As action franchises go, The Marine has had some odd goals throughout its run. Starting as a launchpad for John Cena to make the oft-made leap from the wrestling ring to the big screen, the first installment was a cartoonish boom-fest that kept the explosions big and it’s lead oddly restrained. However, when Cena was a no-show for the scaled down sequel, the powers that be at WWE Studios shoved Ted DiBiase Jr into the limelight (for some reason) for a Die Hard ripoff set at a holiday resort and it quickly became obvious that if The Marine franchise was going to continue, it was going to be a platform to bench test the movie skills of various superstars who either fancied a change or needed a bit of time off.
However, things changed with the third movie thanks to the casting of Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, but while the third outing for a third Marine was pretty shit (Semper Fail, actually), the Miz soon established himself as the main face of the franchise. Parts 4 and 5 were typical DTV diversions, but there was a sense that at everyone was at least trying – but with the sixth entry, the series seemed to be at its final installment. Could this wrestler-centric franchise go out on a high, or would it salute itself goodbye as it received one dishonorable discharge too many?
After young Sarah Dillion is kidnapped by a ruthless, flame haired, Irish criminal by the name of Maddy Hayes, her father gets a threatening phone call as he attends the jury that are about to pass a verdict on her jailed father. While jury duty sucks even if you haven’t got murderous criminals ringing you up and threatening to kill your daughter, the put upon patriarch has no choice by to block a guilty vote for as long as he can.
Meanwhile, Jake Carter, an ex-Marine and man of many jobs (I think he’s still an EMT, but don’t quote me), is taking time out of whatever job he’s supposed to be doing now and joining his grizzled ex-commanding officer, Luke Trapper to visit a down and out veteran who’s been living rough at a dilapidated brewery even since his son was KIA. However, in a stroke of action movie luck, that building is the exact same place Maddy and her well-armed goons are holding Sarah and before you know it, Jake and Luke have gotten the girl away from her kidnappers are the trio are playing Die Hard throughout the broken down building.
From there it’s fairly standard cat and mouse stuff, with our heroes taking time out from manly banter to kill the occasion bad guy who mamages to catch up with them. However, when Trapper is injured and things start to look a bit grim, Jake starts weighing up how many times he and his buddy owe each other for the saving of their lives and acts accordingly. But after numerous adventures that’s seen him fight his way out of rusted ships, forests and even a multistory car park, can he manage to pull the same trick here, or will he find that his luck has finally run out?
Look, I owe the Marnie series nothing. I’ve never been super impressed by the “good” ones and after working my way through all the movies, they all prove to be fairly forgettable when compared to the greats of the action genre. And yet, while I was watching The Marine 6: Close Combat, something rather strange occurred – not only was I actually enjoying myself I little more that I normally do as I trawl my way through dumb, DTV actioners, by the time the end credits rolled, I was actually invested in the film beyond just waiting for the odd, cool fight scene and hoping that one of the wrestlers uses their finisher mid-fight (they don’t). Also, while the Miz has been a decent and dependable flag bearer since the movies descended into becoming just more content for the WWE Network (he was worlds better than DiBiase, that’s for damn sure), aside from pulling off the action stuff, the role didn’t really give him much to work with on an emotional level other than furrowing his brow a bit when a good guy died.
However, I’m not too sure how they did it, but The Marine 6: Close Quarters somehow manages to not only catch your attention on an emotional level, but it actually stands as the best outing of the bunch as it goes to places the risk adverse previous entries didn’t dare to tread. The secret seems to be the presence of the former Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels as Jake’s grizzled CO, whose aged featured, retreating hairline and gravelly voice adds a ton of gravitas that the series was previously missing. As strange as it is to imagine the “suck it” bellowing member of Degeneration X being the emotional centre of anything, his self deprecating nature and a willingness to show that he’s physically list a step or too gives the franchies the exact sort of prickly Bruce Willis charm the movies have been shooting for for ages. Be it the fact that he’s forced to wear a purple T-shirt that declares him a “Proud Grandma Of An Honour Student” that he’s anxious not to die in, to the cheeky dude-banter he has with his co-star, he actually makes the damn movie while the Miz is once again required to be stuck in vanilla mode. Also helping is another wrestler who is trying out this acting lark, and while Becky “The Man” Lynch may not be the gold standard of female villains, she does a much better job as an antagonist than Bo Dallas did in the last movie as she does prove to be a nicely credible threat.
The plot is once again AWOL and literally just sees the Miz and Michaels running around yet another deserted building while engaging in frequent gun battles and fist fights, but while the action couldn’t be what you’d call The Raid class, they’re punchy enough to carry you through without getting overly samey. However, the main reason this installment of The Marine is noticed the best is because it has the balls to do something franchises rarely do and that’s flip the script completely as it enters its final third. With an obvious SPOILER WARNING in effect, you may have been expecting an aged and wounded Shawn Michaels to buy the farm in order to inject some emotional oomph into the film. However, much to my surprise, it’s actually Jake who sustains maximum damage and fatally falls in battle and it’s down to Luke to take over and eventually save the day off the back of his buddy’s sacrifice and while it might not make a lot of sense, it certainly had me sitting up in shock and pay attention. If you had told me when I first started the Marine movies, that the final one would causs me to have the start of a lump in my throat that wasn’t caused by me choking on food I hadn’t chewed enough, I’d have called you a goddamn liar – and yet while the montage of Jake’s previous adventures plays before the end credits, you can’t help but be amazed that The Marine technically beat Daniel Craig’s Bond to the punch by a couple of years.
Hailing Close Quarters as the best Marine of the bunch may sound like picking out which STI is your favorite to your school crush, but the fact it chooses to go dark in its closing moments means that for once, one of these wrestler-fueled, Die Hard ripoffs actually makes a genuine impact. You weren’t the greatest action franchise out there, Marine, but I salute you. Semper Die, brother.
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