DTV Cinema - The Marine 2 (2009)

Director: Roel Reine

Cast: Ted DiBiase, Lara Cox, Michael Rooker, Temuera Morrison

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 96 min

DTV Cinema is a series dedicated to reviewing and discussing all things direct to video. Although one could easily take a direct to video at the same face value as a theatrically released film, they truly do differ in many ways, and represent their own sub-genre and fandom that makes them fun and unique to follow.

The Marine 2 is a WWE produced direct to video sequel to the terrible The Marine. The film is a sequel in name only as it loosely retreads the plot of the original, but with an entirely new cast and setting. In a sense, The Marine franchise is an anthology series in which a new actor plays a new Marine each film. John Cena is the first Marine, Ted Dibiase is the second Marine, and Mike The Miz Mizani is the third Marine. One would assume that a direct to video sequel to a theatrically released film with a different actor and lower budget would immediately be a weaker film. After all, John Cena and $20 million is more than what this film had to work with. However, DTV veteran Roel Reine* (Pistol Whipped, Death Race 2, Dead in Tombstone) does the best he can with his low budget and pumps out a film that is actually better than the original.

The Marine 2 exceeds where the original fails because Reine and star Dibiase take the material seriously. Instead of being a ridiculous piece of popcorn entertainment, The Marine 2 is a deadly serious action film with a gritty tone, small scaled setting, and violent action scenes to boot. Reine even avoids the pitfalls of the original by ditching unnecessary humor and keeping the plot focused and straightfoward. Unfortunately, the film is only better than the original by "that" much. Even though The Marine 2 features a serious tone and solid action, the film is dull from start to finish. There isn't an ounce of tension or originality in the entire film. DiBiase doesn't exude any charisma or talent either. With a dull "by the numbers" plot and a boring lead, The Marine 2 drags from start to finish. Still, I'd rather take the boring but violent The Marine 2 over the annoying and offensive The Marine any day.

This opening scene reeks of Antoine Fuqua's Shooter.

The Marine 2 opens with an action scene where the protagonist, Joe Linwood (Ted DiBiase) kills a bunch of people while on active duty; much like the opening scene in The Marine. We than jump to our main plot: Joe and his wife Robin (Lara Cox) decide to go on a vacation to a new hotel on an island in Thailand; Robin also has work to attend to on the island. Even though their vacation in the sunny tropics seems grand and all, boats full of terrorists raid the hotel and take everyone hostage in exchange for ransom. In the midst of the initial take over, Joe gets knocked unconscious and saved by fellow islander Church (Michael Rooker). When Joe awakes outside of the hotel grounds, he decides to wage a one man war against the terrorists and save both his wife and the other hostages.

The Marine 2 loosely adapts the original film's plot as it places the protagonist's wife into a hostage situation. However, the sequel does enough different in order to separate it from the original. Instead of being a large chase across a swamp a-la The Marine, The Marine 2 takes place entirely on one island within one hotel. The Marine 2 is yet another action film that can be added to the ever growing list of Die Hard knock offs with its "one man against many in one location" plot. I love that screenwriters Christopher Borrelli and John Morgan found a way to distinguish The Marine 2 from its predecessor this way. The villains are also written to be far more menacing and threatening than the pansy assed villains from the predecessor. I never once felt scared for John Cena's wife in the original film because her captors were a bunch of dumb idiots. However, the captors in this film are far more threatening thanks to their menacing outfits, martial arts skills, and large numbers.

Even though The Marine 2 is tonally an improvement over The Marine, the film drags from start to finish. There isn't an ounce of true tension in the entire film. It never once feels exciting, and only comes to life during its action sequences. Everything else though from the characters, to the dialog, to the plot is as routine as they come. It also doesn't help that every actor is duller than a brick too. Star DiBiase has no charisma or charm. Therefore, the man comes off like an emotionless robot who only comes to life when he kicks ass. Much like Cena, DiBiase fails in the drama department but excels during his action scenes. Lara Cox and Temeura Morrison (Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) also come off extremely dull. Even though Morrison is especially dull, at least the actor portrays a villain far more menacing than Robert Patrick's ridiculous Rome character from The Marine. The only actor who seems to exude an ounce of charm or give an effort is character actor Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Guardians of the Galaxy). Rooker is one of the few character actors who can make any character of his all the more memorable simply by playing his kind self.

Henry: Portrait of a Marine Helper

When I went into The Marine 2, I knew that I would be getting some sub-par to impressive action sequences for a DTV film simply because Roel Reine was directing. Reine has directed numerous DTV features and typically brings a good sense of action craftsmanship to every low budget film of his. And you know what, I got exactly that. The action scenes in the film range from dull and cheap to exciting and impressive. Even though The Marine 2 kicks some ass, its action scenes typically fall flat simply due to the low budget that Reine had to work with. For example, most of the film's explosion are poorly rendered computer graphics. It's a shame that the film didn't have the pyrotechnics budget of the original film because those fantastic explosions could have been put to great work in this slightly superior sequel. Most of the film's action scenes also lack a sense of tension and feel routine in their choreography. 

However, Reine delivers two very impressive standout set pieces that one would not expect to find in a film entitled The Marine 2 for goodness sakes. The first is a fantastic fight scene between DiBiase and two martial arts skilled members of the terrorist group. After the three exchange gun fire down a hallway, DiBiase takes cover behind a pillar. As the men fire away at the pillar and obliterate it to pieces in a slow motion scene that recalls The Matrix's exploding lobby pillars, the men eventually run out of ammo and result to rushing DiBiase. The three have a very good fist fight that combines the brutal Thai fighting style of The Raid films with the cool tracking shots of Children of Men. The scene is filled with numerous "Oh!" moments and concludes with DiBiase kicking one of the men's heads through a wooden plank (pictured below). The other great action scene of the film is the final foot chase in which DiBiase must out run Morrison on a wooden dock. The scene runs for a lengthy amount of time and feels very reminiscent to the climactic foot chase from Point Break.

Unfortunately, I have to dock The Marine 2 for its cheap score and lousy grey tint. Nothing screams direct to video more than a generic sounding score and a lame grey tint. Other sub-par direct to video films like Dragon Eyes and The Assassination Games also feature a similar grey tint in order to make their proceedings appear gritty. And I'm sorry, but a grey tint is the last thing that should be applied to a film set on a tropical island. I have never seen a more depressing looking vacation getaway in my life. There's just too much grey in The Marine 2 in general. Even star DiBiase wears a grey shirt and pants the entire movie!

DiBiase brings the pain in the sequel's stand out set piece.

I really don't have much to say about this one people. Even though The Marine 2 makes no major offenses, it is still nothing more than a routine and sub-par direct to video sequel (that also finds a way to surpass its theatrically released predecessor). I applaud Reine for making a tonally serious sequel that does more with its low budget than The Marine could with several million dollars. Unfortunately, no one really knows how to act and Reine doesn't know how to direct drama. Never the less, The Marine 2 makes for a sub-par action film that extremely die hard action fans might want to check out. If you can, simply look up the two action scenes that I raved about and stop there, that is all you really need to see.

Rating: 4/10 - A mildly entertaining but mostly dull DTV sequel that makes for a fun Die Hard rip-off as well.

Reviews In This Series:
The Marine (John Bonito, 2006)

The Marine: Unrated Cut (2006) - Review

Director: John Bonito

Cast: John Cena, Kelly Carlson, Robert Patrick, Anthony Ray Parker

Country: United States

Rating: Unrated

Run Time: 92 minutes

The Marine is an extremely cheesy and ridiculously stupid action film from WWE Films, the studio that typically tries to make movie stars out of its own wrestlers. The WWE already makes their wrestlers act out pre-scripted story lines. Therefore, why not let them act in movies? When one thinks of wrestlers turned actors, names like Hulk Hogan (No Holds Barred), Andre the Giant (The Princess Bride), Steve Austin (The Expendables), Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (The Scorpion King), and now Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) come to mind. Whether you feel these wrestlers' performances are quality or not, you can't deny that you know their names. 

Dwayne Johnson seems to have transitioned best from the ring to the screen with performances in mega hit films like The Rundown, Fast Five, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and Fast and Furious 6. It seems that Bautista is the next wrestler turned actor primed to enter into the mainstream consciousness with roles in films like Riddick, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the eventual Bond 24, a.k.a. Spectre. However, it seems that wrestler turned actor John Cena never quite landed the roles or the films that launched Johnson and Bautista to stardom. In a sense, Cena's career seems destined for the DTV realm (which is okay, honestly, the DTV realm is a highly respected realm amongst action fans). But Cena had to star in theatrically released films first in order to test his chances at cinematic stardom. Unfortunately, the guy only got two wide release flicks under his belt.

How much did they pay Robert Patrick to appear in this schlock?

Which brings us to The Marine, John Cena's debut film and WWE Films' second theatrically produced film. It's a shame that The Marine was Cena's debut film because the film is shockingly terrible. And I mean terrible. This film reaches such lows that I couldn't help but laugh out loud at how bad it was. I guess this made my viewing experience more enjoyable too because I had no clue that the film would turn out as bad as it did. I thought that The Marine would simply be a dumb and serviceable action flick, not a "so bad, it's good" kind of film. But alas, it is most definitely "so bad, it's good."

The Marine opens up as United States Marine John Triton (John Cena) rescues several hostages from a group of al-Qaeda extremists. Unfortunately, Triton finds himself honorably discharged from the Marines the next day for disobeying a direct order by intervening with the extremists. As John returns home to his wife Kate (Kelly Carlson), a group of jewel thieves led by Rome (Robert Patrick) rob a jewel store and go on the run. In order to help get John's mind off of things, Kate decides that the two should go on a road trip. As the two fill up at a gas station, they stumble upon Rome and his gang. When a police officer starts to speak with Rome, one of his henchmen guns down the cop and sets off a chain reaction of events. Rome kills the remaining cop, one of his henchmen knocks out John, and the rest of them take John's car with his wife inside of it. When John awakes, he hops into the remaining cop car and heads after Rome and his men in order to rescue his wife.

Oh boy, where to start? The Marine's biggest problem is that its tone bounces all over the place. The film plays more like a self aware cartoon in which all of the actors know full well that they are in a movie. The characters crack jokes about their crimes, make self aware remarks of their past films (Patrick looks at the camera during a Terminator reference), and even go on rants about how black men are always blamed for everything. This failure to treat the content seriously utterly kills the film and prevents it from ever finding its footing. I am completely baffled that director John Bonito okay-ed for the film to contain numerous moments of dialog about how a henchman named Morgan (Anthony Ray Parker) hates rock candy. Do you want to know the reason why Morgan continually brings up his hatred for rock candy? Because rock candy relates to a time when a camp counselor raped Morgan as a child. That's right, rape is treated like a joke in the film. Rape! Do the screenwriters have no soul? The Marine joins the ranks of Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as one of the most insulting and offensive films in cinema history.

How do they not see John falling?! Shoot him! Not the car!

You don't know stupid until you have met the dumbest criminals of all time in this film! Rome and his crew of henchmen are the world's stupidest and most annoying characters in cinematic history, I kid you not. For example: when a police officer talks to Rome at a gas station, all of his fellow jewel thieves get nervous that the cop will realize who Rome is. However, the conversation the two have about Las Vegas seems to go fine. But than for no reason, Morgan walks up behind the cop and shoots him in the head! Why!? Why does he do this!? The cop was having a friendly conversation about Las Vegas, not about who Rome was and if he looked familiar or not. Morgan does nothing but escalate the problem! Later on in the film, Morgan complains about their situation. When Rome hears this, he tells Morgan that the entire situation is his fault. Morgan than replies by going on a rant about how black men are always blamed for everything. Hey idiot, you are the reason for everything! Why the hell is your character ranting about black men anyways? It has nothing to do with anything! You aren't funny at all either! I could go on forever simply about the idiotic decisions that these villains make, they are that non-sensical and irritating.

The other irritating thing about The Marine is that it is littered with scenes that serve the main plot in no way whatsoever. The plot of The Marine is plain and simple: when a Marine's wife is taken by jewel thieves as a hostage, he sets out to rescue her and take out the thieves using his skills as a Marine. It's a great plot for a simple minded action film that should provide plenty of opportunities for entertaining action and bad-assery. If you ask me, it's about as simple minded and basic as the plot for the contemporary action classic, Taken. However, The Marine continually blows this basic plot by bombarding the viewer with unnecessary scene after the other. 

For starters, the film takes 35 minutes to get to the hostage situation. 35 minutes! Therefore, almost everything that comes before the opening 35 minutes is nothing but pain inducing. For example: one unnecessary scene in the opening act concerns Morgan's desire for a cool car to drive around in. As Morgan visits a car shop, he goes on a rant about how a black man cannot be seen driving a mini-van. Not only does this scene run for too long, but it has the balls to end on a shot of Morgan breaking the fourth wall and looking at the audience as he picks out a cool ride! Why does Morgan do this?! There is also a god awful side track during the middle of the film in which John is captured by two swamp dwellers who mistake him for a cop. This side track from the main plot serves no purpose other than to add one more fight scene into the mix of the film. Otherwise, it is completely unnecessary and utterly baffling. Moments like these made me question if I was watching a parody of an action film and not a real action film.

Sorry John Triton, but you are no John Rambo with that knife of yours.

Cena does a fine job during his action scenes and holds up well during fist fights. The man is after all a professional wrestler/stuntman. Therefore, he pulls off his moves convincingly. However, the man cannot effectively carry an emotional or humorous moment for the life of him. This seems to be Cena's biggest fault as a screen actor. In the ring, wrestlers typically overact and act out pre-scripted melodrama. On the big screen though, they have to deliver convincing drama stripped of the melodramatic cheese found in the ring. Cena struggles to deliver a convincing portrayal of a troubled Marine who misses both his former job and his wife. Fellow co-stars Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgement Day), Kelly Carlson (3000 Miles to Graceland), and Anthony Ray Parker (The Matrix) also deliver lousy performances. You can blame it on them, the material, or the direction. Regardless, none of the performances gel the way that they should. It should be noted that Anthony Ray Parker's character Morgan is quite honestly one of the worst characters in screen history. I hated him that much.

I have essentially spent this entire review bashing all that is The Marine. However, I did find a few things to enjoy. First, The Marine can be thoroughly enjoyed on a "so bad, it's good" level. Even though it fails as a legitimate film, it succeeds on the so bad front. Get some friends together, pop this sucker in, and laugh your heads off at how bad it is. Second, the pyrotechnics and vehicular stunt work in the film are quite great. The gas station explosion and the ensuing freeway car chase both make for some great popcorn entertainment. There are also plenty of explosions towards the end of the film as John hangs onto the side of a semi-truck as Rome plows it through one explosive barrel after another. These few pyrotechnic heavy moments are the film's strongest point. I also enjoy the film's similarity to Commando in that it features a man saving a captive loved one using his former infantry skills.

But the positives stop there. Honestly, you couldn't pay me to write great things about this film. I must mention one of the supplements on the DVD though before I end this review. One of the interviews on the disc has Vince McMahon of WWE Films state that the studio was insistent on making a character driven action film for Cena's debut feature. I'm sorry, but I doubt that anyone who walks away from The Marine is going to call it a great character driven film. It's just not going to happen!

I wish the whole film was this and less of Morgan's rock candy references.

The Marine is a real tour de force of crap. If John Benito had focused on the basic plot at hand and not allowed so much awful humor and side plots to get into the way, than The Marine could have made for a half decent piece of popcorn entertainment. Even with all of the film's flaws, a few choice action scenes still shine through. I really do feel bad for poor John Cena. The man could not have picked a worse film to start his cinematic career with. In a sense, The Marine began and ended Cena's career like that. Cena only appeared in one more theatrically released action film after this: the Renny Harlin directed 12 Rounds in 2009. Since than, the man has yet to return to action cinema and seems to be keeping his acting career ring side and in comedies. Oh well. 

Rating: 2/10 - A true piece of crap if there ever was one. Terrible jokes and awful pacing damn this film to the bottom of the bargain bin and to re-runs on Spike TV for the rest of its existence.

Related Films:
The Marine 2 (Roel Reine, 2009)
The Keeper (Keoni Waxman, 2009)