The Marine

An explosion-laced, fisticuff-laden, utterly brainless action movie produced by Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment, filmmaker John Bonito's The Marine stars current WWE heavyweight champion John Cena as John Triton, a marine drummed out of the corps for disobeying orders while heroically saving comrades about to be executed by terrorists in Iraq. Back home in South Carolina, Triton loses a security job after a single day—having dealt rather too harshly with an irate building “guest” and his bodyguards—and then stumbles into a bad situation when he and his wife stop at a gas station on a camping trip, where they encounter a gang of thieves who've just robbed a jewelry store. Before long the bad guys have killed a couple of cops, stolen the couple's SUV with the wife inside, and left our hero for dead. But Triton survives, of course, and he's soon hot on the trail, with the rest of the movie serving up a succession of fights, chases, and explosions, leading to the inevitable triumph of good over evil. Cena evinces no particular aptitude for acting, although Robert Patrick's turn as the chief villain is played with a jovial malevolence that offers up some campy charm. Apart from that, however, The Marine is a complete waste of time. Not recommended. [Note: Available in either PG-13 or unrated versions, DVD extras include four featurettes on star John Cena (“The Champ Is Here,” “Chain Gang Soldier,” “Basic Training,” and “Cena's Aussie Day Off”) totaling 16 minutes, 10 brief WWE promo segments (including a character profile, fight scenes, stunts, and explosion/action scenes) that run 15 minutes, a 13-minute “Declassified” “making-of” featurette, a three-minute segment from the world premiere at Camp Pendleton (3 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid set of extras for a mindless action flick.] (F. Swietek)