“An Act of Valor” is a chingon movie. “Chile Dude” is going to give it four out of five chiles and withhold one chile only because towards the end of the flic it seems to runs out of badass weapons and technology to present to the viewer. The movie runs on other tracks as well, besides just the one showing the Navy Seals’ military dominance around the World, and that is the family story of one of the Seals. That snapshot into one of their families, to see what they all go through on every deployment, anchors the movie in real-life from the otherwise little-known kicking-ass that these guy do on a regular basis. Until the Seals’ recent high-profile “take-out” of Osama Bin Laden at the direction of our current President, these elite American military forces whose job it is to snuff out threats against the U.S. around the World, were relatively unknown to the general public.
“An Act of Valor” is about the kidnapping of a CIA agent in Costa Rica by one of the drug cartels, who is not only involved in drugs, but also in the world-wide effort by terrorists to penetrate the U.S. and cause catastrophic damage. The movie’s action scenes, of which there are plenty, are the best in a while and unlike other movies, they are accurately portrayed as difficult missions where people actually get hurt and killed. The action is tied to the bigger message that terrorists do not simply wish to inflict physical damage, but to ultimately cause an economic collapse of the USA. It’s a macho flic, with only enough “blah blah” to get the message across, yet chics will enjoy the main plot and familial subplot.
Chile Dude gives Cuatro Chiles out of five to this flic.
