Rating of
1.5/4
A fair actioner with too many problems
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/03/08
I am a huge professional wrestling fan, and usually have a mild interest in seeing a movie featuring somebody in wrestling, depending on the type of movie it is. I have seen many movies where wrestling stars have been in minor, supporting roles to major roles. I wanted to see this one when it was in theaters, but something stopped me when the reviews began coming in, and the WWE spin doctors kept touting its fair success (debuting at #3 in the US) when the movie's star, John Cena was in the ring.
The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) heavily promoted "The Marine" as the movie was about to be released by their then new motion picture division, WWE Films (recently renamed WWE Studios). They gave us behind-the-scenes segments on all their TV programming. Then, when the movie came out, the movie's star would come to the ring wearing a military-style cap, and would salute as he entered the arena. To explain his absence while filming the movie, the WWE explained that Cena was attacked by another WWE star at a club after one of the shows.
What this movie re-enforces is that Vince McMahon, the chairman of the WWE and co-producer of this film, should stick to professional wrestling (which he renamed "sports-entertainment" in the 1990's). He has tried branching out into other forms of entertainment with things like the World Bodybuilding Federation and the NBC-backed XFL professional football league, and they failed.
However, despite getting bad reviews and peaking at #3 at the US Box Office, a sequel is reportedly in the works.
"John Triton" (Cena) loved being a US Marine. After a big mistake in Iraq during a mission to save some fellow soldiers, he is dishonorably discharged. Now, he's back home, living with his beautiful wife, "Kate" (Kelly Carlson) and working as security in a high-rise in an unnamed city (Queensland, Australia in reality) until he loses that job when a TV crew films an incident resulting him throwing a jilted lover of one of the building's employees out of the building -- through a window.
Some time later, the "Tritons" are on a road trip and stop for gas. What they don't know is that a group of diamond thieves are also in the gas station/convenience store, who robbed a bank the other day. When one of the thieves kills a cop who stopped for gas, they jump into the "Triton's" car and take "Kate" with them.
Now, the former "Marine" goes after those who took his wife.
The first thing you notice in this movie is that the actors are given uneven dialogue. Throughout the entire movie, the cast has some weakly written dialogue that sometimes makes you wonder if the person who wrote it knew what they were doing. There was just way too much bad lines in this movie if you ask me.
Despite the bad lines, there is some pretty good performances in this film. One that certainly stands out is that of Cena, who makes his acting debut in this film. I found him very comfortable delivering his lines and he had some pretty good chemistry with just about everybody he was on screen with. I liked the chemistry between him and Carlson, and wish that they had more scenes together to develop their on-screen relationship more before the kidnapping. I also liked lead villain, "Rome" (Robert Patrick), but his character wasn't well written like the rest of the cast of characters
In fact this movie has poor character development all around. We get that the villains are, until a certain point in the movie, working for somebody who contacts them via cell phone. But, we never get their or their employer's motive as to why they want the diamonds. You also get "John's" co-worker who was barely used as comedic relief.
Even the hand-to-hand fight scenes were not done well. In one scene, "John" gets smashed over the head with something that would have knocked out any other action star to allow the villains to get away for the time being, but he just shrugs it off. In another scene, and I have seen this in other movies featuring professional wrestlers who are involved in a movie fight, he takes out an opponent with a move used in wrestling.
Visually, this movie is pretty bland. They barely use the scenery, except for establishing shots. We also get basic day and night shots with no flash.
The action is also poorly handled in this movie. I found the action sequences too short to be interesting. Yes, we get some fair gun play, with little to no blood, and one really impressive explosion in the film. I just found these sequences poorly edited together and not interesting.
The people behind the movie obviously didn't do their homework while this movie was still in development. For example, look at the hat "John" wears when he is given his discharge orders. It's a US Army hat. A Marine would not be issued another military branch's clothing. Also, the chopper that is seen in the opening scene is the wrong kind for that particular mission. You get other mistakes through the entire movie, and I could go on, but I have a limited space.
I can't recommend this as an addition to your DVD collection unless you are a fan of wrestling or a fan of Cena in the wrestling world. As a rental, I can only recommend this if your first eight picks are unavailable. Don't put this high on your Must See List. In fact, check this one out on HBO when there really is nothing else on.
