When the Marine starring WWE superstar John Cena hit theaters in 2006 who would have thought that it would become a franchise? Well apparently the WWE did as they released a straight to video sequel aptly named The Marine 2 with Ted DiBiase, Jr and now are delivering a new entry with The Marine 3: Homefront starring WWE Superstar Michael “The Miz” Mizanin.
The Marine 3: Homefront follows a marine who must use his training to go to war to not only stop a terrorist attack by a radical militia group, but also to save his kidnapped niece. While the previous entry to the film didn’t work all that well, this one plays a bit better. Some of this is thanks to The Miz himself, but mostly thanks to his ability to deliver the action. He does fine with the acting, but with this kind of film everyone wants to see these guys lay down some beatings and should have no issue doing so. Sadly, a lot of the films like this tend to try and stick to the wrestling style they are known for and it just plays out a bit too choreographed, but here they play it more gritty and hardcore. There isn’t a tone of the hand to hand, but makes up for it with the gun play. The story is pretty simple and average for this genre. Once again this entry has nothing to do with the previous films, but WWE has done a smart thing to create a generic franchise that they could continue to produce these films and either bring back the same character or move on with a new one and it will always work.
This is by no means a great movie, but plays fine as a straight to video film. There seems to have been a bit more effort put into bringing this film together than the last film and works a lot better thanks to some well executed action. It doesn’t hurt that it has a good supporting cast including The Last Exorcism’s Ashley Bell and the always great Neal McDonough. Clearly this will be more of a draw to the WWE fans, but stands apart as a decent addition to the action genre as well.
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