Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Jeremy Davis, Ken Gamble, Zach McGowan, Kristoffer Garrison, Neto DePaula Pimenta,
Amol Shah, Jessica Meza, Chris Warner, Lisa Carnahan, Stewart Skelton | Written by Mark C. Andrews
UK Certification 15 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 95 minutes | Directed by Mark C. Andrews
For the very first time that I can remember, I actually had to research the plot of a film online after watching it. I'm by no means going to pretend that I could follow SEAL Team VI (despite the confusing title it isn't actually a sequel) and give a taste of the general story like I usually would, so here's the brief plot summary pulled straight from IMDb, written by an anonymous submitter who is most likely the man who wrote and directed this film.
And why could I not follow this barely watchable film that I more than once considered switching off? There's a number of reasons, but I was predominantly turned off thanks to the sound quality and editing. I honestly could not understand 70 percent of the dialogue from beginning to end. All of the performances sound as if they were phoned in, with most of the conversations broken up by nauseating quick cuts to stock footage. It's evident from the first frame that the film-makers did not have anywhere near the budget to pull off the ambitiousness of the script, so why make it knowing full well that they would end up almost abusing stock footage? Being a film-maker myself, I more than appreciate the financial dilemma of making an independent movie, but there are other ways to go about it. Producing an action-rich screenplay that tells a war story on a shoestring is not the thing to do if you care about quality control.
The biggest problem the huge amount of stock footage brings to the film is the constant changing of lighting and picture quality. It really takes you out of the proceedings, which is quite the hindrance when you're desperately trying to follow what's going on.
I can't be too judgemental on the script since I could barely understand anything other than the rather ridiculous amount of profanities, but constant shouting and sound recording equipment that outright sucks is not a combination that works. As for the direction, the cinematography leaves a lot to be desired, failing to adequately frame the action scenes that were actually shot for the movie. It seems as though the shaky camerawork used to capture the gun battles is accidental rather than a technique to sell the frantic nature of the respective scenes.
You can tell by the final ten minutes that this is a film with a lot of heart behind it and one that tries to deliver a message of sincerity regarding the US special forces, but unfortunately being sentimental and patriotic doesn't quite cut it when you're chasing 80 minutes of awfulness. This is one to straight-up avoid.
EXTRAS TBC.