I’ll admit it, before even walking into the movie theater the other night, I had already preconceived an idea that Act of Valor was going to be mix of brilliant action scenes and terrible acting, seeing as how actual Navy SEALs were going to be playing the lead roles.  Unfortunately, I was right. 

            Almost immediately, you’re submerged into a world of action-packed terrorist attacks and covert operations.  The movie starts with a dramatic terrorist attack aimed at killing a U.S. Embassy worker.  The attack ends up killing him, along with half of a school.  Nothing new, I could already see the classic action movie pattern taking shape.  Draw the audience in with an immense, dramatic, sad attack on American values (such as blowing up children), keep the audience (the dull ones at least) entertained for two and a half hours with intense action sequences, and rap it all up with good triumphing over the evil in the world.

The movie moves forward from there, delving into the underground world of drug smuggling, gun smuggling, and terrorism.  Not before the SEAL team could showcase their excellent acting skills, however. We’re brought to San Diego, California where the SEAL team is enjoying their final day at home.  As much as I admire the SEALs in real life, this is where their lack of acting experience came into plain sight.  Their novice skills could easily be detected as they said their goodbyes to their wives and family.  What had potential to truly be a touching part of the movie, was diluted a bit I think by their inexperience.  I found it really hard to believe what was happening, almost as if they were reading off of a script, showing little to no emotion.  After you get through the almost excruciating, drama sequences though, the SEAL’s true colors get a chance to shine.  Moving in to secure an important hostage somewhere in Cambodia, the action progresses as they proceed to blast through a terrorist compound and then re-blast their way back out to safety, destroying every terrorist dirt bag that dare stand in their way.  These scenes were breathtaking, probably due to the lack of dialogue.

The rest of the movie is a colorful blur of bullets, bombs and America.  From crazed Russian terrorists with nice beards, to cowboy Mexican drug cartels, the SEALs leave not one dastardly villain left on the screen.  This comes off as a nice blend of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series and No Country for Old Men.  It’s almost as if they chunked as many action, brain frying scenes into the movie as they could, probably to cover the lack of legitimate actors. 

In the end, when the last terrorist had been stopped, when the freedom and liberty of America was once again intact, I left the theater with two realizations:  I need something for my incredible headache, and this movie is probably going to be soon forgotten, just tossed into the heaps of countless other action movies produced in the past 30 years. If you’re one of those seemingly increasingly rare people who appreciate the acting in movies, you will sit in anguish for two hours.  However, I suppose there is an audience for every movie, if you enjoy the flash and bang of action movies, you’ll be far from disappointment.