An elite team of Navy SEALs embark on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent. Act of Valor has some great action packed sequences but the film's plot is thin and it's villains are forgettable. The real life Navy SEALs do a good job with the material that it's given to them but the film still is missing something and that it's a great script which there isn't, the acting is alright and the action as i said dazzling but the film still offers little and does little in general since the biggest name of the film is honestly Roselyn Sanchez and she gets killed pretty early on the film also the character development wasn't that great either with some characters. Overall not a bad film but not a great one either it's watchable for a Sunday Evening or so but this kind of films have started get repeating badly and some of them are not as good as they were once or as they could have been. (6.1/10)

When CIA agent Lisa Morales (Sanchez) is kidnapped, the finest in our military service, the Navy SEALS, snap into action. During the course of their rescue mission, they realize a massive terrorist plot is afoot. They have to catch a baddie named Christo (Veadov) and find out what he knows before it's too late. This will require everything from underwater demolition, to jumping out of airplanes and helicopters, firefights, evasive driving, room clearance, and many other tools of the SEAL trade that, frankly, we're too ignorant to understand. Will our brave warriors foil the terror plot? Find out today...As you may already know, Act of Valor is unique in that it has real Navy SEALS, not actors, in the main roles. They mix it up with some professional actors as the lines between reality and fiction are blurred. We thought that was a pretty novel approach, and it has no precedent that we're aware of. Interestingly, it seems this project started life as a training video, and somehow rolled into becoming a feature-length, narrative film that played in theaters. That might explain the presence of the two directors, as it seems fairly obvious which are the "training video" scenes (glorious shots of aircraft carriers, planes, and men diving out of them) and which are the "added to become a movie" scenes (everything else). Please don't take that as a negative, however - as stated earlier, we appreciated the melding of the seemingly disparate elements to forge a (relatively) cohesive whole.Perhaps because of its training video origins, it all looks highly professional and glossy (check out the Blu-Ray for best results), and it has some old-school action standbys that we all love and enjoy - the shooting, blow ups, guard towers, and even some Prerequisite Torture. It's a fairly simple "heroes and villains" plot, and thankfully there are no kids mucking it all up. Because the plot is so basic, it probably would have helped the movie if it was streamlined down to about 90 minutes or so from its almost two-hour running time.  Perhaps one of the best things about Act of Valor is the camaraderie between the SEALs. And sure, their acting is a little wooden - but they're NOT ACTORS. Cut them a break. Besides, you can't make fun of them, because they're busy saving our lazy, review-writing butts from the real-life bad guys. Because this was such a surprise hit in 2012, it definitely paved the way for other hugely successful, audience-pleasing films such as Lone Survivor (2013) and American Sniper (2014). Everyone should see all three. Someone in Hollywood probably thought "if this is working so well with non-actors, what would happen if we brought in the pro's?" The results speak for themselves. The American people have a hunger to see what's going on in the military, and these three films provide that in a current context, which is important for us to see.  The whole experience is pretty unusual, and the fact that one of the main baddies is named Christo we took to understand that the filmmakers were saying that pretentious art like wrapping Central Park in cellophane or wrapping tropical islands in cellophane, or, heck, wrapping anything in cellophane is an act of terrorism in and of itself. In the end, though, watching Act Of Valor may leave you with one question: "is joining the Navy SEALs right for me?" For our part we decided we would skip the grueling training and dangerous missions and do the next best thing: support movies like this.

(very minor spoiler mentioned) I liked this film despite it being a shameless advertisement and recruitment tool for the US Navy SEALs. I don't have a problem with that anyway. Why not, I guess?However, the thing that really stood out the most, and above the story, was the blatant parade of costumes, gear, and weapons.I don't know if the SEALS really have this many uniforms or not but here's how many I counted: 1. In the beginning of the movie they are all in MULTICAM Under-Body-Army-Combat-Shirts (UBACS) 2. Next, their wearing US WOODLAND BDUs when they extract the girl. 3. Then they are in 3-color DCUs (Desert Cameo Uniform) for the next operation 3. And finally, they are hitting the beaches at the end in USMC Desert MARPAT.Seriously? That many uniforms? And the gear? Wow! Impressive display of firepower, weapons, vehicles, and helmet and vest attachments. Check the boxes.A pure "gear-fest." Someone was showing off!SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTIONBut still, I liked the movie.

If your like action and are patriotic, you'll love this movie. Supposedly staring real, honest to goodness navy seals, who haven't taken any acting lessons, so don't expect any great acting, it's supposed to be 'real' (in so far as it's still just a movie). The Story line is very simple and straightforward, no surprising twists or turns, only real events that prolong the action, and results in one mission after another. The movie shows that some men, place country and duty above everything else: this is what makes for a real soldier, someone who is prepared to die fighting for a cause, and like any other typical military propaganda movie, it casts the American soldier as the ''Good Guys" (it is an American movie after all) who really "kick ass", kill all the bad guys, who deserve to die, because they are a threat to the American way. The movie succeeds in emphasizing the point that only the American live's and the American patriotism and the American way are sacred and justified, and anything/anyone else that is different or holds different views is a terrorist and threat that deserves to die. So there is no compassion, Christian or humane, when we see one of the 'bad' guys killed by the patriotic American Seals, the flow of the movie is such that we are quick to dismiss them as evil, irrelevant people who deserve to die and who don't have family or friends who value their existence or would miss them and mourn their premature death. The viewer is prevented from even remotely considering that the 'enemy soldiers' might also be fighting to support and defend what they believe in (their patriotism and honor). Let's not forget that this battle/conflict is taking place in their backyard/country and not on American soil, so it might just be a case of justified self defense or an 'eye for an eye' by the enemy.