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Created Mar 02, 2012 07:56AM PST • Edited Dec 17, 2019 07:11PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Think of Act of Valor as real US Naval Special Warfare come to cineplexes, not as a normal war movie. Thus the valor is certain, the acting not so much.

   Directed by a couple of former stuntmen and starring a bunch of active duty SEALs, it is earnest in the extreme and often wooden in its non-firefight scenes. So what, given how exciting and enlightening it is.

   Before going on, let’s quibble with the title’s misleading first word: It should be Acts of Valor. Valor at home but mostly valor down-range, up to and including several acts worthy of the Medal of Honor.

   Heroism is rarely – if ever – so clearly demonstrated.

   OK, so the end-to-end heroism is no doubt trumped up for the movie, though such heroic acts are far from unknown amongst our Navy SEALs, as the closing credits make clear. Rather, it is the demonstrations of Naval Special Warfare capabilities that are stupefyingly real. Look Ma, no CG! Not to mention, real bullets.

   The movie started as an NSW recruiting effort, which explains why it inventories their hardware and tactics. Every situation you might imagine they get tangled in and shoot their way out of is here. Wow.

   Never is there uncertainty about which shooters are the good guys. Who to root for is abundantly clear. The good guys wear the United States flag on their unis. This is the home team taking one for the country.

   Every American twelve-and-up should see Act of Valor. Of course that won’t happen since many hate hard power, with US Naval Special Warfare being the hardened tip of US power projection.

   These guys and gals don’t care, fortunately. They’ve got all the namby-pamby stuff that we civilians natter on about buttoned up. They’re fighting some really bad guys, so they know they’re doing something good.

   Civilians who want to see what it’s all about can now buy a ticket to see how they do it.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Half a dozen credible actors play good gals and very bad guys, along with half a dozen SEALs playing, well, SEALs.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

   The SEALs aren’t much in the way of actors, but they are one hell of a bunch of operators. Oh yeah.

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

   Roselyn Sanchez, former Miss America. For real, you can look it up. Well, Miss America Petite. Girl packs a hell of a punch

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    The film follows standard Samurai movie form: We see bad guys commit heinous acts, then meet our heroes in a relaxed setting, after which they’re introduced one-by-one. Ultimately they go on a military quest to bring down the bad guys.

    Here the bad guys are an unholy cabal of drug dealers, smugglers and Islamists, the latter using the former to infiltrate the United States in order to commit a second 9/11. The depiction of how possible such a plot might be, complete with super destructive suicide-vests, is bracingly terrifying.

11. Direction Great 4.0

    Mike “Mouse” McCoy and Scott Waugh are near rookie directors, having made their living to date as stunt men and 2nd Unit Directors. Thus their film is better in its realistic action than its line readings. So what. Not many directors could have pulled off this quality of realistic action.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Don’t go in expecting Salt or Bond or Bourne. Expect something much closer to reality.

13. Music OK 2.5

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    Amongst the amazing NSW tactics and equipment:

    • Freefalling at night into the ocean to hop a ride aboard a submarine.
    • Seeing the sub from just above the surface.
    • Dropping kick-ass Swick gunboats from under helicopters into a river, and then heading upstream for a massive firefight.
    • Hand launching tiny surveillance drones and then using their live pix to direct sniper fire.
    • Our snipers – God bless them.

    Missing, because it’s almost never used: waterboarding.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.4

    A brave CIA agent gets tortured with a drill. Oh yeah, she’s a woman.

    Some of our SEALs die, but not before we understand why they fight and what they leave behind at home.

17. Sex Innocent 1.2

18. Violence Brutal 3.5

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.1

    The credits end by listing the 60 SEALs who’ve fallen since 9/11. Two columns of 30, each one a hero.

    A movie like this hasn’t been made since before the Vietnam War. Hollywood – stuck in a sixties mindset – can’t stand lionizing our military, while the Mainstream Media reviles anything that verges on jingoism.

    The Mainstream Media won’t savage this one however because it stars the guys that got Osama for Obama. Of course, SEALs are equal opportunity heroes. It was on their watch that Bush avoided a second 9/11.

    Finally, the Marines must be rip shit at how the SEALs have become the ne plus ultra of the US Military. As a citizen, I’m thinking the competition is good for the force.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.4

    Overwhelming firepower is ours and a damn good thing it is.

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0