The Marine

10/22/06 - Review

John Triton (John Cena) is a tough as nails Marine who does whatever is necessary to get the job done, even if it means disobeying direct orders to save some fellow marines in Iraq.  He saved the marines, but unfortunately for him, the military discharged him where he goes home to live with his super hot wife, Kate (Kelly Carlson). 

John is freaking out that he doesn’t know what to do with his life, because all he knows is how to be a Marine. After getting fired from a rent a cop job for kicking the hell out of some loser, John and his wife decide to take a much needed vacation.

Too bad for them they run into Rome (Robert Patrick) and his crew of diamond bandits fresh off a job worth millions. They kill 2 cops and take Triton’s car, along with his wife inside. It’s up to him to save her before Rome and his buddies make it to the rendezvous point. Just like ‘ole times.

When I first saw the trailer for this movie a few months ago, I thought it had a lot of potential.  The Rock made the crossover from WWE to acting so why couldn't John Cena, another hardcore wrestler.  But, in a vehicle that looked like it was made for him, John Cena and company still couldn't make it work.

From the trailer, movie looked like it features all of the bells and whistles from the WWE: the flashy action as well as the weak acting. The action was actually pretty unbelievable with tons of errors and factual imperfections. There may been a scene or two that was cool, but the action was nothing less then garbage.  I was at times bored with the whole thing. 

The story was fairly simple that followed the tried and true formula. You won't see much of an in-depth storyline with this one but would you expect that coming from the WWE?  It was barely enough to keep the film moving , luckily, there was some cheesy over the top action to progress the movie.  I will say that there was a cool moment when one of the baddies mentioned that Triton was like the Terminator to Rome.  Patrick's character had a nice facial expression that made the movie somewhat worthwhile. All in all though, the story and action was nothing like I expected.

I think John Cena has a future in the film business. Even though his acting isn't great, the Mark Wahlberg look a like, wasn't that bad either. Some people think he looks like Matt Damon on steroids.  He has the looks and the strength to complete the crossover. He just needs some decent work.

Robert Patrick was one of the few bright spots for this movie. I loved his character even though he was an insane bad guy that kills his friends. I knew of Kelly Carlson from Nip/Tuck but I forgot just how hot she was. She didn't have much to do in this movie. The rest of the cast had people no one cares about.

All in all, The Marine is a bad action movie from the WWE. It offers nothing new except a few laughs here and there. I went to the movie expecting a kick ass action movie, and I came out wondering why I wasted my hard earned money. Damn you WWE!

Grade

What do you think?