Navy Seals

Navy Seals stands out among this summer's violence-oriented pictures as the only one that doesn't leave your brain feeling like mashed potatoes. There are plenty of exploding bombs in this picture, not to mention various other forms of destruction...But the action is orchestrated so sensitively that it's both aesthetically satisfying and emotionally resonant. There's a texture to the violence in Navy Seals that's completely absent in this summer's kaboom cartoons. Read full review

Biehn, in what would unfortunately be the last of his pure good guy roles, shines in the type of role he does best: a hardened and reluctant hero who is bound by honor to do right no matter what the cost. Read full review

Nifty performances make this routine action flick better than it probably has a right to be. Read full review

Full of macho swagger and unabashed hero-worship.

Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn star in this visually engaging, fast-paced action film about an elite anti-terrorist unit of the US Navy. Unfortunately, an uneven script and undeveloped characters weaken the dramatic content of the story. Read full review

A moderately competent formula film. Read full review

It would be unfair to say the one-liner-loaded script sounds as if it were ripped from a comic book. It sounds as if it were ripped from a coloring book. Still, filmed and edited like a two-hour "Not just a job" ad and loaded with high-tech weaponry, secret code words, neat stunts and nearly nonstop blowups, blood and guts, Navy SEALs is an effective, adrenaline-injecting summer action flick that will leave you clenching your teeth and hating The Enemy in spite of yourself. Like a real Navy SEAL, it does what it's supposed to do and gets out of there quickly, and doesn't remain in your memory for long. Read full review

A heady blend of beefcake, derring-do and jingoism, their adventure is not merely action-packed, but well-built to boot. Read full review

The naval equivalent of "Top Gun," focusing on the elite corps of warriors who in this tale must destroy American missiles that have fallen into the hands of Arab terrorists. The boys play together and then fight together. It's all a party. Some of the sequences play like music videos. Read full review

Navy Seals is all action, no talk, and it never slows down enough to let you see how dumb it is. But the sudden lack of enemies in a world gone crazily, treacherously peaceful is a problem for Hollywood. [20 July 1990, p.G5]

To me, an ordinary - but often exciting - adventure tale became a sordid look at American society and the American military, with a sickening defense of the-end-justifies-the-means philosophy. [20 July 1990, p.3F]

The reactionary empty-headedness of this R-rated movie gets to you, spoiling whatever comic-strip enjoyment it might have had. In the “Rambo” movies, you’d have to be almost as much of a lunkhead as Rambo to take their “politics” seriously. But “Navy SEALS,” directed by Lewis Teague, isn’t scaled to be a cartoon; it’s more like a hypercharged military training film. Read full review

Teague, meanwhile, is far too busy orchestrating the large-scale action sequences to make anything of the cardboard characters, episodic plotting, or clunking dialogue. Read full review

A very pompous version of the kind of nonsense Chuck Norris has been doing in far less embarrassing fashion for so many years. Read full review

Who wrote this -- Oliver North?

Unfortunately, he's working from a cliche-choked, insensitive script, written by Gary Goldman (``Big Trouble in Little China'') and Chuck Pfaffer (``Dark Man''), that makes a point of stirring up old prejudices. Read full review

But the movie falls flat with pat situations and predictable action sequences. And in this the summer of mega-action hits, a filmmaker has to devise something different and totally brash to woo audiences...The dialogue suffers from terminal silliness. [19 July 1990]

Navy SEALS no doubt fancies itself as being taken from today's headlines, but ''taken from the pages of a Chuck Norris script'' is more like it. [23 July 1990, p.2D]

It might have helped if the film makers had had the humor to see they were turning out ''Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Seals.'' As it is, they take their explosives and their silly roles much too seriously. Read full review

The SEALs remain as elusive in the movie as they are in real life. They don't offer much information about the secret force, nor do they show us what it's like to be in it. The script sounds as if it has been declassified with all the juicy stuff taken out for security reasons...What it's left with is a series of explosive action scenes, music videos and scant dialogue tied loosely together around a weak plot. [20 July 1990, p.6]

Like "Fire Birds," another recent special-team flick, Navy SEALs is a transparent attempt to showcase adventure sequences. Plot? Character? Who has time for subtlety amid all those dangerous maneuvers? It's all an excuse for the action - but even the action in Navy SEALS is dismal. [20 July 1990, p.32]

A lamebrained guts-and-glory fiction. [20 July 1990, p.E1]

Navy SEALs isn’t just the most stupidly didactic action movie since The Green Berets. It’s the dullest action movie since The Green Berets. Read full review