Film: Valiant OneCast: Chase Stokes, Lana Condor, Desmin Borges, Callan Mulvey, Diana Tsoy, Daniel Jun, Jonathan Whitesell, Stephen AdekoluDirector: Steve BarnettRating: * *Runtime: 87 min.
A no-frills war-action-thriller about U.S. Soldiers trapped in North Korea when tensions between North and South Korea are at an all-time high, this film doesn’t work up much steam in the telling. Producer-turned-director Steve Barnett’s debut directorial effort is a regular old-school war drama that pays tribute to the men who serve, but doesn’t quite hit the right notes to call attention to the futility of war. The plotting is unpretentious, the action is respectable, and the trapped-behind-enemy-lines drama has some worth. The tale of U.S. soldiers whose mission near the DMZ goes haywire because of an unexpected helicopter crash that leaves them stranded in North Korea, without any ground support, had the potential to be a tense action drama, but the manner in which this plays out it feels routine and rather disaffecting. The very basic plot has Sgt. Edward Brockman (Stokes), a non-combat tech officer stationed at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 60 miles south of the DMZ, was ordered on a mission escorting a civilian defence contractor, Josh Weaver (Desmin Borges), on the maintenance of surveillance installations close to the North Korean border. The team’s helicopter gets blown off course in a freak storm and crash-lands in the DPRK. The mission’s mortally wounded commanding officer, Lebold (Callan Mulvey), hands over command to Brockman with some words of inspiration and a service pistol.  Thereafter, the screenplay by Barnett and Eric Tipton has the inexperienced Brockman trying to figure out how to get survivors, including civilian Weaver, Korean American Cpl. Lee (Daniel Jun), Cpl. Ross (Jonathan Whitesell) and Cpl. Selby (Condor), to safety. The group is forced to take shelter at the farmhouse of a frightened couple (Michael Cha, Jerina Son) and their young daughter, Binna (Diana Tsoy). Selby( Condor) a Vietnamese-born medic’s role comes to the fore thereafter, as she helps Brockman with some hard talk in order to aid him in rising up to the occasion. They dodge patrols, negotiate with traumatised civilians and try to stay low-key so as to not cause an international incident. The team rough through some shoot-outs en route to a fairly ingratiating climax in a tunnel beneath the DMZ. The combat scenes have workmanlike precision and the central performances by Chase Stokes and Lana Condor are respectable. “Valiant One” seems like a made-for-OTT product and lacks the scale of a big-budget theatrical release. The film is generic, repetitive, has no real geopolitical insight and features characters who are thinly developed. The background score, which uses rap music to support the wartime drama, seems rather out of place. The climactic showdown in the underground tunnel was fogged by indistinguishable theatrics. On the plus side, the film has bankable production values and a screenplay that focuses on low-ranking soldiers finding the courage and ingenuity to fight their way out of a hopeless situation.