The Marine 3: Homefront (Blu-ray Combo Pack) Directed by Scott Wiper Studio: 20th Century Fox/WWE Year: 2013 Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p AVC codec Running Time: 90 minutes Rating: R Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 5.1 French Subtitles: SDH, Spanish
Region: A MSRP: $ 29.99
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Review Date: March 5, 2013
The Film
2.5/5 When Lilly Carter (Ashley Bell) and her boy friend Darren (Jeffrey Ballard) witness a murder committed by Pope (Neal McDonough) and are kidnapped by his domestic militia squad intent on bombing a portion of Seattle to make a statement against unfeeling, uncaring big business, her brother Jake (Mike Mizanin), on two week leave from the Marines, springs into action. Unfortunately, the FBI has a man on the inside tracking the group, and their handling of the potential bombing precludes anything Jake might want to do. So, he must turn rogue to somehow infiltrate the group’s hangout on a dilapidated ferry without getting his sister killed and without interfering with the FBI’s maneuvers. Director Scott Wiper and Declan O’Brien have written a very rudimentary script for the film. Instead of plotting some interesting leatherneck maneuvers allowing Jake to sneak onto the boat and wreak havoc on the outlaws covertly (kind of like a Rambo for the new century), he blunders into the midst of open warfare with guns blazing and little if nothing in the way of a plan. (In fact, he proves to be the luckiest man alive as several men with automatic weapons fire point blank at Jake only to find bullets bursting all around him without one finding its target. He, of course, is a crack shot and rarely misses.) There’s not much plan to the massive firefight that the FBI/SWAT team and the bad guys undertake either resulting in lots of noise but quite disappointingly staged action scenes. On the other hand, given the star’s great experience in staged combat, there are two very involving fight scenes in the movie: the one early in a bar ends quickly but a later one with the group’s most experienced warrior is by far the movie’s most effective sequence with the outcome actually in doubt as the fight proceeds. As the brother attempting to watch out for his two sisters (one appears older and one younger) and basically supporting them with his service salary, Mike Mizanin’s Jake is a man of few complications though there’s some psychological mystery here why he feels it’s his job to choose his grown-up sisters’ boy friends (he even objects when he learns that his best friend Harkin played by Jared Keeso is dating older sister Amanda). Keeso is solid if unexceptional as Harkin, and Ashley Bell and Camille Sullivan do fine as the two sisters under their brother’s watchful eye. But the film’s real star presence is Neal McDonough as the possessed Pope. The robbery scene that begins the film finds him a firm but unsettling presence, and his strength and charisma as an actor is on display for all to see through the entire running time of the picture. Michael Eklund as his skuzzy second-in-command Eckert is effective, too.
Video Quality
4/5 The film has been framed at 1.78:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. While most of the imagery is sharp and clear with good color values and realistic flesh tones, there are some establishing shots that shimmer and twitter making one think they’re upconverted vault footage pulled for use from somewhere else and not shot for the film. Black levels are good but not great. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5 The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix uses Robert Revell’s music to fill the soundfield in the fronts and rears. For too much of the action portions of the movie, however, the sound mix is frontcentric and rather underwhelming. With all of those bullets flying around at several points of the movie, the whizzing should be panning across and through the soundstage continually, and it simply doesn’t. There is a pan from front to back with a helicopter early in the proceedings, but that’s the last notable instance of the rear soundstage being used effectively to support the film’s on-screen action.
Special Features
3/5
Five electronic press kit featurettes are presented in 1080i: “Shipwrecked: Breaking Down the Boat” is an 8-minute look at the ferryboat used for the film’s major set pieces. Director Scott Wiper and cast and crew comment on the use of the rusting hulk for ten of the movie’s twenty-day shooting schedule. “The Miz Rocks the Boat” finds the film’s star Mike Mizanin giving the viewer a guided tour of the ferryboat pointing out where major action scenes were filmed abetted with clips from the movie. This lasts 8 ¼ minutes. “The Miz Declassified” is a 10 ¼-minute vignette showing the training the star went through for the shooting and combat portions of the film. Some behind-the-scenes footage of the big fight scene is also shown with and without stunt doubles. “Casting Call: Ready to Enlist” features an interview with a WWE fan who was cast in an extra role for the movie. This lasts 8 minutes. “Miz Journal” is a very brief video diary kept by “The Miz” during the twenty-day shoot. It runs 6 ¾ minutes. There are 1080p promo trailers for A Good Day to Die Hard, Broken City, Red Dawn, and Fox’s recent 3D releases. The second disc in the set is a DVD copy of the movie.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average) 12 Rounds with John Cena remains the finest of the WWE films featuring their wrestling superstars in lead roles. The Marine 3: Homefront is rather unimaginative and rudimentary. Fans of the star Mike Mizanin will want to rent it, but none of his beaming braggadocio is on display in this very mediocre made-for-home video effort. Matt Hough Charlotte, NC
