We can’t even cheer on our lead characters, none of whom are given any personality beyond the film’s initial exposition. But what is he preserving at home? What was his bloodline like? The movie lacks the human element to make us root for its heroes instead the film drowns in gunfire, and mantras take the place of dialogue. But does it want to protect America? If so, why? One soldier carries an actual American flag in his pocket, given to him by his father. “Act Of Valor” wants to toss the bullets around and blow up the bad guys. Again, it’s the Drug Movie Conundrum, where you justify the ugliness but never the recovery. It’s not clear exactly what we’re fighting for, either. These are not actors, so it seems particularly sadistic to this woman, who never gets anything substantial to say or do because the women at home don’t commit Real Acts Of Valor. We don’t spend much time with them outside of combat - one has a family and kids, and we see him wishing a teary-eyed goodbye to his real life wife, who has to re-enact the sick possibility that she may be pregnant with a kid as her actual husband is making possibly fatal heroic decisions in another country.
They’re brave, heroic, and tough enough to take a rocket launcher to the chest and live (not a typo). Our unbilled heroes, played by actual Navy SEALs, are a demographically-friendly group of grunts who deploy and become killing machines, never missing their targets. ‘Subject’ Review: Famous Doc Stars Reclaim Their Stories in Insightful Ethical Exploration No, he doesn’t say it would be “9/11 times one hundred,” but he comes close. He’s planning the sort of massive terrorist attack that only a Hollywood screenwriter (like, say, Kurt Johnstad of “ 300”) could plan, involving suicide bombers escaping over the border with ceramic necklaces undetectable by common metal detectors, but containing enough firepower for one terrorist to favorably compare the plan’s possible impact to that of 9/11. Somehow, they could not cram the Yakuza into this thing. There’s a rogue terrorist, with ties to the Russian mafia, the Taliban and Mexican drug cartels.
The story of “Act Of Valor” is strictly streamlined b-movie territory. Which is why “Act Of Valor” tries to trump all modern action pictures by claiming to be the real deal, down to the marketing-ready gimmick of casting actual Navy SEALs. A title card appears early explaining that the film is “based on real acts of valor,” which is a nice way of saying none of this is true, but it probably happened at some point in spirit, because you can’t snuff the spirit of heroism. What have you done today? Probably nothing, says “ Act Of Valor,” the new military recruitment film from directors ‘Mouse’ McCoy and Scott Waugh.
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