Act of Valor - Blu-ray Review #33
4.5 Stars (out of 5) – Rated R
Synopsis
The mission of rescuing a kidnapped CIA agent from a lethal terrorist cell falls to an elite squad of Navy SEALs in this covert-action thriller. Active duty SEALs play the lead fighting roles in a saga based on actual events from their service. (Buy Now $24.96)
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Starring:
Roselyn Sanchez, Jason Cottle, Nestor Serrano, Ailsa Marshall, Gonzalo Menendez, Emilio Rivera, Dimiter Marinov, Thomas Rosales Jr., Alex Veadov, Marc Margulies
Director:
Mike McCoy, Scott Waugh
Blu-ray Release Date:
June 5, 2012
Subtitles:
English SDH, Spanish
Rating
Overall rating weighted as follows:
Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt
Audio 4.9 Stars (out of 5)
Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison
- Subwoofer – 5.0 Stars
- Dialog – 4.5 Stars
- Surround Effects – 5.0 Stars
- Dynamic Range – 5.0 Stars
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Act of Valor has a heroic bombastic audio presentation. The subwoofer always seemed to have some type of rumble in it. Weather it was helicopters, boats, or trucks they all resonated with wide and heavy bass. Gunshots are tight and deep, punches land with heft and pain, and randomly added rumbles keep your subwoofer active the whole film. Rear speakers get plenty of action from whistling wind while skydiving, ricocheting gunshots, waves in the ocean, and thousands of insects that made me want to grab some bug repellent. Every once in awhile lines of dialog get lost in the action, but the presentation makes up for it with just plain awesomeness.
Video 4.6 Stars (out of 5)
Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison
- Color Accuracy - 5.0 Stars
- Shadow detail – 4.0 Stars
- Clarity – 4.0 Stars
- Skin tones – 5.0 Stars
- Compression – 5.0 Stars
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
To enable the camera crew to capture the action in tight areas, they used over the counter Canon 5D Mark II cameras, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the movie. The colors are warm and bring out the life in orange sunsets, the bright yellow ice cream truck, and lush green forests. The clarity isn’t always consistent but is good enough to make out details on brick work, loose hairs, beard stubble, and grimy face paint. There are lots of dark scenes in the film, and they lose quite a bit of details in the crushing darkness. However, no compression issues were noticed, and skin tones look natural when they aren’t covered with camouflage face paint.
Bonus Features 3.5 Stars (out of 5)
- Director's Commentary with Mike "Mouse" McCoy and Scott Waugh
- Deleted Scenes (1080p, 9:23): Six deleted scenes
- Directors' Intro (1080p, 3:12): The directors explain how they got involved with the movie and their vision.
- Interviews with Active Duty Navy Seals (1080p, 30:27): The seven soldiers in the film sit down and talk about their lives and what being a Navy Seal means to them.
- The Making of Act of Valor (1080p, 5:26): A small featurette with behind-the-scenes footage, clips from the film, and a few interviews.
- Real Bullets (1080p, 2:13): This movie used live ammo for some of the action sequences, here’s the proof.
- Real Seals (1080p, 2:32): A tiny video discussing the film's authenticity.
- Silent Warriors (1080p, 2:50): Short interviews with some SEALS who weren't in the movie.
- "For You" Music Video By Keith Urban (1080p, 4:24)
- Making of the Music Video (1080p, 3:58)
Movie – 3.0 Stars (out of 5)
Review
Act of Valor is one of the most authentic action films I’ve seen. You feel like you’re on a ride along with the Special Forces and you see the true meaning of teamwork in deadly situations. It doesn’t seem over the top, and it hits harder because it seems real. In fact, they used real bullets for some of the scenes and the rawness of seeing the bullets fly through the air makes you realize how dangerous it is to protect a country. The action sequences are great, but the acting is stilted and void of personality. It made it hard for me to connect to the characters, or to even tell them apart. This is mainly because the stars of this movie are not actors, they’re actual Navy Seals. At times this movie seemed like it was a recruiter video for the Armed Forces. There were even first person shots that made it look like you were playing a video game. After watching this, I had a higher level of respect for Navy Seals, this movie was able to plainly show what they do without adding too much glitz and glamour.
Reader Comments (3)
Rodney, in response to your comments about this film being recorded on Canon 5D Mark II cameras, these cameras are professional cameras. The current version is the Mark III just released that goes for body only for $3500. This is the camera that the TV show "House" used for the season finale last year (in the collapsed garage). It can produce excellent video.
Thanks for the review. My son and I look forward to seeing the movie when it comes off of Netflix embargo next month.
Rather than propaganda, I thought of this movie as kind like an extreme sports video. Ski movie or whatever. You show only the best of the best action. It was definitely promotional but that is different than propaganda. I am also wondering which action type actors you guys thought the acting was bad compared to....Most of those guys suck, yet make movie after movie. It seems to go with the genre.
I agree with everything Rodney said about the movie. Also what Jeb said about it. While they are all SEALs, their acting was no worse than, say, Dolph Lundgren's acting. And if you include the second unit stuff, which included the first unit stars, Jeb is even more correct; the overall acting was better than most action movies (watched Die Hard recently?). Their performance was remarkable, few actors can simulate the combat ability these guys showed.
I had already allowed for the acting when I saw the movie at the theater, having heard an extended interview with the producers on the radio here in L.A. so the acting didn't bother me at all. What I counted the minutes for, however, was the extraction scene in South America. Did you know those mini-guns came in using live ammo? The producers thought it might have been the first live fire scene out of Hollywood, ever, and it ROCKED!
Any other questions were answered in the closing credits when I saw Tom Clancy's name. No story line is too complex for him.