Reviews

When PEARL HARBOR was first released, I was, I admit, a silly teenage female. While watching the film, my thoughts were not focused on how historical it was, how well the plot developed, the emotions, or the acting skills. Instead, my thoughts went along the lines of: "Josh Hartnett! Ben Affleck! *SQUEE!*" I am pleased to say that this is no longer the case. I finally watched the film with a critical perspective, and must agree with many of the reviews. The romantic plot, to put it mildly, was not good. The actors were not very good, the script wasn't very good, and the dialogue was just awful and trite. I often found myself rolling my eyes and wondering when in the world they would get to the good action part.

As for the Pearl Harbor bombing sequence, that was (in my opinion) an amazing scene. The background music fit the mood perfectly, the effects were beautiful, and it just seemed to overall capture the true tragedy of the events. Of course, this was all ruined by the appearance of our two 'heroes'. They killed the mood, and I could just hear all of the preteen and teenage females in the world sighing and staring at the actors.

The after sequence of the attacks, in the hospital and the ships, was also quite well done, I thought. I found it very emotional and tragic. Of course, I did not feel this way when it was once again ruined by the appearance of the title characters, but lucky for me, they did not show up to much in either of these sequences.

After that, the movie just went downhill. We had to witness more cliché 'plot twists', I suppose they meant for the pregnancy to be, and we had to see the actors attempt to act (and fail miserably.) But by far, the worst acting was shown at the end, when the character Danny dies. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. The whole thing was like a parody of a death scene, complete with touching speeches. I half expected Danny to whisper: "The light! I see the light!" He didn't say that, though he did mention being cold.

Overall, I suppose I must give two grades.

Acting: 1/5 Bombing sequence: 5/5.

I have seen many, many animated movies featuring princesses and romance and music, most of them Disney. And after comparing ANASTASIA to all of these 'classics', I must say that I like ANASTASIA the most.

First, lets address the whole historical aspect. NO, this movie is not historically correct. One would be in a world of hurt if they were to try to use this to teach a child a history lesson. I am a person who is usually bothered by major historical inaccuracies. Of course, I admit that I know very little about this time period and about these events. To someone who is very interested in these events and is very knowledgeable on them, this movie might bother them. But keep in mind that this IS a children's movie-not meant to be historically accurate. It is meant to be fun, and this it accomplishes.

It is in the music that distinguishes this movie in my mind and puts it in a category of its own. The songs are simply amazing. There is not one song that I do not enjoy. Liz Callaway is just wonderful as the singing voice of Anastasia. When she sings "Once Upon A December", I get chills every time. It is such an eerie and beautiful, haunting song. And paired with the scene in which it is shown in, with the ghosts all dancing, well, it's hard not to be moved. And then there is Jim Cummings, singing as Rasputin. "In The Dark Of The Night" is also an amazing song. Very fun, yet still a bit scary. Of course, these are just two songs out of many wonderful songs. If anything, get the soundtrack, as it is just wonderful. The music blows all of the Disney songs out of the water, in my opinion.

Now, the romance. Yes, of course there is romance, this is a cartoon princess movie, after all. But it is not the love at first site plot that is so familiar to Disney movies. The romance is slow and just full of tension. Never before have I been able to feel such sexual tension between two cartoon characters. But the bickering Anya and Dimitri is just wonderful. Such chemistry! It is nice to see two characters get to know each other before falling in love.

Overall, this is just a wonderful movie. I remember loving it when I was younger and it had just come out, and I love it just as much today. I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

Overall, not as bad as it could be. During the scene where the devil attempts to sway Arnie, it sounds like some kid acting in a high school informational vidio used to show kids peer pressure. The ending was actually quite exciting...that is until they went all 'Alien' on us and showed the devil in some weird alien form.

There were some things that just didn't have a place in the movie, but overall, it was pretty well done. I would have liked to see it better explained and perhaps better executed on the part of the screen writer, but still. Arnie actually did something other than blow up people and kill them (though he did that as well)...a huge surprise to those who regularly view his movies.

A good rental film, though I wouldn't buy it. It's worth viewing.