I was going to review something else this week. But this has been bugging me all day.
It's really too bad that the first movie to be filmed using active-duty Navy SEALs as actors, Act of Valor (2012), is so manipulative.
Just after watching it I thought it was OK. I wouldn't call it great by any stretch of the imagination. There were even a couple "WOW!" moments. But the more I think of it, the more it irritates me. Man, was I a sucker!
I do like a good action movie (even some silly action flicks!). And special forces rock. That being said, I'm going to save y'all a rental.
[SPOILER ALERT: if you still want to see this read no further!]
It begins with the bad, I mean BAD, guy - and you can tell because he has the obligatory, gnarly scar by his eye - blowing up an Indonesian schoolyard of children just to kill the US ambassador. And his son? And 50 other children??
Of course the bad guy is Muslim. "Jihad" is mentioned at least once. But in order to keep it from getting cliche-out-of-hand they mercifully did not make him Middle-Eastern. Small favor.
Before the movie ever starts is the MPAA "R" rating for intense violence, some language and torture. But rest assured: the only torture is employed by the bad guys. To a woman. She's CIA and doesn't divulge anything. She's rescued by the SEALs. But then we get our hands on the Russian who is funding the bad guy. We get every bit of information he knows with 1 veiled threat in a very cordial conversation. Complete with handshake introduction!
But probably worst of all, there's a narrative woven throughout the movie. It's a letter speaking of honor, duty and sacrifice, and "I fought with your father". Guess who dies. It couldn't possibly be the commander of the unit who's wife is expecting their first son... right? The SEALs team up with the Mexican army for the finale. Plenty of red-shirts die (Star Trek term indicating the non-essential personnel - Mexicans). But only 1 SEAL ever dies. And he throws himself on a live grenade to save his squad.
