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The Marine 2 [ Blu-ray Review ]

Studio: Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: Ted DiBiase, Michael Rooker, Lara Cox
Director: Roel Renei

Movie Review

I was a big fan of The Marine. Not that I would submit it for an Academy Award or anything, but it was a serviceable action film that was a sort of a throwback to the 80s motto of revenge and kicking tons of ass. In WWE Studios’ follow up to The Marine, that motto is completely lost.

Ted DiBiase (The Million Dollar Man’s son) plays Marine Joe Linwood, who is reuniting with his wife at a tropical island after spending some time on a classified mission. Joe is a bit out of sorts after seeing a young boy during a mission in some third world country (doesn’t that always happen?) so he’s looking forward to the vacation. Joe’s wife is a publicist for an egomaniac author who’s hosting a VIP party on the island. During the party, terrorists show up and spoil everything (as terrorists often do), taking Joe’s wife and other party goers as hostages.

What starts out as a fine premise to a straight up, WWE style action movie, quickly delves into nonsense with horrible performances and overall lame action. It really doesn’t even seem that anyone tried in this. The story moves along okay, filled with double crosses and a take no bullshit terrorist leader but the action that moves the story along is piss poor. I’m talking fight scenes with awful stunt coordination that doesn’t even try to make it look believable and gun play (which there really isn’t a whole lot of) is equally bad.

The performances acting wise are okay, despite the majority of the “foreign terrorists” speaking like Americans. The wife, played by Lara Cox, was also fine and her over the top, author boss also came across very unlikeable, so he did his job well. The head terrorist also did a pretty good job of being evil and had a solid presence as someone you don’t want to F with. Also, Michael Rooker shows up as an ex Army Ranger that helps out Joe which I dug. That dude rocks!

Ted DiBiase is by far the worst Marine ever. He’s constantly getting his ass kicked, makes stupid decisions like sneaking up one someone, choking them out and running away, leaving their machine gun behind. No Marine would ever do that. Also, DiBiase could be the worst actor this side of John Cena. I really wanted to like him and the movie but it just didn’t turn out that way. I don’t need theater trained actors for these kinds of movies, but someone with a hint of acting ability would’ve been nice.

Crave Factor – 3

Video

The quality on this was pretty horrendous. Crystal clear at moments, and so much “noise” in other parts that made watching it really distracting. A good portion of the second act is shot at night and this is where it’s most apparent. And it’s not even consistent. Some of the night scenes are fine, while other scenes make you feel like you’re watching it through a screen door.

Crave Factor – 2

Audio

English 5.1 DTS-HD

Crave Factor – 5

Features

Extended scenes: Here we get four scenes. The first takes place as the happy couple shows up at the island resort. They get tour and we go with them. That’s about it. The second is an extended scene where we first meet Michael Rooker’s Army Ranger character. Love that guy! We get a longer terrorist takeover scene in the third spot. This is where the movie, action wise fell apart for me so seeing a longer version of it didn’t make me feel better. The last extended scene shows a terrorist doing terrorist things, like placing timed bombs on the structural supports of a building, right before Joe the Marine comes in and gets into a well (not well) rehearsed fight. El yucko.

Deleted Scenes: Two deleted scenes here. One with Joe and his wife at the VIP party, they dance and talk about how they met. The other is with Joe and his wife again finally getting in their room on the resort. Nice room. Wish I could’ve been there.

Making the Cut: Deleted Scenes Montage: Director Roel Renei intros this feature by saying it’s not necessarily deleted scenes, but deleted shots not shown in the movie. Set to music. Actually a pretty cool montage, great music.

Behind the scenes featurette: Your standard featurettes including a close looks at the Final Fight, the Terrorist Siege and more.

Muay Thai Outtakes: Original takes of the fights from the Steadycam view, and from a hand held viewpoint. Honestly, really cool if you’re into filmmaking. I wish more action movies had this feature.

Crave Factor – 3

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

As I mentioned before, I really wanted to like this but wound up not. The crappy action and a worse performance by its lead didn’t bring me like other WWE Studios movies did like The Condemned, The Marine, and The Rundown. If anything, go rent those puppies and stay clear of this.

Overall Crave Factor
4

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