Archive for: Act of Valor

‘Need for Speed’ Gets a Movie

When EA Games and DreamWorks decided to make a Need for Speed movie, they turned to director Scott Waugh, the guy who directed the amazing action sequences in Act of Valor. Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame stars in the movie and he made an appearance at the game company’s E3 press conference to debut the above making-of clip. +Continue Reading

The Iron Giant Goes Rogue

How can the guys at Bandito Brothers follow up their success with Act of Valor? Deadline Hollywood reports that the company is about to sell the rights to The Prototype, a new movie produced by the company and made by writer/director Andrew Will and his producing partner Shawn Wallace.

Apparently, the military drone of the future looks a lot like the Iron Giant in a hoodie and it’s up to Neal McDonough (most recently Robert Quarles on Justified and Dum Dum in Captain America: The First Avenger) to track him down after he kills his inventor and everyone who works in the lab. Except maybe there’s a girl who lives and the drone is crushing on her. Or maybe the scientist and the drone have done sort of meld and their one and the same. It’s hard to tell: there’s just enough here to make us curious and get our money whenever it finally comes out.

It’s hard to tell exactly how much AOV directors Scott and Mouse had to do with this, but there seems enough of their real-life action picture sensibility here to make this one worth seeing

Why We Love Act of Valor’s Scott Waugh

Discussing Scott Waught’s next big project with him.

…and why you should by the DVD now that it’s out.

There are a number of reasons Scott Waugh isn’t a douche. An obvious one is the fact that he did this interview. We’re not the typical reviewers.How many other Hollywood types would sit down with a couple badasses our size and bare his soul?  Not too damn many, that’s the answer. Maybe none.

Michael Moore might, but only if we were laying on a plate covered in gravy.

We had the chance to pow-wow with Scott briefly at the MilBlog Conference in DC recently and walked away thoroughly impressed. He’s polite, grounded and self-effacing without coming across as falsely modest or one of those guys who works at being self-deprecating as part of their strategy. Nothing we discussed seem high-handed or contrived. He even dressed normally and has great hair. (Never underestimate the force multiplication advantage of good hair; it’s almost as important as a beard.) +Continue Reading

Act of Valor Comes Home

UTR readers know that we loved the movie. That we’ve interviewed at least one of the directors twice: the first time was both Michael “Mouse” McCoy and Scott Waugh for the blog and, most recently, site editor Ward Carroll sat down and talked with Scott onstage at the Milblog Conference last month. So now Act of Valor is out on Blu-ray & DVD. If you’re on the fence, should you spend the cash to get a take-home copy?

The Blu-ray transfer looks great, another in a line of action pictures that looks better on a home theater setup than it did in the theater. The crew did a great job shooting the movie and it’s hard to tell exactly which scenes were shot in 35mm and which used a digital camera. The DVD is a little dark in places and the iTunes digital copy is no more blurry compared to the Blu-ray than any other title we’ve reviewed around here. Fox does make one upgrade here: you load the digital version of the film off the DVD disk, eliminating the third disk that other studios use, the one that’s useless after you activate the digital copy. +Continue Reading

Talking Act of Valor

Military​.com hosted the 2012 Milblog conference May 11–12 in Arlington, VA and one of the highlights was a visit from Act of Valor co-director Scott Waugh, who was in town to promote the movie’s June 5th release on Blu-ray and DVD. We loved AOV back when it opened back in February and the $12-million film’s $24.5 million opening box office weekend looks even more impressive after this past weekend’s Battleship release. That $209 million Pentagon-approved studio picture barely made it it a $25.3 million gross even after they slapped the Battleship logo all over Coke Zero cans and Subway sandwich wrappers.

Scott sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Miltary​.com editor Ward Carroll that was streamed live by our friends at the You Served military blog. They preserved the evidence so now you can watch Scott tell Ward why fellow director Mike “Mouse” McCoy wasn’t available to join us and explode a lot of myths about just how the movie got made. He’s particularly eloquent when he talks about how close he got to the SEALs and their families during production and how important it was for him to get their stories right.

Medal of Honor Makers Also Loved Act of Valor

Electronic Arts has announced that Medal of Honor Warfighter, the latest sequel in the popular game series, will hit stores on October 23rd in versions for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Looks like the game designers have seen Act of Valor a few times, because this trailer looks a whole lot like outtakes from the movie. Plus, the game promises to look at the “heartbreaking side of war, told through the eyes of military families.” The real warfighters in our midst probably have a few words to say about how well a video game can capture the actual experience of risking your life on a mission, but, like Act of Valor, the game is supposed to be based on the real-life experiences of Tier 1 Operators from the United States, Australia, Germany, Poland and more.

Say Yes to Act of Valor

If you pay your money to watch Act of Valor in a theater, the movie you see won’t exactly be the one you’re expecting if you’ve been paying attention to all the media coverage and advertising. If you can take AOV on its own terms, though, you’re going to see the best action picture ever subsidized by the United States government.

AOV is the first movie to star active-duty military personnel,  SEALs who appear with full Navy approval. Their participation creates both incredible advantages and complex challenges for the filmmakers. How well you think they dealt with each is going to determine what you think about this film. +Continue Reading

Act of Valor’s Directors Talk About Getting Close to the SEALs

McCoy (center) and Waugh (right) on the set of Act of Valor.

Directors Mike “Mouse” McCoy and Scott Waugh aim to pull off an incredible balancing act with their new Navy SEALs movie Act of Valor. They attempt to deliver all the thrills of a high-end action picture while giving a true-to-life look at the issues face by the men and women who serve. AOV was made with the Navy’s permission and support and how it fares once it hits theaters may have a big impact on military-themed movies in the future.

McCoy and Waugh sat down with Military​.com for an interview about why they’re not a part of the Hollywood system, how they got the movie made and how close they got with the SEAL community while making Act of Valor. +Continue Reading

Who Wants an Authentic Action Film?

Here’s hoping most of you have figured out that the Military​.com empire is large (and contains multitudes). We’re going to be all over this Act of Valor movie here at UTR, over on our Video Center, at the Kit Up! blog, on the Off Duty News page and anywhere else on the site that makes sense.

This Making Of video offers some background: the producers used active-duty SEALs instead of actors in a quest to create an “authentic action film. We haven’t seen it yet, but we’re willing to bet that, at the very least, these guys are all better actors than Jean-Claude Van Damme.