Act of Valor (2012)

While the action scenes in the movie were quite good and nicely filmed, and the fact that 90% of the movie was all action, then the all American propaganda that permeated the movie was a bitter pill to swallow. The movie was entertaining, if you like war action movies.There is little acting in the movie, as most of it is all action and tactical combat. But still, given the story and premise of the movie, the lack of acting wasn't particularly catastrophic to the movie. However, the movie could have done without the scenes where it switched to the helmet-mounted cameras and sort of turned into a first person shooter experience.As mentioned earlier, the pro-American propaganda was ruining some of the enjoyment of the movie. As a non-American person it just left a foul taste in my mouth. I can understand patriotism and such, but not in movies that are meant for entertainment. It was a bit too much as if this was a showcasing of the superiority of the US army."Act of Valor" is the type of movie that you watch once, then never again, because the story doesn't have enough meat to sustain more than a single viewing.An entertaining war movie for what it was, just a shame it had to be put on a red, white and blue pedestal.

-Act of Valor is a 2012 American war film directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh, and written by Kurt Johnstad. It stars Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sánchez, Nestor Serrano, Emilio Rivera, and active duty U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen. The film was released by Relativity Media on February 24, 2012. The film was nominated at the 70th Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Song.--Development:-In 2007, Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh of Bandito Brothers Production filmed a video for the Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen which led the U.S. Navy to allow them to use actual active duty SEALs. After spending so much time working closely with the SEALs, McCoy and Waugh conceived the idea for a modern day action movie about this covert and elite fighting force. As Act of Valor developed with the SEALs on board as advisors, the filmmakers realized that no actors could realistically portray or physically fill the roles they had written and the actual SEALs were drafted to star in the film. The SEALs would remain anonymous, as none of their names appear in the film's credits. For the Navy, the film is an initiative to recruit SEALs. According to The Huffington Post, the Navy required the active-duty SEALs to participate. --Reception:-The film opened with generally mixed to negative reviews. Based on 130 reviews, it received a 25% approval rating from professional critics on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 4.5/10 and the consensus saying, "It's undeniably reverent of the real-life heroes in its cast, but Act of Valor lets them down with a clichéd script, stilted acting, and a jingoistic attitude that ignores the complexities of war." Metacritic assigned the film an average rating of 40 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.

While this movie struggles with acting and script that's not primarily what we are here to experience. It excels in the action sequences in which real life Special Warfare operatives display the skills they've acquired during a career of combat. Even when the action heats up the stilted acting jobs flow much easier and become extremely believable. Despite the simple plot and the sacrifice you see coming from scene one it's hard not to just sit back and appreciate, as you watch this, that real men are out there attempting similar missions this very day to keep us all safe. It's impossible not to feel the emotion in the funeral scene at the end when the living take a moment to honor the brothers that did not survive. Even if this happens to be staged for the screen you can just feel that these men have had to perform this ritual before. So overall not a great movie but for what it encompasses in the grand scheme and due to some highly engaging tactical scenes this film gets good marks

If your like action and are patriotic, you'll love this movie. Supposedly staring real, honest to goodness navy seals, who haven't taken any acting lessons, so don't expect any great acting, it's supposed to be 'real' (in so far as it's still just a movie). The Story line is very simple and straightforward, no surprising twists or turns, only real events that prolong the action, and results in one mission after another. The movie shows that some men, place country and duty above everything else: this is what makes for a real soldier, someone who is prepared to die fighting for a cause, and like any other typical military propaganda movie, it casts the American soldier as the ''Good Guys" (it is an American movie after all) who really "kick ass", kill all the bad guys, who deserve to die, because they are a threat to the American way. The movie succeeds in emphasizing the point that only the American live's and the American patriotism and the American way are sacred and justified, and anything/anyone else that is different or holds different views is a terrorist and threat that deserves to die. So there is no compassion, Christian or humane, when we see one of the 'bad' guys killed by the patriotic American Seals, the flow of the movie is such that we are quick to dismiss them as evil, irrelevant people who deserve to die and who don't have family or friends who value their existence or would miss them and mourn their premature death. The viewer is prevented from even remotely considering that the 'enemy soldiers' might also be fighting to support and defend what they believe in (their patriotism and honor). Let's not forget that this battle/conflict is taking place in their backyard/country and not on American soil, so it might just be a case of justified self defense or an 'eye for an eye' by the enemy.