SHOW TIMES All films shown in Russian, except those marked * (subtitled) and as otherwise indicated. AMERICAN HOUSE OF CINEMA Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel M: Kievskaya, 941-8747 (All films in English; Russian headphone translation Tue.-Sun.) Pearl Harbor May 31: 19.00, 22.00; June 1: 18.00, 21.00; June 2: 12.00, 16.40, 19.40, 22.40; June 3: 13.00, 17.40, 20.40; June 4: 19.40; June 5: 18.00, 21.10; June 8: 21.00; June 9: 18.40, 21.50; June 10: 14.40, 17.50, 21.00; June 11 - 12: 14.40, 17.50, 21.00; June 13: 18.00, 21.10 Spy Kids June 1: 18.00, 21.00; June 2: 15.00; June 3: 16.00; June 4: 18.00; June 9: 17.00; June 10: 13.00; June 11: 13.00 DOME CINEMA 18/1, Olympiysky prospekt M: Prospect Mira, 931-98-73 (All films in English; Russian headphone translation by headphones) The Mummy Returns May 31: 19.00, 21.30; June 2: 21.30, 23.50; June 3: 14.00, 16.30, 19.00, 21.30; June 5: 16.30, 19.00, 21.30; June 6: 19.00, 21.30; June 7: 21.00; June 8: 19.00, 21.30, 23.50; June 9: 14.00, 16.30, 19.00, 21.30, 23.50; June 10: 16.30, 19.00, 21.30 35 MM 47/24, Ul. Pokrovka M: Krasnye Vorota, 917-5492 Sanger fran andra vaningen May 31 - June 6: 9.00, 11.00, 13.00, 15.00, 17.00, 19.00, 21.00, 23.00, 1.00; June 7: 9.00, 11.00, 13.00, 15.00, 17.00, 00.00 Thoma est amoreux June 7: 22.00, 00.00; June 8 - June 10: 9.00, 11.00, 13.00, 15.00, 17.00, 19.00, 21.00, 23.00, 1.00   GORIZONT 21/10, Komsomolsky prospekt M: Frunzenskaya, 245-3143 Spy Kids May 31 - June 10: 9.00, 11.00, 13.00, 15.00, 17.00, 19.00, 21.00, 23.00, 1.00   KODAK-KINOMIR Nastasyinsky pereulok M: Pushkinskaya/Chechovskaya, Pearl Harbor May 31 - June 10   Sportland- Movie Restaurant Novy Arbat, 21 Metro: Arbatskaya Tel: 291-20-41 No cover Breakdown* May 28: 13.00; May 29: 21.00; May 31: 13.00; June 1: 21.00 Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying* May 28: 21.00; May 30: 13.00; May 31: 21.00 Shadow Conspiracy* May 29: 13.00; May 30: 21.00; June 1: 13.00 Simple Plan, A* June 4: 21.00; June 5: 13.00; June 8: 13.00 Existenz* June 4: 13.00; June 7: 13.00; June 8: 21.00 Four Dogs Playing Poker* June 6: 13.00; June 9: 02.00 Extreme Measures* June 11: 21.00; June 12: 13.00 Legionnaire* June 11: 13.00; June 14: 13.00 Grey Owl* June 13: 13.00

The biggest blockbuster of the season weighs in as the summer movie season officially begins. Like the $139 million dollar juggernaut that it is, PEARL HARBOR roars across the screen with Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett starring as best friend aviators. Affleck has to leave his best friend behind when he joins the highly-respected “Eagle Squadron” out of Britain. The Eagles battle the Nazis as America still refuses to enter World War II. Affleck’s beloved, Kate Beckinsale is a nurse and is just getting to know her fly-boy when he takes the assignment in Britain. Affleck asks Hartnett to look after Beckinsale if anything should happen to him overseas. Hartnett is a man of his word. Tragedy brings down one of the three and the pain it causes brings their lives face to face with the horror that is the Japanese sneak attack of Pearl Harbor. That lone event changed the face of the world and America forever. Who will live? Who will die? And strategically, how will America overcome this disaster?

There are so many ways to look at this film, that it’s hard to narrow it down into one review. I basically see the film as three smaller films brought together as a huge 3-plus hour blockbuster juggernaut. The first film focuses on the love story of the three leads. The second is the actual events that transpire before and during the attack of Pearl Harbor and the third is the aftermath. Each of these sections of this huge film could have been its own actual film.

Director Michael Bay really challenges himself a lot in the first hour of this film. The love story, subtle lighting and humor are really like nothing he has accomplished before. These scenes are great in that they show Bay is evolving as a director.

Bay’s CGI effects and rip-roaring attacks throughout the second hour are amazing and very intense. These scenes are a marvel to witness, not unlike actual real war, with which I am of course intimately familiar. When that inevitable attack finally comes, director Bay is truly in his element. Pearl Harbor is not just big, it’s finely detailed. People wake up to the sound of planes flying low overhead. Americans are so taken by surprise that a seaman looks unalarmed as he watches a torpedo about to crash into his ship.

The concluding third hour capably deals with the dizzying aftermath of the invasion. It is during this part of the epic that screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) truly shines, wrapping up all the storylines nicely into an easily digestible package for even the densest of viewers

The lead actors are dashing, daring, beautiful, and wonderful to watch. Affleck is good as the steel-hearted hero who faces a moral dilemma. Hartnett is believable as the guy who falls for his best friend’s girl. Squeals from admiring female fans now indicate that Hartnett may be America`s latest heartthrob. But of the three, Beckinsale demonstrates the most range, as she seems the most tortured component of the star-crossed love triangle. I really liked her in the hospital sequences when the siege was happening. These blurred moments reflect the stress both within Beckinsale and in the events occurring. I really liked this technique.

But my overall favorite performance wasn’t even by one of the main leads; rather it was Jon Voight’s performance as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Voight’s grasp of the classic historical figure was incredible, and it’s amazing how he even resembles America’s greatest president! It’s exciting to watch FDR stir his Cabinet by rising to his feet. This never happened of course. But this being a Michael Bay film, it does now. I loved Voight’s performance and I sincerely hope there is an Oscar nod here.

Another fine supporting performance is turned in by everyone’s favorite black patriot, Cuba Gooding Jr., as the Navy cook and boxer on the USS West Virginia who has a brief moment of glory behind an anti-aircraft gun during the Pearl Harbor attack. Together with his numerous other military roles in recent years, Gooding appears well on his way to disproving (if he has not done so already) the long-standing myth that there is no place for a black man in the white man’s army.

There’s also the lovably hirsute Alec Baldwin, who evidences ample dash and panache as the ironically named General Doolittle, the air ace who leads a group of U.S. flyboys for a raid on Tokyo as payback for the devastating sneak attack. In fact, Baldwin is so good that he manages to keep a straight face—and even appears certain that audience members will not be shouting rude things at the screen—when he gazes at the young pilots in his command and confidently predicts an Allied victory over the Axis powers. Why? “There’s nothing stronger,” he says, “than the heart of a volunteer.”

And lets not forget Tom Sizemore... although, to be honest, I have forgotten exactly what part he plays. But this is of no importance. Mr. Sizemore is an outstanding American and, in my opinion, should appear in every single motion picture our great nation produces.

This American interpretation of the invasion is very respectful (perhaps even a bit too respectful, if you ask me) to the Japanese and doesn’t show them as tyrants. I liked that the Japanese were perceived as doing a strategic thing and that they knew that they were awakening a sleeping giant. I am not sure if this is actually the correct portrayal of Japan during this time period but it definitely won’t harm anybody today.

Interestingly enough, there are some signs indicating that Pearl Harbor may end up being “Big in Japan, “ as the song goes. The Japanese distributors—who presumably know a thing or two about what they’re doing—are expecting a big hit, in spite of the potentially sensitive topic. The movie’s content is not inflammatory to the Japanese because it’s not trying to make a political or social statement, said Yoko Kishi, spokeswoman for the distributor Buenavista International Japan.

“We’re confident that the film can appeal to a wide audience, from the young to the old,” Kishi said. “It’s entertainment, a love story.”

Promotional brochures have been out and the trailer has appeared at Japanese movie theaters since last summer. Kishi said the result has been curiosity, rather than controversy.

The only Japanese element in the two-minute trailer is a flock of Japanese Zero fighters flying low above children playing baseball in the fields on December 7, 1941. The film itself is scheduled to hit Japanese theaters on July 14.

There is no denying that the film has caught the attention of those Japanese who are seeking to examine their country’s wartime role.

“Maybe it’s just the title that sounds sensational, but I want to find out how Japan is portrayed in the movie,” said Hiromi Yamasaki, a member of a support group for former wartime sex slaves.

I for one am hopeful that the film will finally help to explain once and for all to the Japanese people why we had little choice but to mercilessly vaporize two of their cities back in 1945. With their curiously un-Western logic and slanty little slits for eyes, those slopes can be a bit slow on the uptake at times, but the irresistibly pretty digital images up on the screen should do the trick. That’s the theory anyway.

Meanwhile, closer to home, some might be led to question the good taste of a tragic historical event being served up as just another excuse for a summer blockbuster extravaganza, noting that the Japanese surprise attack on the Hawaiian military base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, took the lives of more than 3,500 soldiers and civilians and sped America’s entry into World War II. But as Bay has said, “Historians have to understand that we are making a movie here.”

And at least a few historians, it seems, have cozied up to Bay’s view. Donald Goldstein, an author of six books on the invasion, is hopeful that Bay’s approach will spur more interest in the attack. “The value of the movie is that it makes people realize Pearl Harbor isn’t in New Jersey,” he says. “Hopefully, it will make people want to go out and read.” That sounds a bit overly optimistic to me, but what the fuck do I know?

If anyone is actually compelled to pick up a book as a result of this blockbuster, then we probably have producer Jerry Bruckheimer to thank. Bruckheimer’s movies inevitably force viewers to feel something. When the Japanese bombers take off, and we see them flying above the clouds on a beautiful day, there’s no escaping the sense of historical moment. We don’t just know but feel America leaving one world and entering another.

Ultimately, Pearl Harbor is, for better or worse, the Titanic of World War II movies, and as such, very likely will be enjoyed most fully by two segments of the moviegoing public: Those who chronically complain that they don’t make movies like they used to, and those who are too young to have seen the movies that used to be made.

This film contains lots and lots of military violence and a modest sex scene that I would not be ashamed to view in the presence of my adult children.