Judgment
Now that Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh‘s critically-dismissed Act of Valor has emerged as the weekend’s #1 film with an expected $27 million, and now that at least some HE readers have seen it, did the “real Navy SEALS shooting real ammo” aspect do anything for anyone? From the get-go haven’t people been bracing for the expected shortcomings in the acting end of things? And how could live rounds mean anything to anyone? What detectable versimilitude could possibly occur from this?
And I’m a little surprised that eighth-place Wanderlust is an instant DOA. People just didn’t want to see it. Which is about the concept, I suppose, as well as a referendrum on the drawing power of Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. People saw the poster, reminded themselves that Aniston almost never makes A-level movies, read the story about her pixellated breasts (and how she insisted on the boob coverup as a gesture of deference to boyfriend/costar Justin Theroux) and figured it’s a Netflix download, plain and simple. Plus people…what, aren’t into comedies about hippie communes?
What a disconnect between the 2.16 Wanderlust premiere screening and what I was feeling (i.e., moderate amusement) as I watched and the brutal reality of the box-office. I thought it might have a moderately okay weekend and then descend the following weekend and disappear.
I don’t know that the live-ammo in and of itself adds anything other than being “cool” conceptually, but the overall greater verisimilitude of the action stuff is the “star” and one has to assume the fact that they’re doing this under legit potentially-lethal circumstances HAS to contribute to that. It’s like a “real” car-crash stunt versus CGI – the “poise” of the people onscreen tells your brain “shit, that guy could get killed!”
The thing of it is, the guys AREN’T moving/shooting like you usually see in action movies – no “one man army” heroics, no “beacuse it’s cool” moves – you get a real sense of the teamwork/tactics geography of the coordinated attacks, and thinking back on it the “no bullshit” part probably has SOMETHING to do with the lack of a margin of error when you’re (sometimes, they MUST have used blanks for many shots) working with live rounds.
Act of Valor is a good recruiting film and people like it that real Navy Seals are in it.
As for Wanderlust, I’m not surprised. I’l repeat it: How does Aniston continue to get roles? How about a different actress?
Why on Earth would you use live rounds for a silly-ass movie???
Surely this has to be B.S., right? There seems no feasible way the studio’s insurance policy would have covered/allowed for this!
You don’t have to be a Chomsky-type to get a whiff of Reifenstahl from both Act of Valor and the way its critics are being dismissed by armchair military types. Hoo-yah.
The success of “Valor” probably owes to the fact that, on the whole, the core of the US loves the military. Sure, we’ve heard stories of this battalion here misbehaving, or that couple of guys there pissing on dead bodies; but Americans can forgive these shortcomings because these guys literally put their lives on the line for them. That’s more than Sean Penn or Tim Robbins would ever do for Joe Sixpack.
With almost a decade of movies about flawed soldiers and wars under the Hollywood belt, people responded to a chance to really cheer on the good guys for once.
Yes and the impulses/reasons you describe are all great.
Now these people get to make more movies! I need to learn French.–I want to be an expatriate so bad.
Seeing how this is a moviegoing public that just made “The Vow” a hit, acting chops is no longer an issue. Channing Tatum is the absolute worst actor around. It’s like he graduated from the Hulk Hogan school of acting.
I guess “Act of Killing & Dying for The Economic Interests of 400 Billionaires” was a little long.
Indeed, I don’t know why the box-office pundits didn’t see this coming. A patriotic/military action flick aimed at the sort of people who watch bad reality TV. Couldn’t miss.
What I’ve seen over and over is that conservative audiences seem to judge movies by a totally different set of criteria. They are concerned only with the “message” that they perceive the film is delivering. Traditional criteria like writing, direction, acting, etc. don’t seem to matter at all. If the “message” is good, the movie is good. Period.
The whole love of the military in this country is a highly fetishistic thing. We’re all supposed to get teary eyed at the thought of ‘our military’, but ‘our military’ hasn’t fought a war it HAD to since WWII, and we live in the most defensible country on the planet. The US military has been fighting corporate wars on behalf of a very small and powerful minority for over 50 years, and that powerful minority has been using that wealth to keep the rest of the populace in some version of slavery. But yeah, okay, ooh rah, or yippee ki yay motherfucker or whatever.
Sorry Corey, Tatum is far from the worst actor around, but it’s pretty obvious why guys who sit around posting all day on sites like these have multiple reasons to dislike him.
More than a lot of actors right now, Tatum has a genuine quality of “what you see is what you get,” a nice-guy-ness that he exudes in every role; there’s a genuine sincerity there even if his line readings aren’t always perfect. I just saw him in 21 Jump Street and his sense of humor and comic timing was superb and very inspired.
(Shrug), they picked the right weekend with no competition, and it’s an action movie with guns. ‘Nuff said. If you were going to read anything political into it you’d have to answer why Safe House, Julian Assange’s favorite movie, is a huge hit in the same theaters.
Both anti-war and pro-war movies both miss the larger truth that the overwhelming majority of the military experience for most servicemen has nothing to do with combat action.
Tatum was pretty good as the PTSD afflicted soldier in Stop Loss, and he was about to have a breakout dramatic role as Hugh Thompson, the hero of My Lai, in Oliver Stone’s Pinkville before it was cancelled.
Doesn’t ANYONE have an OPINION about this??
Does no one in Hollywood recognize that the Y/Millennial gens have put hundreds and hundreds of hours into military sim games like BATTLEFIELD and CALL OF DUTY? If Summit had actually committed the marketing $ that Relativity did here, they could gotten grosses like this on Hurt Locker.
I’ll definitely check this out when it comes on Netflix streaming. Yes, it’s terribly jingoistic but there is an undeniable ingenuity to the whole project. I’m glad it went for a hard-R and didn’t portray the SEALs as some kind of boyscout troop handing out pocket constitutions to Taliban fighters.
@manonthemoon
Yes: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/5405-Act-of-Valor
It’s not a great film, but there’s nothing “objectionable” about it. It’s a curiosity piece for military hardware/tactics geeks for the most part, with “different from the norm” action stuff; and much as I hate to agree even incidentally with the Breitbart/Big Hollywood goons about anything I can’t really see reading anything sinister into it unless you’re hardwired to see ANYTHING remotely positive about the military as innately innapropriate – it’s waaaaay too fixated on gear and tech and tactics to be much of a “recruitment” or “propaganda” film.
THAT SAID…
This idea that right-wing movie bloggers just seem to accept as gospel that this is the “ONLY MOVIE EVAR SINCE TH’ DUKE!!!” to treat soldiers as “good” is fucking asinine, and someone needs to call them on it. We get a FEW movies – mostly niche dramas – with “bad” soldiers here and there that they FREAK THE HELL OUT about (“Hollyweird liberals brainwashing our chillun’!!!!!”); but EVERY OTHER fucking action movie that comes out WORSHIPS soldiering waaaaay more than “Act of Valor” does. Every damn action-hero now is an “ex-special-forces-something-something” to explain why he’s a selfless badass, every alien/monster/whatever movie has “DA TROOPS!!!” swooping in and kicking ass – hell, the video-game industry has been COMPLETELY taken over by this “Call of Duty” horseshit where every game is basically an interactive, irony free version of the “I’m doing my part!” stuff from Starship Troopers.
For fuck’s sake, the “Transformers” movies are INFINITELY closer to being recruitment/propaganda pieces than “Act of Valor” is, with the bullshit Sousza-knockoff score and the fact that the nobody-cares random soldier guys get more screentime than the TITLE CHARACTERS. I understand that “conservative” political/social outlook by nature engenders a certain amount of “defend the compound!” seige-mentality… but how FUCKING PARANOID do you have to be to live in the UNITED STATES and honestly think we don’t spend ENOUGH TIME honoring the military??
bobbyperu, Tatum is a piece of wood. Scratch that, the piece of wood is a better actor.
Everyone knows Tatum had a Geffen-baby like experience in Hollywood. Bottom line, the dude knows how to suck a dick. There’s plenty of hot shitty actors who are sincere that never make it anywhere in Hollywood.
Tatum was very good in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints & Stop-Loss.
Wanderlust dying out isn’t really a shocker. Circle-jerk hippie movies were tired in the 60s. Not sure why Hollywood continues to make ‘em now. I don’t think Joe Moviegoer cared whether or not there was nudity, though. Because even if there was, they’d have to sit through bullshit exsistential lectures to get to it. Wanderlust is a rental, not a tentpole. But it gives me an excuse to link http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/wanderlust-rudd-aniston.php . Though it does make me wonder how much people will be interested in Bigelowe’s Bin Laden pic.
Moviebob: But how does it compare to Navy Seals?
Disconap: The irony of your comment, is, of course that Michael Moore has an ex-Navy Seal or two as a personal security escort.
rich: No, we like the military winning. We hate douchebag generals who force ‘em to commit war crimes to cover up their corporate sponsor’s looting of [insert country here].
corey: No doubt 21 Jump Street’s gonna be a hit, now, though. Unless, of course, the only reason ladies saw The Vow was because of Valentine’s Day.
peru: Tatum’s not the worst guy for me to hate.
LFF: Hurt Locker would’ve underperformed, regardless of marketing. It was a fiilm with niche appeal. But at least it wasn’t overbudget.
“You don’t have to be a Chomsky-type to get a whiff of Reifenstahl”
Um, I think it pretty much defines you as a Chomsky type to regard any movie about American soldiers as being Nazi-like. I think it’s like the litmus test, actually.
Jesus, reading this thread is like a whole army of Jeffs, pontificating about those awful hateful bigoted residents out in Redneck Asshole Country you’ve never actually been to.
Bob’s review is pretty good. The movie looks like a commercial, because it is
You want detectable verisimilitude, I give you protagonists who don’t flinch every time they fire a shot despite being trained killers.
I mean, HEAT is held up as the best firefight on film in years, that’s no coincidence given it was choreographed by an actual proper Special Forces guy, who could tell you what colour the boat house door at ‘heerford’ is (rather than one of the 75% of the American army that seems to warrant the descriptor.
“Jesus, reading this thread is like a whole army of Jeffs, pontificating about those awful hateful bigoted residents out in Redneck Asshole Country you’ve never actually been to.”
Have you ever been to Redneck Asshole Country? I have….I’m there right now, and it’s replete with embarrassing, temper tantrum throwing, white, know nothing(and proud of it), redneck assholes.
You just can’t make a movie like Act of Valor. It’s state-of-the-art soldiers vs. t-shirt-wearing thugs in pueblos and swamps. This is a movie made to make the SEALs look good, and as a result, they’re super competent- the missions are a success, the bad guys are OBLITERATED with bullets, none of the intel is inaccurate, and the heroes successful defend the country by both killing terrorists and securing the Mexican border, a 2-for-1 Lou Dobbs boner.
Problem is, of course, you can’t get any drama out of it. After the first big action sequence (there are four I believe), you’re just marveling HOLY SHIT THESE TERRORISTS ARE OVERMATCHED. Our soldiers don’t make any mistakes because they are trained to be deployed and to attack, so they never have any real personality. They never say anything controversial or uncertain. They curse once. One guy says “Big trouble in Little China”, but I don’t think he knows that’s not a phrase that means anything, nor do I think he’s a fan of the movie.
You can praise or bash the movie either way, but this thing is NOT A MOVIE. There’s also no novelty to the “real Navy SEALs” or the “real live ammunition” either, because we’ve already seen a generation of hyper-realized military combat movies to the point where Act Of Valor just feels derivative of other movies or (worse yet, video games). We have enough CGI to turn Tobey Maguire in a badass – we don’t need “real” SEALs in front of the camera, because movies can turn ANYONE into a SEAL.
I did like the part where the tuff-guy soldier is threatening the terrorist with a detainment camp, and in mid-taunt mentions he’ll be treated “fairly and humanely” before never seeing his family again. Sure, guys. Okay.
Gabe, if you insist on watching a film where the military did very little right, re-watch “Black Hawk Down”. Sure, “Act of Valor” is meant to be respecting of the military but…what the hell is wrong with that?
Who wants to start a thread bashing the second season of ‘Downtown Abbey’ for similar reasons? I’m down! “There’s NO way a Lord would allow his estate to be a convalescent home! What sort of revisionist nonsense is this?!”
If you really wanna find a shitty, blatant propaganda/recruitment film, re-watch “Independence Day”. The survival of humanity rested on the shoulders of the American military AND the President of the United States as one of the most literal versions ever of the Commander in Chief??
Okay, who forgot to close the italics tag in here??
Test.
Independence Day isn’t a propaganda film — it’s a cheesy sci-fi disaster movie (straight out of the early ’80s). Anyone actually taking that seriously as a recruiting piece, though? Wow…
I took “Independence Day” seriously as propaganda? Of course it’s cheesy. Of course it’s sci-fi. One of the biggest hits in the entire world that year if I’m not mistaken. I think….oh wait, is that what it is? You’re convinced the rest of the world viewing American films views them through the same lens as we do? And this thread accuses “Act of Valor” for being close minded? Double wow…
“And I’m a little surprised that eighth-place Wanderlust is an instant DOA.”
I was actively looking forward to it, because David Wain is three for three (with two out of the three being great), and I didn’t even know it was opening until I saw the reviews on Friday. They haven’t been marketing it for shit. I haven’t seen a trailer in theaters and only saw one on TV, on Friday night. Terrible idea. And now I notice they’ve dumped it in all the second-rate movie theaters where movies go to die in this area.
On the other hand, I saw that ‘Act of Valor’ trailer in almost every screening I’ve been to in the past three months.
I get the sense that the studio didn’t think ‘Wanderlust’ would do much business so they just cut their losses and let it die quietly. But it seems to have the makings of a cult hit, like a lot of Aniston’s smaller comedies.
Channing Tatum is so horrifying forgettable that if I see an actor in a preview who resembles a #2 pencil eraser, I ask if that’s Channing Tatum. And normally it is.
I was watching some movie he was in and halfway through I forgot he was in the film. It interesting that he’s in Stop Loss since the guy resembles a lower version of Ryan Phillippe.
And 21 Jump Street? I’m not wasting $10 to see a film with two obviously middle aged actors playing kids. There hasn’t been a greater miscast “undercover cop in high school” flick since Arliss Howard was in “Plain Clothes” – Howard was 34 and balding when he got cast. Plus 21 Jump Street stars Ice Cube “America’s Most Non-Threatening Negro of 2010.”
What’s great is that Acts of Valor is the first #1 American made drama where the Studio won’t have to pay royalties to the stars. They didn’t even have to pay them a dime to “act.” It’s a studio dream and SAG’s nightmare.
Barnes — well, you called Independence Day “a recruitment film.” Yes, you actually SAID that (look above), despite this formatting making everything looking very ironic.
Anyway, what’s important is that Phantom Menace 3D officially bombed.
A true great movie about the military inevitably must deal with the fact that combat troops’ comradeship. primal and however touching, is ultimately futile, because they are pawns in someone else’s geo-pol games. This is not a left-wing or right-wing issue. It is a true or false issue.
To focus on the lethal expertise or on the wealth of their instruments of destruction is pornographic, that is, doing art with an extraneous use in mind. This is why propaganda, like politics, is bad acting, because they service an agenda other than truth.
This is why propaganda, like politics, is bad acting, because they service an agenda other than truth.
People who talk the most about “servicing truth” are usually the most propagandistic.
Dammit, forgot about the italics.
Back in the pre-squib days, it was not uncommon for directors to use live rounds (fired by sharpshooters), most memorably by Wild Bill Wellman in THE PUBLIC ENEMY.
” LicentiousMaximus says …
The whole love of the military in this country is a highly fetishistic thing. We’re all supposed to get teary eyed at the thought of ‘our military’, but ‘our military’ hasn’t fought a war it HAD to since WWII, and we live in the most defensible country on the planet. The US military has been fighting corporate wars on behalf of a very small and powerful minority for over 50 years, and that powerful minority has been using that wealth to keep the rest of the populace in some version of slavery. But yeah, okay, ooh rah, or yippee ki yay motherfucker or whatever. ”
- Brilliantly put. Couldn’t agree more. When is there going to be a comment rating system on this site?
Boy, this reality-show movie (and that’s what it is, a war version of MTV’S The Real World; those things always have one good weekend) has REALLY gotten under your skins, what with people announcing that EVERY war movie must contain your specific political outlook and express your geopolitical overview. Sorry, one movie doesn’t! We have freedom of thought here still, however you’ve been brainwashed to believe that disagreement with you is thought control by Fox or whatever. If they want to make a war movie about what jolly fun war is, they can and you can’t stop them. You’ll just have to watch In The Valley of Eegah 10 more times.
And 21 Jump Street? I’m not wasting $10 to see a film with two obviously middle aged actors playing kids.
I thought that was like the entire point, even the ads have jokes about how Tatum’s character especially is clearly too old to be going undercover as a highschooler
also did life expectancies take a major nosedive lately or is 28 now “middle aged” for white American males
“You don’t have to be a Chomsky-type to get a whiff of Reifenstahl from both Act of Valor and the way its critics are being dismissed by armchair military types. Hoo-yah.”
BUT IT SURE HELPS.
Ignorant whiners, the lot of you.
Dear Super Soul, being myself Super Nothing I should kow tow to your own very truthful words.
My intent, which I presume to think you are not interested in knowing, was not ‘true’ in the political sense, which is apparent what you have in mind. But far from me to call your politics. Supers have no need for that.
Call it what you will, however, an honest observation about human nature. Something that, crazy me, thinks art should do. Sometimes. On some obscure cable show, perhaps. Of course, this is a subjective opinion, and therefore not entitled to be truth by a purist Super, who I presume, has God-like perspective, I’m sure.
“The whole love of the military in this country is a highly fetishistic thing”
Unless we’re talking about leftist revolutionary groups. Then the whole militarization thing is supposed to be enlightened and kinda cool. Hasta la victoria siempre!
My fallible subjective opinion is, however, in line with, I would like to think, other faulty humans like Sam Fuller and Erich Maria Remarque (I know, what an old, old reference) and I presume that gentleman vitner from up north would not disagree that much. In your mind, I know, they are artists whose weight is fairly balanced by the likes of Ray Kellogg, John Wayne and Mervyn LeRoy, that jewel of a film called ‘The Green Berets’, that magnificent piece on a par with the distinguished team of Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh who made this latest panegyrical to organized conflict carried with extreme aggression (the dictionary’s definition of war, not mine – so Colbert was right, dictionaries ARE liberal!) Also notice that perhaps the fact that these movies engage more than one director might suggest they are better movies, because two heads are better than one. So, yes, as you see this is all a fair-and-well-balanced argument. I leave it to the trolls to enrich the rest of this thread- debate with their one-liners that are so educating as well as entertaining.
And no, Super (Do I dare to disagree with you?! My apologies in advance!) the fetish on the military is not exclusive to any one country. I’m afraid that blind devotion to the man who carries the sword is not an attitude invented in Philadelphia along with the Constitution. I would venture to guess that it is slightly older than that in human history. But then again, I wasn’t there, so I might be wrong.
Opinion writes in italics even when the comment thread is in plain type.
Guilt tripped for my screen name again. You lost me at “In your mind, I know…”
I’m not interested in defending propoganda. I’m more interested in expanding the boundaries. What does “true in the political sense” even mean? I’m as likely to roll my eyes at Act of Valor as I am at Manufacturing Consent.
Also, you sound like a reactionary in your last post.
“Unless we’re talking about leftist revolutionary groups. Then the whole militarization thing is supposed to be enlightened and kinda cool. Hasta la victoria siempre!”
Contemporary examples of fetishized worship of ‘leftist revolutionary groups” please.
How were these guys “active-duty” AND filming a movie at the same time?
“How were these guys “active-duty” AND filming a movie at the same time?”
I dunno, ask Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston…
All you Channing Tatum haters are full of crap. I think he’s been just fine in just about anything I’ve seen him in. Some of the films he’s done have been pretty crappy, but you can say the same thing about any actor. Brando made some real stinkers.
He actually stole “The Dilemma” from Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, Funnier than both of those overweight, overpaid slobs.
If I lost you, my dear tiny man (after all, one who wants to be known as super, projects — per your own theory) I do so with a cheer and a good riddance, a wink and a toast to your silly moniker. All I can see you’re interested in is hot air. So bon voyage, mon petit.
Capra, Ford, Wyler, Huston were FILMMAKERS first. Active duty notwithstanding. That you don’t see the difference with nameless Seals says everything I need to know about your taste.
To all others except tiny soulless man: Nationalism was not invented by the U.S. Nor military fetishism. It is not the colony of ‘left’ and ‘right’ – which means what exactly? Alas, no talk of true geopolitics here. In a country where ‘socialist’ is a bad word, and anyone is accused of being ‘fascist’ for no reason, adult talk is beyond hope.
Mgmax, le Corbeau, etc, I guess I missed the part in Capra, Huston, Wyler, & Ford’s military history where they were Navy Seals. I knew those guys were BAD ASS, but WOW!
Oh…wait…
Licentious: “Contemporary examples of fetishized worship of ‘leftist revolutionary groups” please.”
Um, Soderbergh’s Che? Paradise Now?
Licentious: Oh, and the Baader Meinhof Complex.
What a fucked up thread.
“In a country where ‘socialist’ is a bad word, and anyone is accused of being ‘fascist’ for no reason, adult talk is beyond hope.”
I’ve obviously rubbed you the wrong way, but I dig some of what you’re saying.
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