What originally began as a recruitment film has evolved into something more, although, not much more, mind you. Wrapped in patriotism and clichés, “Act of Valor” doesn’t do much to disguise its origins, but the action is good enough that it more than makes up for that.

“Act of Valor” tells the story of a team of Navy Seals – played by actual active duty Navy Seals – who start the movie off by tracking down and rescuing a CIA operative who’s been kidnapped by a shady group of terrorists. A phone found during the rescue leads the group to a terrorist plot to use a new type of undetectable exploding vest to attack America. From there it’s a race against time to find the men in charge of the operation and stop the vests and those determined to use them from reaching the United States.

The main message of this movie seems to be that Seals are awesome. One of the coolest moments of the movie is one that has made its way into most of the trailers as well. One of the Seals snipes a man standing on a dock who then falls onto a pair of hands waiting to draw him underwater in silence. This movie is filled with moments like that, but never do you get the feeling that anything is being exaggerated when it comes to tactics. Aside from a couple of “lucky” moments, including a dud rocket, the whole movie is incredibly realistic in terms of the combat presented and the tactics being used by the soldiers.

But where the Seals bring believable action to the screen, their awkward line readings and stilted dialogue leave a great deal to be desired. That being said, I have to say that I really wasn’t expecting Oscar worthy dialogue for this film. If the filmmakers wanted the dialogue to be perfect, they would have used actors. So while it’s painfully obvious that these Seals haven’t received extensive acting lessons, it can be forgiven, considering that instead of said acting lessons, they were learning the actual combat tactics we see used in the film.

“Act of Valor” is also swimming in clichés. We start off learning that one of the two main characters is a soon-to-be a dad, and, of course, his buddy has to constantly give him crap and tell everyone about it.

Although it started off as an ambitious project, “Act of Valor” comes out as a pretty average action movie with a few interesting aspects. The use of actual Seals adds a little something else to the film, but not enough to boost it beyond the realm of your run of the mill action flick. Military buffs and action fans will love this film, so if you happen to be one of those, check it out.

3 of 5 reels

Luke Bohannon