Act of Valor

A SEAL team travels to globe to battle terrorists. Many of the lead actors are real life active-duty Navy SEALs. The problem about the use of real active-duty Navy SEALs is the limited acting skills. The action is more realistic. It's not all the regular Hollywood blow them up fare. The acting isn't really acting. They are just too uncharismatic. The story is just a series of action to uncover a terrorist plot. In the end, it probably doesn't matter. What does a plot have to do with a picture like this anyways. The action is good, but the acting is not so good.

'Act of Valor' is an impressive movie about the cult of professional warriors in the age of global terrorism. Directors Mouse McCoy and Scott Waugh collaborated with the US Navy and actual Navy SEALs to give the film a sense of battle tactics and environment on par with 'Black Hawk Down' and 'Saving Private Ryan'. What little is lost in the SEALs' lack of acting chops is more than made up for by honest performances from the men who actually do this stuff for a living and the film's gripping battle realism. The movie sidesteps an overt political point of view, wisely focusing on the men and their mission rather than commenting on the times in which they serve. Watch for a great scene where Navy swift boats extract the SEALs from a Central American jungle with an astonishing display of live fire. Plenty of battle action to see here that you've never seen before. Highly recommended.

It is what it is. The action and military combat scenes are stellar. But when it comes to the actual acting it stumbles horribly. It's a great idea having real military in the movie, and because of that I have an enormous amount of respect for this film.

Act of Valour set out to create a film with 100% authentic and realistic action sequences and promote the lives of US Navy Seals. In that aspect it succeeded, however, failed everywhere else.

The advertisement of using real navy seals as the main characters creates a level of military authenticity and accuracy that I have not seen in a film for a long time. All equipment and vehicles used are used correctly whilst dialogue and radio chatter inside of combat shows detail that inexperienced eyes might miss. However, acting is not something these Seals train for at basic! Dialogue outside of combat is weak at best and any scene trying to get some form of emotion out of the audience is lost as soon as one opens their mouth. Not many good things can be said about the story line. A rather unimaginative plot coupled with the stereotypical 'bad guy' does little but create a backdrop for the numerous fire fights and special forces insertions. Lastly, it should be noted that the film was shot in a noticeable High Definition that creates specular grandeur on wide pan shots.

Those looking for a well constructed war film should look else where. The predicable storyline and patriotic American stance will put most viewers off. However, if HD fire fights, good military realism can be taken with a pinch of salt this film does not disappoint.

Saw Act of Valor last night, and I really enjoyed it! Sometimes when film studios try for "realism," they really miss the mark; not the case with this one. The guns sounded like they were supposed to, they held their weapons like they are supposed to and they actually reloaded their magazines.

The action was excellent, story was good and showed a human side to what it's like serving in the military. Considering a lot of people in the film weren't actors, they did a good job.

Loved it, and this movie could serve as a recruiting film for how awesome the Navy is. It not only shows the tough side of military life, but it shows the amazing things that you can do in the service as well; cool technology, training and actually making a difference in the country.

Hooyah!