The Marine 5: Battleground

For being a Marine that knows how to use guns Jake Carter apparently suffers from the "A-Team TV Series" syndrome. Bullets fly everywhere and, and, and, what for it.....meh! I guess Jake got tossed for not being able to hit the broad side of Pikes Peak.

Caught this randomly at midnight on a regional tv channel. What you would expect if you don't expect much: Violence, gore, bad lines, clichés, and guns everywhere.

"I'm sorry I called you down here. I'm sorry any of this happened. I was just trying to protect my daughter." Jake Carter (Mizanin) is adjusting to life outside the Marines and is working as an EMT. When him and his partner go to check out a call they find something much more than just a man in health trouble. This is a movie that gives you what you want, and doesn't try to be more than it is. This is a very good 15 minute story idea that is drug out into a full length movie. The moral and character issues the movie deals with are kind of glossed over, but that isn't that surprising in a movie like this. The movie is full of action that tries to have an important and meaningful story but ends up being a little cheesy and makes you wonder why they are helping this person. All that being said, no one watches those movies for the story and plot so if you are looking for an exciting action movie this is one for you. Overall, exactly what you are expecting. Nothing more, nothing less. I give this a B-.

Being a former USAF member and trained in certain hand to hand combat, this film lacks a lot in belief. Yes, we as the audience know it is fiction, but there has to be some believability in it's action sequences. The stunts were lacking entirely and the fight scenes demonstrated bad format in my opinion. WWE as a conglomarte has the resources and funding to put more effort into their films. Mike Mizanin has lead the charge of the marine franchise for 3 films and they do not get much better. In this film the WWE enlisted the help of Maryse Mizanin, who subsequently had 2 minutes before her character died, Naomi who did nothing for the film, Bo Dallas, Heath Slater and Curtis Axel. This film certainly did not impress me in the least.

Don't be put off by the '5' in the title. Whilst I am aware of The Marine series of films, this fifth installment is actually the first of the franchise films that I have seen, and whilst Jake Carter (played by Michael "The Miz" Mizanin ) also appears in parts 3 and 4, there is no need to have seen those films in order to get full enjoyment out of this crazy action packed film that could so easily be described as Sons of Anarchy meets The Warriors, with a dashing or five of the Die Hard films, all stirred up and given the slick work over that James Nunn brings to his films of late. I was a huge fan of his previous film Eliminators (starring Scott Adkins) and hoped that this film would be just as much enjoyment as that film, and I wasn't let down. The film is non stop entertainment from start to end.

Even with the fact that most of the film is set in an underground car park not, this doesn't lessen the films enjoyment with some OTT villains, more bullets than a Rambo film (well maybe more more bullets than the 4th Rambo film, but thats a hard one to beat) , some great motorbike action, and some great fight sequences that you will expect from a WWE film. Also on the 'it needs to happen if its a WWE studios film' are some great supporting roles for other wrestling talents, such as Trinity Fatu, Maryse Mizanin,Heath Miller, Joe Hennig, and Taylor Rottunda all chewing the scenery with one thing in mind. Giving the audience the best show possible, and they do that wonderfully.

I've seen some so called reviews that comment about some of aspects of The Marine 5:Battleground being far fetched but that's what I want from a film like this. I want fun, I want snappy dialogue that wouldn't be a stranger in an 80s Schwarzenegger film, I want kick ass women, bullet casings to fly all over the place,great fight scenes, and in the end I want to to be entertained. and Mr James Nunn has done it again with The Marine 5:Battleground. Now can someone please greenlight a new installment of The Purge franchise or a new Fast and Furious entry and let James Nunn work his magic.