbor. Just skip the pre-attack DVD chapters and watch the Japanese bomb Hawaii. Then take the disc out of your machine, do yourself a favor and watch Tora Tora Tora. You'll be glad you did.
 Who wouldn't? February 15, 2010
Sunday Socks (Seattle, WA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great service, the product was in great shape.
I really just like Ben Affleck's face... and lip syncing to Faith Hill's "There You'll Be". (The only good use for Faith Hill's music...)
 Tepid 150 MIllion Dollars Insult to War Moves 38% February 11, 2010
Quentin Tarantino Fan (nowhere)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've seen quite a bit of Michael Bay movies, and I'm not going to review them all, most likely the movies I thought were worth three stars (Armageddon, Bad Boys, maybe the Rock). But god damn, was this movie painful to sit through. Pearl Harbor is a visually slick movie with some great battle scenes, and while the movie delivers on this and all of the slow motion, a cheesy melodramatic score, and sunset sequences typical of a pandering, shlocky, it doesn't help this movie features absolutely no sembelance of characters, honor, genuine emotion, or plot.
Initially, I was among the people that thought Michael Bay had no talent at all, but that's' because of other factors that his movies sometimes suffer (and it also comes from my obsession with "Third Person-Syndrome"). He knows how to direct action, and his visuals are always impressive, sometimes even awesome (please use that word literately). Pearl Harbor has plenty of beautiful images that abound everywhere. The look of the film, based on good old romantic movies like Casablanca, is very nice, and even stunning as well. It's a great looking movie and feels lavish, technicolor, and lush, a perfect look for capturing the 40's. Bay's camera skills provide the right aesthetics in a homage of those kinds of movies. The Sound design is great too, not tepid and carries a wallop, as few things are spine tingling to me as the loud roar of a plane. Same goes for the military and plane scenes this movie has, all designed with visual flair that makes it stand out from the average lame action movie that comes out each year. That's where Bay knows how to specialize, and even the worst of his movies (IE this) at least have this aspect. You could learn something about visuals by studying Bay's use of the camera.
Pearl Harbor also succeeds as an action movie, even though it feels more like a videogame or Star Wars at times. The aforementioned scenes where they fly in planes all over the place are exhilerating, of course, delivered with flair just like his explosions, guns fights, and chase scenes he makes. The Doolittle raid is short but satisfying as long as you don't let your morals get in the way. And the central battle, the 30 minute attack on Pearl Harbor, is a top notch battle scene, although not quite bombings from start to finish. IT's lengthy, and contains the ships being blown, people being shot down, a length scene regarding people succumbing to their wounds, and a very fun dogfight. It's also avaialable in a Director's Cut, although to be honest the gore seems like it's thrown in and only makes the battle scene seem like a violent video game than at least somewhat credible, so I would stick to the original cut without the gore. Sure, these battle scenes don't dethrone or give Saving Private Ryan much competition, but that's not really an insult as far as I'm concerned. Nothing can top Saving Private Ryan in my opinion.
Unfortuntaely, unlike Armageddon (which I would give three stars or something of that nature), everything else is second rate crap, ranging from bad to shuddingly awful. The two characters are among the most boring lead men I've ever seen, being basically just two cookie cutter GI Joe's, delightfully bland, who are all in some underdeveloped and boring love circle with a loathsome excuse for a love interest. And they speak the worst dialogue I've heard, which is cheesy and boring, pandering soap opera nonsense that is more attributed to a soap opera than a war movie (war movies should be sentimental, harrowing, cold, or fun within respect for the fallen, not melodramatic or insulting). Furthermore. the characterization of the Japanese is just stupid and very very annoying, portraying these guys as evil, loathing, unsocial, and almost even subhuman. I don't exactly mind stereotypes, I'm not a prude an I wasn't even offended by this. I was one of the few people who wasn't entirely bothered by Bay's later controversy regarding the Twins in Transformers (though far from hilarious, I mostly bought it for the fact that they are _______ Transformers). But the portayle of the Japanese in this movie is just, annoying beyond belief, it's just trash. It's just one of the reasons why the war part of this movie is as hard to buy as a barbie for a boy.
This movie is 180 _________ minutes, and the worst offender is just how tepid this movie feels, from it's characters to it's lame love triangle rip off that I don't care about, corny just like Titanic. And the final nail in the coffin is the story. The wretched story. First off, it's unacceptable that a love triangle this weak is spread onto a three hour length. Never mind the almost _________ buddy friendship these two lamesauce characters share, the love triangle is much worse. It's underdeveloped and extremely overblown and pandering, cheesy with more shots of slow motion kisses and lame slow motion scenes of the two couples spinning each other around (______ _________) than anything else. Banal conversations and cheesy after cheesy lines that go absolutely nowhere are in place of conversations that actually contribute to development. Not that it matters much, considering the theme of creating a love triangle in a tragic thing such as war. This is supposed to be a war movie, right?
Nevermind Titanic, who's love story is much better compared to this (even though I hate that movie), which is kind of an insult. Not only does Pearl Harbor totally ignore the real tragedy of Pearl Harbor, but it's racist, laughable, wildly inaccurate, and soooooooo boooooooorrrrrrrriiiiiinggggggg. I don't hate Michael Bay for making this movie (Id even say some of his style is a influence on me, mainly his knack for making sweeping visuals, not storytelling or character), but at least he made his other movies somewhat respectable despite their flaws. However, this movie is better off not existing, because it's really an embarassment to the war film genre and Michael Bay movies itself. I'll bet you that when you mention Michael Bay to people (especially those who hate him), you'll very much haer this one as a first offejder. Either way, life is too short to waste much more time with this one. Avoid this and try Black Hawk Down instead, a war movie that was 1000 times better.
CHARACTERS 0/10
PLOT 0/10
DIALOGUE 0/5
HISTORICAL INACCURAIES 0/10
ACTION SEQUENCES 9/10
DIRECTING AND STYLE 16/20
Great Movie !!!!! February 5, 2010
Scott J. Adelstein (New York)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great movie that un-covers the bombing raid that had been classified over Japan for many years and just now more and more facts are comlng out on how the US new that the Japanese fleet was going to hit Pearl Harbar, sound formula ( 911) .
This movie will bring a tear to your eye during the bombing and during the sence when all the men were trapped.
Think of the Hundreds that were trapped the next time you start your Japanese import.
Great seller. Very Responsive! February 1, 2010
S. Shelton
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Original DVD had a couple of 'glitches'. Seller was quick to replace with another DVD that had no issues. Would do business with this seller again.
Thanks.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1965
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