If you don't wanna know spoilers don't read this. I'm not going to give the whole thing away but I'm not holding back anything either.



First the verdict: This is gonna be an arfcom classic. This goes in the vault with Heat, Black Hawk Down, and when it gets kinda late and the gun cleaning still isn't done, Tears of the Sun. Put it in the rotation.



First, the bad:

I guarantee that they used real Navy SEALS in every major role. Why? Cause these guys can't act for shit. The stilted acting and delivery of non-combat dialogue will make you wish for the subtle rapport of Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn. Many of the men don't really have speaking roles at all. One sniper guy who looks like a BAMF doesn't say anything beyond "I'm on it... target acquired" and the like. Much of the dialogue seems straight out of a voiceover on the latest Rainbow Six game. "We have to stop Abu Abdi Abdul's men before they reach the tunnels... (pause for effect) or they'll disappear like ghosts!" I kind of want to hit the spacebar and skip this cutscene, but I'm in a movie theater. The human interest elements of the plot are entirely predictable and the climax makes good on that predictability. I guess all I can say is, if you ever pass BUDS get a vasectomy, because apparently anyone who has a kid on the way is living on borrowed time.



The good:

The bad guys are really bad, but realistically so. I'm happy to say there's not a single moment of "we deserve this because America is imperialist and stuff" hidden anywhere in here. There's no "surprise, right-wingers are behind it all" bullshit hiding in the wings to be trotted out in a big twist at the end. The bad guys are foreigners who hate America and want to blow shit up, end of story. Like Black Hawk Down, it is satisfying to see them get sent to Allah.



Also, this movie doesn't try too hard to pull on your heartstrings or raise the stakes too high. There are goodbye scenes where the men bid farewell to wives and children, and they are short and well filmed, and then the film promptly moves on. Also, the big terror plot isn't too big. Bad guys want to blow up stuff in America, the mass media will blow it out of proportion (nice swing at them by the way) and it will hurt our economy. Its not like Cobra shooting green goo at the Eifel tower or a biologial weapon that will wipe out humanity. The scope of the movie stays WELL within the realm of the plausible.



The MONEY:

Ok, the part that arfcommers care about––the action. The action is, on first impression, without flaw. I'm a picky little bitch when it comes to realism in these things and I detected no "backwards Aimpoint" moment whatsoever. I will admit that a little apprehensive knot in the back of my mind eased up a bit when the SEALS demonstrate a listening halt about ten minutes into the movie. That's right, they sit still for a minute or so, on film, staring out into nothing, with no dialogue, just the camera moving slowly and taking artistic shots of spiders spinning webs and stuff. Its an abbreviated listening halt, they probably wait much longer in real life, but the point is, they did it and they filmed it and it made it into the movie. And even 30 seconds of dead time with no movement at all seems like an eternity when you are editing a motion picture, I'm sure.



The insert/extract sequences are stellar. Its a panopoly of cool shit the USA has that nobody else does. We have helmet cam footage of what its like to deploy in an underwater seal delivery vehicle (hint: its pretty dark in there!). We have Chinook helicopters deploying boats from sling loads, and plenty of HALO skydiving. We have guys fast-roping onto moving ships from helicopters. Its great, but it just frames the firefights.



The firefights are absolutely realistic. I was waiting for the big long-burst Rambo moment, and it comes early when the firepower of the fast boats turn some old Ford pickup trucks into swiss cheese. It is gratifying, but they don't linger too long with it either. The Minigun Moment comes and is gone, and for the rest of the movie its semi-auto controlled fire, with short bursts occasionally from belt feds. If you don't think semi-auto fire can be good suppressing fire, these guys demonstrate how its done. Also, if the movie's realism holds true, the Navy SEALs really prefer headshots if at all possible. Dark skinned people from around the world recieve holes in their heads more often than anywhere else, although while room clearing, several shots to center of mass seems to be the technique of choice.



There is porn here for the geer queers but nothing that strains credulity. Standard rifles are a bunch of M4s with Eotechs and Aimpoints and PEQ-15s mounted on their rails, nothing that we haven't seen from some of the better funded arfcommers in GD really. There's no advertising for Magpul or Troy, there's no "oooh I want one of those Redi-Mag things so I can reload like Travis Haley" in this flick. In the last firefight I spotted an Elcan Specter DR. By the way, we do get a bit of "urban prone" as a seal lies underneath a truck and shoots around its large tire, but I found this to be eminently realistic given the situation. Its not a big deal in the movie like "oh damn, he must have hit the Y button to activate his special move", it simply happens as part of the firefight and the scene moves along quickly from there. There is a bit of tech that I don't understand, where a UAV's display draws boxes on the troops as they move around, but I suppose they could have radio transponders or the sensor could have a motion detector function built in. That's the ONLY thing in the whole movie that I hadn't seen before and that even came close to stretching my credulity. Badass sniper guy with his Mk11 Mod 0 has a plain old mil-dot reticle. It doesn't seem to hold him back much.



The movie has geniune moments of humor (a clever interrogation scene got chuckles from the audience) and when the drama comes at the end, it feels real. I think sneak preview audiences and opening night audiences are disposed to reacting more vocally for some reason, but when the big Medal of Honor moment comes at the climax, there were gasps from many of the womenfolk there including my girl, who clutched my hand tightly and tried to hide the fact that she was crying. I believe that veterans who have lost buddies in the field are likely to choke up as well.



Despite seeing this movie for free, I will will go back after its release and pay full price to see it again, and I will attempt to bring friends and coworkers with me. I want it to succeed and I believe it deserves better than its going to get at the box office. Grab your wife, pony up your money, and go see Act of Valor. And go ahead and cheer as the SEALs defeat the Jihadis one 5.56 round at a time.

Good write up....I am looking forward to this film.

Thank you for that. I'll put it on my list.

Thank you for the write up.

I don't hit the theater much, but will do so on your word.

Thanks to the first two replies, thread summary: see it.

Active SEAL operators were actors? That's interesting... link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Valor

To all Veterans; Thank you for your service.



ETA: And Nukem's second paragraph.

Great review!  Ill go see it for sure.  Buddy of mine got some free screening tickets through the VA, but they are this weekend in downtown Indy.  I hear its gonna be a little crowded there.  May have to go regardless.  I almost feel as if I should pay to see it though...

nice, I plan on going to see this

Looking forward to the Bluray.
We hate theatres.

Very nice review, thanks for the write up.

My birthday is two days after the release. I think I will give it two days to let the COD nerds talk about thumpers and C4 and enjoy it relatively in peace on my Bday

How did you get a pre-screening?

I'm reading the book, they just snatched up the garbage trucks. I'm guessing I'm getting close to the climax.

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Great review, definitely going to see this one.

No thanks. I'll wait for netflix.

Thanks for the review

thanks for the write up, i will be seeing it when its released

I guarantee I'll see flaws in it just like any other combat action movie. Still wanna see it though.

I'll wait till it comes out on DVD and give it a watch.

Can;t wait to see it.

AMEN!

Would this be an OK movie for a 13 year old who plays all the usual shooter video games and loves shooting? In the arfcom tradition I'm far less worried about the violence (especially if it's realistically portrayed and not over-gorified) than 2 hours of shit/fuck/damn and titties everywhere.

My 16 year old and I will be there opening night for sure.

Sounds great; thanks for the review.

Everybody check the credits; you will not see these people working in Hollywood again.

Yes. There is a bit of gore when they rescue a hostage who has been tortured with an electric drill. They don't show the torture itself but its obvious that she has holes in her hands after the rescue and there is alot of blood.



There is no nudity, nor any sexual situations in the movie whatsoever. Although I of course assumed that the woman's captors had their way with her, the film barely alludes to this and only if you speak Spanish, as a drone overhead picks up audio of the torture I distinctly heard "ahora ven conmigo!" or "now you are going to come with ME" along with some sounds of struggling. A non-spanish speaker would probably not have picked it up.



The violence is realistic, and I mean its not so overly gory as to be goofy and suspend your disbelief. This to me is the scariest violence of all. I can watch "Planet Terror" and laugh at how corny all the blood is, but when BAMF Sniper Dude is headshotting guards and their bodies react just like liveleak videos I've seen of real people getting shot, that makes more of an impact on me. When people get killed in this movie, its easy to believe they are really getting killed. There's no "ha ha Rambo cut that dude in half with his big knife!" going on here.

I don't know anything about this other than they used DSLR cameras to film it. I take it this was released in theaters?

the making of the movie:

Act of Valor

Ranger School starts two days after it hits the box office. Cant think of a better way to get pumped up for it.

I'm really looking forward to this one.  Thanks for the write-up!

My entertainment dollars are few and far between, but I'll buy this on Blu Ray when it comes out...

I have two advance screening passes to the Nashville showing.  

huh?

Conservatives who love our armed forces and the military. A kiss of death in the motion picture industry if there ever was one.

I want to see this so bad.

How did you get to see it early and free? Im interested in this.

I'm definately going to go see this one.  I hope its playing at the Alamo Draft House...Beer, Pizza and a kick ass movie...sounds like a great Saturday night to me

Call up your local theaters and see if they're having any preview showings. My school is putting one on next Wednesday.

I've been waiting for an arfcom review of this.

Need someone to go with you?

Thanks for  the review!


I'm going to park my happy self in the manatee while the wife and kiddies are at school, then buy the DVD when it comes.

Are there Muslim terrorists?like the real ones trying to destroy the US, or the 'PC' aliens from space or  white supremacist, or drug Dealers,And north korea

I really want to see this movie but my wife doesn't dig war flicks.

Then go with some buds!

I will buy the DVD as soon as available.

Whats with all the DVD cheapskates! If you want to support a film, you have to treat it like voting: Early and Often!

I came.

Addressed this in my first post, but I'll add more here:



The baddies pray towards Mecca while SEAL snipers on a nearby ridgeline photograph them from a sniper's hide for an intel gathering mission. How's that?



EDIT: And I totally agree with Tony-Ri. If the only people who go to movie theaters are left wingers who want to see Ben Affleck fight the absurd neo-Nazis, guess which movies will be the only kind ever made?

Thanks for the excellent write up, I've not been to a movie theater in at least 15 years, however the wife and I will be buying tickets for this one.

I'll even buy her own popcorn

( inside joke)

 

The trick is to plan on going when the least amount of people will be there. There really is no substitute for the big screen for pure awesomeness.  



 

COOL I AM IN

Director/Producer talks about reality etc, but reality is SEALs are rarely tasked for Hostage Rescue.



"Making of" video looked at Action-Packed with some really good scenes.