User Reviews

This film has everything! Explosions, humour, cheesy lines, hot women and an enjoyable plot. This was not intended to be a big budget box office film, it delivers what it is meant to. If you are a fan of cheesy Arnie films from the 80s then this is the film for you. You certainly learn a lot from watching The Marine;

• John Cena is bulletproof

• John Cena is like 'The Terminator'

• South Carolina has Alligators not Crocodiles

• John Cena can take on a whole Taliban base by himself

• South Carolina possesses fridges that can chill beers instantly

• In the world of John Cena, everything blows up

• John Cena has the ability to jump 3 metres high, impressive

• Robert Patrick wants cable

Underrated explosive action flick. WWE Champion John Cena plays John Triton, a heroic Marine, who is unwillingly discharged from the war in Iraq. Back in the states, he finds being a security guard is just not him. With intentions to take a short vacation, his beautiful wife Kate(Kelly Carlson)is kidnapped by a rag-tag gang led by a relentless criminal named Rome(Robert Patrick). The cold and calculated Rome steals a fortune in jewels and really doesn't plan on sharing. Rome, with Kate as a hostage, thinks he can out-smart the law, as well as his gang and girlfriend Angela(Abigail Bianca). He has no idea that Triton will stop at nothing to get his wife back alive.

If you like explosions and massive automatic gunfire, this is for you; some real amazing fight scenes too. My favorite sequence is the car chase through the South Carolina wilderness. Also in the cast: Anthony Ray Parker, Drew Powell, Manu Bennett and Jerome Ehlers.

Absolutely the worst piece of crap my brother and I have seen. The movie looked to be an interesting action movie early on, but became totally unbelievable and stupid as the movie progressed. It simply insults the intelligence of the viewer! People in the audience were laughing at how dumb, and I mean dumb, this movie was. The acting was horrible. The plot, what plot? The "marine" was indestructible. The bad guys fought among themselves and acted like a bunch of morons. After intense fighting scenes, the characters didn't have scratches or torn clothing. Everything was predictable. I honestly can not recall seeing a movie as bad as this one. The producer of this movie should be ashamed! Absolutely do not recommend wasting even a dollar at a dollar theater for this one!

About 2 decades ago, people witnessed the age of when the action genre in films was at its finest. The world was given some of the greatest action entertainments ever (Terminator's 1 and 2, Die Hard, Predator, Robocop etc). And all of that was shamefully thrown away for the cheap rip-off's just so Hollywood can make a profit. And here we get WWE starting to finance and distribute films in hopes of expanding their fanbase and their publicity. And they start by throwing their superstar John Cena in his horrendous, over-the-top debut.

"The Marine" follows John Triton (Cena) who has been recently discharged for disobeying direct orders and he now has a lousy security job (but at the end, the problem of having a job he hates isn't even resolved, but what do we care?). Later on, a group of diamond thieves who are trying to evade the authorities after their latest heist kidnap Triton's wife. Triton decides to do the usual in a dumb action flick; he decides to go after them and take the law into his own hands. But the plot itself is too weak for us to care about what's going on. I mean the problem basically occurred by chance and coincidence when Triton and his wife just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time at the gas station. And all the plot elements don't mesh together very well.

And of course its action because the WWE wrestlers just want to prove their masculinity. And overall, the action sucks. There's explosions and gunfire, lots and lots of explosions and gunfire. But the special effects team must've been on crack because the blasts look like splashes of Sunny Delight, and the gunfire looks like it was made from a home computer with just that stupid orange X and the annoying sparkles that we see.

And the acting performance by Cena is atrocious and more wooden than a redwood forest. Robert Patrick as Rome is sub-par since he wasn't as threatening as he used to be in Terminator 2 and even in Die Hard 2 which he appeared in only 2 scenes. He's pretty much just spewing out dumb one-liners and acting goofy. All that, rather than the intimidating silence he's known for.

And the rest is just a bunch of badly timed jokes, dialogue and scenarios. Especially the part when Morgan is telling about his experiences with his camp counselor and Rome ordering him to find the generator. That part was WAY outta place, badly acted and awkward and it felt like it was never gonna end. And towards the end when Triton surely kills Rome in the blast, then after reviving his wife, Rome suddenly rises again with severe burns and then Triton kills him for good, VERY VERY B movie, if you ask me. And the "The Marine" is chock full of moments like those.

I didn't give this the lowest score because some of the fist fights here were alright and I liked some of the pop-culture references such as the ones to Terminator and Scarface here.

But don't waste your time, this is for John Cena die-hards only......

Critics automatically dismissed this film because it starred a WWE Wrestler. I watched it, and thought it was a good throw back to the old school action movies. For it being his first time out, I thought John Cena did a good job. I never watched Nip/Tuck, so I did not know much about Kelly Carlson. She is definitely easy on the eyes, and did a pretty good job herself of kicking some butt in the movie. Robert Patrick was awesome as the lead villain, and his acting talents are vastly underrated. The stunts and special effects were very good. My only two complaints on the movie were the car chase after the villain's first kidnap John's wife. For the car to have that many bullet holes, and none of them hit him was a little too far fetched. The other is the scenes where they are running through the woods to get away from John and the police. They just seemed to go on way too long. Other than those two things I enjoyed the heck out of the movie, and look forward to seeing Mr. Cena get another crack at the big screen

"The Marine" (2006)

Directed By: John Bonito

Starring: John Cena, Kelly Carlson, Robert Patrick, Abigail Bianca, Anthony Ray Parker, & Manu Bennett

MPAA Rating: "Unrated" (for intense sequences of violent action, sensuality and language)

***PLEASE NOTE: This Is A Review Of The "Unrated" Version Of The Movie***

Just recently, I gave "See No Evil" a passing grade, despite labeling it as "one of the most clichéd and stereotypical slasher flicks ever devised". I mention "See No Evil" in a review for this because they are both movies produced by WWE Films and both suffer from the same exact problem, yet both have gained my recommendation for the exact same thing. "The Marine" is one of the most clichéd and stereotypical action flicks ever devised (Does that sound familiar?). It stars John Cena, another wrestler trying to prove that he can act, and exists solely to have him survive as many explosive situations and kill as many bad guys as possible. Unsurprisingly, "The Marine" has very few new or innovative ideas to offer, which is why most people could simply skip this movie altogether and never even realize that they had missed it. However, it doesn't necessarily make for a boring watch and is certain to entertain casual moviegoers to some extent…though, said extent is probably not very far at all.

John Triton (Cena) is a recently-dismissed marine who was sent home after failing to follow orders. Kate Triton (Carlson) is his beautiful and beloved wife who supports him no matter and desires only to make him happy. Rome (Patrick) is a cruel and ruthless diamond thief who will betray anyone in order to line his own pockets. Angela (Bianca) is a cold-hearted killer who exists to serve Rome, her lover. When John and Kate are on their way to the mountains for a relaxing vacation, they happen to stop at the same gas station as Rome and Angela and their other henchmen, who have just pulled off a huge diamond heist. After a Rome's trigger-happy assistant, Morgan (Parker), shoots and kills a cop, Rome and his entourage destroy the gas station, leave John for dead, and kidnap Kate. But, John is not dead…and he will do anything to save his wife. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose as John goes on a wild and explosive adventure to find his wife and bring her back home. But, what he doesn't know is that someone he thought he could trust…is working for his greatest enemy.

The performances in "The Marine" are average at best, but they didn't really need to be any better. I didn't go into this movie thinking that it was going to have any Academy Award worthy performances. John Cena is best known (okay, so only known) for his long-time role in "WWE Monday Night RAW". Now, professional wrestlers are not typically good actors by any means. They are typically flat, emotionless cardboard cut-outs with muscles. Glen "Kane" Jacobs proved that he had what it took to portray a bloodthirsty serial killer with conviction in "See No Evil" so I was slightly optimistic for Cena's breakout role. Well, I got an average, but believable performance. He did a decent job. Kelly Carlson who is incredibly gorgeous, in my opinion, and quite talented also does a nice job. She first caught my attention with her provocative role in "Nip/Tuck" and she shows here that she can transition between television and film. Robert Patrick plays yet another villainous role…I mean, really, this is getting very predictable. I guess he does what he is good at, because he too does fine. But, the guy really needs to start taking more diverse roles.

The biggest problem with "The Marine", aside from its glaring lack of originality and creativity, is the overall ridiculousness of the action. When things explode in this film, they explode and destroy everything for miles around…except for our hero who is thrown several feet by the explosion into safety. Our hero is tossed around, thrown out of a car that is burning and flying off of a cliff, practically blown up, shot at (by assault rifles), and more and yet he remains almost completely unscathed. What, is he a robot, for crying out loud? On top of that, the music used in the movie is almost excruciating…seriously. This is the first time in a long time where I actually thought that the music almost ruined the movie. It was dreadful…and the random bits of humor and quirky moments were even worse. The recurring jokes about rock candy had me rolling my eyes and there are other jokes that get old just as fast. The dialog, itself, is horrendous and deeply false. However, "The Marine" didn't need good dialog to be a decent action movie, because, let's face it, a typical action movie replaces any substance it should have had with senseless violence and action. This is not necessarily a good movie, but it is entertaining enough to warrant a watch. But, just like with so many movies released lately, do not expect anything new.

Final Thought: Ridiculously over-the-top and silly, "The Marine" manages to get my recommendation because it is more fun than it should be.

Overall Rating: 5/10 (B-)

Before you watch this movie, you have to understand it's entertainment so if it's not as realistic as you feel it should be, the fault isn't with the movie makers. Remember they do have creative license and they use it to the fullest in this movie. With that said, I enjoyed the movie. It's kind of like the military version of "Speed". Kelly Clarkson was great. I think John Cena was great too but it would have been a little better if Cena used his wrestling persona a bit more. That's how Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson got successful in movies and why he's now branching to comedies. When Cena gives wrestling promos there is usually a lot of comedy involved just like the Rock. I am giving this movie a lot of leeway, rating wise, because it is Cena's first but I believe he can get better. The bad guys were horrible...it was stupid to let them start killing each other. I think one of the things that damaged this movie was the time limit....90 minutes. Had they expanded to 120, maybe they could have worked harder on character development but I did enjoy the movie. I saw it on cable though so I didn't pay anything extra. :)

wow, i've seen something worse then cena's wrestling, his acting! wow....don't watch the marine...i went for the laugh factor of seeing cena play in a movie...but it wasn't worth it...they tried being funny, but quite frankly it was just pathetic....there were 43 explosions for crying out loud! bad acting anyone? when his wife thinks he dies, she doesn't even changer her facial expressions...she just shrugs it off like it's no big thing.

a very very stupid plot....an ex marine goes to a gas station with his wife...but little does he know...some jewel thief's are in that exact same gas station! they steal his wife, need her as a hostage, though they didn't really....need a hostage at all. and they walk through a forest, while cena gets whacked in the head with a fire extinguisher and a plank of wood for the only laugh factors of the film.

so we end off the film, with 20 explosions, and his wife chained up in a truck falling into a lake! and then...cena has an epic battle with the main villain everyone thought was dead! after 5 more explosions and much more crappy acting later, he beats him up and the whole place blows up with a huge explosion....he dives in for his wife....who is obviously dead at this point, brings her up, and saves her somehow....and in an ironic twist, john tritan says to his wife "shoulda gone to da beach" ohohohoh, hilarity ensued.

i truly want my money back, plus some extra cash just for how bad it was

This may contain spoilers. I am sad to say that this movie is terrible. I am in John Cena's Chain Gang, and I can't even think of anything positive to say about this movie. The script is terrible, the acting laughable, the action uninspired, awful directing, it's too short. There is no character development of anyone, and this movie is ultimately forgettable. I hope Cena sticks to wrestling and doesn't think that this movie is a success by any means. The action sequences are overly ridiculous, in reality anyone including The Terminator would get wasted by them. The acting consists of many one liners and if you have seen the previews you can probably quote all the major lines from the movie. No characters have any chemistry besides Cena and his wife. Being in the Chain Gang, would make you think I love everything Cena does. Normally this is true, I like his CD, but I don't like this movie. Looney Tunes music plays at one time and accurately describes this movie.

Months prior to seeing this movie, I was watching it be knocked by so many people on this site. I knew that it couldn't be all that bad, so when it came out on DVD, I rented it. I loved it and calling it awesome would be an understatement. There was a few flaws (bloopers, tires getting shot but stayed inflated) and the acting was actually pretty good. People don't expect that wrestlers would be good actors in movies, but thats what wrestlers are...They're actors! Wrestling is Sports Entertainment! This had A lot of explosions and gun battles, quite a bit of killing and some intense fighting scenes. The film makers did an excellent job and so did John Cena. Robert Patrick and the other actors do not go un-noticed. I applaud this film.

Go buy this, I did the day after I rented it. You will enjoy it. 9/10

over all i was amused by the movie, if for no other reason than they had to blow something up to get Cena to go in the water above his boots. Yes it was predictable, from the previews you could tell that. But it did kill 90 minutes, and the black guy was quite amusing with his rock candy story. Unlike some movies that have nothing but bad clichés and bad jokes, i did laugh out loud a couple of times. would i give this movie a grade higher than C, no. But if it comes to a choice between something with Woody Allen or this, i will watch this movie again. The chick-fight was one of the better chick fights I've seen this year in a movie.