Delayed Reaction: Pearl Harbor

The Pitch: Saving Private Ryan was really good. Let's do something like that but throw in the one thing it was missing: A love triangle.

What Took Me So Long: That song from Team America: World Police did a lot to scare me away for a long time.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) No one can ever say that Michael Bay can't do explosions well. He has a lot of fun with the Pearl Harbor attack and makes it as big a spectacle as he can. If you are looking for a movie about all the heroics on "the day that will live in infamy", then this will whet your appetite.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Then there's the love triangle between best friends* and what I'm pretty sure is a made up or exaggerated retaliation mission that balloons this to a three hour run time. The failure of this movie is in the idea. The bombing of Pearl Harbor is both the best part of the movie and a big loss for the protagonists. It's tough to build a movie around that when, after it's all said and done, another hour needs to be added to end on a happier (or at least bittersweet) note. I think this was Michael Bay trying to make a movie "that mattered" and he should've stuck to the kind of movie he excels at, critics be damned.

*Which doesn't make sense, given the perfectly available Jennifer Garner who we now know has chemistry with Ben Affleck.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend