The Marine 5: Battleground is yet another bad entry into a franchise that should not even ever been a franchise in the first place. The problem is, this movie doesn’t fall in the so bad, it’s good territory and thus is a slog to sit through till the bitter and predictable end.
The Marine 5: Battleground
(2017)
Genre(s): Action
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | R – 91 min. – $25.99 | April 25, 2017
Date Published: 04/24/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 1.75/5 |
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Ready or not, “The Miz” is back for his third movie in the series, The Marine 5: Battleground, a movie that I found passable for about 2/3rds before it quickly wore out its welcome come the third act. After a short stint in private security, Jake Carter (MIKE “THE MIZ” MIZANIN) is now an EMT and on his very first day, he risks his life to rescue a woman about to be crushed by bricks dangling above her wrecked car. He manages to pull the woman out but she dies on scene. His partner, Zoe (ANNA VAN HOOFT), isn’t too pleased with his heroics, however.
Meanwhile, two men wait in their pick-up outside a biker bar when their target comes rolling in on his bike, the pick-up pulls up and the passenger puts about 100 bullets into the guy, killing him. Unfortunately, this dude was the head of a biker gang and his VP and others ain’t too happy, firing a barrage of bullets striking both men, killing the one. The driver, Cole (NATHAN MITCHELL), calls 911 claiming a heart attack. Carter and Zoe take the call driving to a closed amusement park’s garage, and have to leave the ambulance, and after some searching, find Cole bleeding to death. Of course, being underground, they have no cell service… and three members of this biker gang manage to track them inside. What follows is an array of cat-and-mouse games with The Miz, I mean Jake Carter, going into hero mode, refusing to give up Cole. We get some of your typical fights with the expected WWE moves thrown in as a few others are a part of that world. It’s a rather dumb premise but I suppose fine for a movie of this ilk. The Marine 5 isn’t good. No doubt about it, but I did have some hope it’d be an okay time-waster and while I actually don’t think “The Miz” is a bad actor, as he holds his own with this type of material, the plot is so thin that they somehow manage to stretch it out an additional 10 minutes with a finale ridiculously bad. The acting is standard stuff and the villains were cardboard cutouts, albeit the character Alonzo (portrayed by WWE star Taylor Rotunda) was hilarious, but not exactly in a good way, having the look of a biker from the 1980s rather than the 2010s. Beyond that, there’s really not much to them and the twist could be seen coming fairly easily.
The film was helmed by James Nunn marks his fourth film as director (he has nearly 30 credits as a second unit director) and it’s rather paint-by-numbers going from one action-thrill scene after another, nothing especially noteworthy and same goes for the script which is nonsensical and let’s be honest, nobody goes to see a movie like The Marine 5 for the dialogue, but even then the writers couldn’t even bother with any cringe-worthy one-liners. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5 |
| This release comes with a semi-glossy slip cover. Included are a couple standard featurettes: Evening the Odds (4:38; HD) and Superstar Studded (4:19; HD). |
VIDEO – 4.25/5 |
| Sony takes over distribution duties from Fox releasing The Marine 5 onto Blu-ray presented with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. This more less matches up with the previous DTV installments meaning it’s clean since it was likely shot digitally. Colors are generally natural looking and darker scenes are fairly stark. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| The disc includes your standard but relatively robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which offers up clear dialogue levels and when the action kicks into high gear, the front and rear channels get nice usage. This won’t test your surround system but still is effective enough given the low budget nature. |
OVERALL – 2.0/5 |
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Overall, The Marine 5: Battleground is yet another bad entry into a franchise that should not even ever been a franchise in the first place. The problem is, this movie doesn’t fall in the so bad, it’s good territory and thus is a slog to sit through till the bitter and predictable end. This Blu-ray release offers good video/audio transfers but throwaway bonus material. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.