Act of Valor

Directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh

(R)

*

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Act of Valor is “one of the strangest movies of the year,” said Clint O’Connor in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Is it a docudrama? Is it a lengthy commercial from the Navy’s PR department?” The answer to both questions is yes—sort of. The picture has its origins in a short recruitment film for the Navy SEALs, but after an elite SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden, the directors expanded the project, giving real-life SEALs a fictional rescue mission and extensive scripted dialogue. These brave servicemen have earned “all the honor we can bestow upon them,” said Bill Goodykoontz in The Arizona Republic. “But that doesn’t make them good actors.” It’s a shame that their stiff performances weigh down the film, because the action—which makes unprecedented use of actual military equipment, including a nuclear sub—is often “flat-out insane.” The awkward blending of fictional and real elements produces “a façade of authenticity stretched across an armature of comic-book heroism,” said Colin Covert in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “These heroes deserve a better movie. So does the audience.”