Happy Memorial Day

I just finished watching the HBO mini-series The Pacific and realized that today happens to be the celebration of Memorial Day in the United States.

America have had its share of wars and Memorial Day is the time of remembering those who have sacrificed their lives for liberty and the American way.  I am no soldier and I have not experience being in a time of war but I have read a lot about wars to say that it is no walk in the park.  Those who have fought in them and survived are scarred physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I do believe that those who died fighting are more fortunate than those who lived because they bring with them all the traumatic experience through their remaining lives.

I pray that the world leaders embrace peace more than war and should their be conflicts between nations let the words of the philosopher Sun Tzu prevail:

"The supreme general is he who defeats his enemy without fighting."

Movie Review: Act of Valor

The movie is said to be based on real life missions of the US Navy SEALS.    It was originally meant as a US Navy recruitment film but Matt McCoy and Scott Vaugh of Bandito Films got an epiphany for a modern day action movie.  

Only a handful of actors were hired for this film and all the rest were active duty SEALS and military personnel.   Professional film critics gave it a bashing but based on its strong first week sales---audience thought otherwise.  Personally, I did not notice the poor acting and the "cliched story line".  I found the action sequence very riveting.  Being a Filipino I did find it a slight to my nationalistic pride that the bad guys in this movie were Filipino Jihad extremists but I guess there is no denying that fact our Muslim brothers do have a small faction of extremist sympathizers.  

Another novelty about this film is its use of the "first person" perspective reminiscent of the Call of Duty game.  

For action movie junkies like me---you'll surely enjoy this flick!