Two childhood friends, now pilots in the U.S. Army, bid for the love of the same woman during the time of the bombing at Pearl Harbor.

A reasonably good story is shoehorned into the Battle of Pearl Harbor. There's plenty of prologue and epilogue to fill its near three hours. Plenty of fantastic action sequences with just the right amount of true historic footage thrown in. Rocking explosions and narrow misses will have you on the edge of your seat. There are several instances that may be homages to blockbusters past, including Titanic and Star Wars. Although its historic accuracy has been questioned, Pearl Harbor succeeds in generating a fine action film with a passable storyline.

The performances are all pretty good, especially Beckinsale and Voight.

The considerable effort it takes to make a film of this magnitude is not wasted here, a true summer blockbuster.

Directed by Michael Bay.