VALIANT ONE

Here is the decision in full. VALIANT ONE is a genuinely exciting military thriller that punches above its modest budget. It has a highly patriotic, pro-American heart, a cast of unknowns who make you feel the danger, and a scene of heroic self-sacrifice built around a powerful rendition of the Lord's Prayer. That's a lot to admire in 86 fast minutes.

It also earns its R rating almost entirely through language. Roughly fifty "f" words and a scattering of profanities run through the dialogue, and the gun battles — though kept mostly bloodless — are strong and frequent. There's no sex, no nudity, no drinking, no drugs. The trouble is the mouths of the soldiers.

So: if you're an older teen or an adult who loves a lean thrill ride and can hear a lot of harsh profanity without harm, this one delivers. If you're choosing for children or younger teens, or the language is a wall for you, sit this one out.

Few places on Earth are more terrifying to crash-land in than communist North Korea. When a US Army helicopter crew flying over the Demilitarized Zone is brought down by a sudden windstorm, they find themselves deep inside enemy territory.

Their commanding officer is badly hurt in the crash and hands the reins to a regular soldier named Edward — now responsible for leading the survivors and a fearful civilian tech expert through a forest to a distant evacuation point. Enemy search teams and armed patrols wait at nearly every turn. And when they cross paths with a North Korean family, one question hangs over everything: can these people be trusted?

Three stars, and here's what they mean. Writer-director Steve Barnett keeps the story a model of fast-moving efficiency, barreling through a tight 86 minutes while still finding room for a few quiet moments of real revelation. The shootouts are sharply designed — several will pull surprised gasps from the audience. Casting largely unknown TV actors actually helps: because you're not rooting for a famous face, it's genuinely unclear who survives, and that uncertainty tightens the tension.

The limits show, too. The generic locations could have been shot anywhere, which occasionally dents the believability. And the tense confrontation with a shotgun-wielding farmer, exciting as it is, rings false — totalitarian North Korea strictly bars private gun ownership. Still, this is a highly enjoyable thrill ride that overcomes its low-budget constraints more often than not.

VALIANT ONE wears its convictions plainly, and most of them are ones Scripture honors. It is strongly patriotic and pro-American, celebrating teamwork, courage, and self-sacrifice as heroic US soldiers battle to escape a totalitarian regime. Along the way they take the risk of helping a young girl escape to freedom with them — mercy under fire, not just survival.

At its center sits a genuinely Christian moment. An officer prays the Lord's Prayer before setting off a grenade to hold back the enemy — a scene of self-sacrifice that gives the film a spiritual weight most action movies never reach for. It's the kind of moment that stays with you after the shooting stops.

What mars the picture isn't its beliefs but its language. The near-constant profanity sits awkwardly against the film's better instincts, and it's the main reason this review can't be cleaner than it is.

The film's deepest longing is the one it names right in its prayer: the ache to be delivered, to be brought home out of the enemy's reach. That prayer already answers it — "deliver us from evil" — and the God it addresses is the one who does exactly that (Matthew 6:13).

VALIANT ONE is a lean, exciting thriller with a patriotic spine and a prayer that lands harder than most action films dare. It's also an R-rated movie carried down by relentless profanity. So here's our answer, the same one we opened with: worth the trip — adults only. Planning family movie night instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.