ACT OF VALOUR (15, 109 mins) ***
Starring Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle, Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano, Gonzalo Menendez. Directors: Mike McCoy, Scott Waugh.

In 1962, in response to escalating hostilities between North and South Vietnam, allies of Russia and America respectively, President John F Kennedy authorised the creation of the Navy SEALs.

This elite maritime military force proved vital, venturing behind enemy lines in Vietnam to sabotage supplies and destroy ammunition caches.

More recently, the SEALs carried out the covert mission in Pakistan, which culminated in the death of Osama bin Laden.

Directors Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh honour the SEALs with Act Of Valour, a fictionalised account of real-life operations starring active servicemen and women.

Fantasy and reality collide head-on: combat sequences are festooned with the latest battlefield technology and the film takes to the air with pilots and aviators and dives inside a state-of-the-art submarine.

The veracity of McCoy and Waugh’s film sadly doesn’t extend to the narrative or dialogue.

Characters are thinly-sketched and while the real-life SEALs bring power and intensity to fight sequences, most can’t deliver a line with conviction.

It doesn’t help that a florid and occasionally jingoistic voiceover incites giggles as it ponders the majesty of the brave officers: “Although a single twig will break, a bundle of twigs is strong.” Profound.

Following the assassination of the US ambassador to Manila, CIA agents Lisa Morales (Sanchez) and Walter Ross (Serrano) investigate a drug smuggler nicknamed Christo (Veadov) and his links to the bomber, Abu Shabal (Cottle).

The agents are ambushed – Ross is killed and Morales is spirited away to the jungle where she is tortured for information.

An elite team of Navy SEALs under the command of Senior Chief Van O is scrambled aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard to extract the agent.

The seven-strong unit, including Lieutenant Commander Rorke and Special Warfare Operator Chef Dave, infiltrate the enemy compound, unaware of the level of resistance that awaits them.

Act Of Valour is energised by McCoy and Waugh’s hyperkinetic direction, which often switches to the point of view of the SEALs as they carry out their mission and uncover an impending attack on home soil that will “make 9/11 look like a walk in the park”.

There are neat flourishes – the camera whirling as agent Morales’s body is rolled up in a carpet – that quicken our pulse.

Unfortunately, snazzy visuals cannot compensate entirely for deficiencies in the script or the wooden performances.