DVD Reviews

The Marine 2 – DVD Review

By Frankie Dees Jan 26, 2010, 13:36 GMT

A relaxing five-star holiday turns into an all out battleground for Marine recon sniper Joe Linwood when a group of local rebels seize control of the hotel taking the billionaire owner, and a group of guests, including Joe\'s wife, hostage. With the victims in danger of being brutally murdered, Joe takes matters into his own hands in order to save his wife from certain death. ...more

John Cena passes his ‘hoorah!’ baton to Ted DiBiase, Jr. for ‘The Marine 2’ - a film no one asked for but got anyway. There’s no real surprises here other than it’s not completely incompetent. For fans of brainless action, I recommend signing up for this 95-minute tour of duty. 

So how does the son of the Million Dollar Man do at this whole acting thing? Well, I will say he looks considerably more comfortable than his predecessor John Cena did, but he still has a ways to go before he can approach the fine acting of ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper. But we’re not here to watch DiBiase emote are we? We’re here to watch him lumber around awkwardly and punch people. And that’s what we get. 

After a completely unrelated opening that shows that Joe Linwood (DiBiase) is in fact a Marine and shoots people, the action quickly moves to a unspecified Asian tropical resort where his wife Robin (Lara Cox) has coaxed him into meeting her as she’s tending to the PR of her boss, the resort’s owner, Darren Connor (Robert Coleby).

She’s there for work, but they manage to find some time to go scuba diving. They find a private beach courtesy of a retired soldier Church (Michael Rooker) - who just so happens to show them a cave with a secret path back to the resort. That won’t come in handy later in the film will it? 

And before you can say Die Hard rip-off at an island resort, a group of terrorists led by Damo (Temuera Morrison) storm the resort and take everybody hostage including Joe’s wife with Church barely pulling Joe to safely. There seems to be some political bent to the terrorism but it’s unclear whether they just hate whitey or want lots of cash. Possibly both.

At any rate, the nameless government army is afraid to make a move and mercs hired to do the job fail so that leaves only one option. Send in the thick-headed marine!

So ‘The Marine 2’ obviously scores no points for originality or even one unique action scene as our American hero punches and kicks his way through countless Asian stereotypes.

That being said, I imagine peeps that would rent or buy ‘The Marine 2’ in the first place will get their money’s worth. DiBiase, while no Steven Seagal, grunts his way effectively enough through the dialogue and looks appropriately at home with the action. 

While I would have preferred a bit more hand-to-hand combat opposed to all the squibs and CGI explosions, the action is consistent and rarely dull. Props also to the casting of Michael Rooker who added some much needed frivolity to the pic.

I’m surprised the filmmakers didn’t make better use of the main villain however played by Temuera Morrison - who was a ball of fantastic angry energy in ‘Once were warriors…’. He was definitely a wasted opportunity there. 

The film is presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and a Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

Special Features include about half an hour of featurettes, the six are ‘Village Virtuoso: The Final Fight, ‘The Last Resort: Inside the Terrorist Siege’, ‘East Meets West: The Muay Thai Fight’, ‘Production Paradise: Filming in Thailand’, ‘Building a Legacy: Ted’s Story’ and ‘Play By the Roels: Inside the Production’. ‘Muay Thai Outtakes’ runs about seven minutes, and finishing things off are some Deleted and Extended Scenes. 

This is slightly above average DTV action fare with a decent lead and a fun tropical location but it’s certainly nothing you haven’t seen before. For fans of WWE, DiBiase and low-standard action, I say rent it.

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