Michael Scott

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The Marine 6: Close Quarters


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Movie: :2.5stars:
Video: :3.5stars:
Audio: :4stars:
Extras: :1.5stars:
Final Score: :3stars:



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Movie

Yup, it’s that time of year again. Another The Marine sequel out on home video and another entry with Mike “The Miz” Mizanin helming it. I have to really had it to the WWE films, Mike Mizanin, and the producers. They have sort of got this DTV sequel thing down to an art, imitating the heyday of the 1980s and Cannon Films, grabbing a hefty WWE star, putting him in harms way, and watching him shoot and beat his way out of said situation. Rinse, repeat, ad nausea. Simple, right? I really REALLY hate to admit this, but I actually like The Marine films. The Marine is easily the best of the bunch, and a solid entry into the fledgling WWE Films repertoire a decade (ish) ago when John Cena was trying to be the next Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It didn’t break any records, it wasn’t that great, but the huge bodybuilding WWE star was a good bit of action oriented fun. Then 20th Century Fox and WWE Films went with Ted DiBiase Jr. for a mediocre sequel that almost killed it’s DTV aspirations. Luckily they found DTV gold with Mike Mizanin, who reinvigorated the DTV sequels with a reasonable amount of charisma and has helmed films 3-6 with ease as Jake Carter. I won’t say that these movies are good movies, or even acceptable movies, but the WWE capabilities of their stars and lots of action has given us an above average series of DTV films that are actually rather enjoyable for rentals (I’ve seen MUUUUUUUUCH worse in the DTV genre, especially lately).

Poor Jake Carter. He’s had a rough several years. First he comes back form combat to find out his sister is in trouble, then he works private security and gets attacked. Then he moves to being an EMT where he has to defend his life and an innocent’s against a rabid gang of bikers, now he’s helping out a friend and STILL manages to get shot at! The poor guy just can’t catch a break! When Jake (Mike “The Miz” Mizanin) agrees to help out fellow veteran Luke Trapper (Shawn Michaels) in bringing aid to an old vet by the name of Tommy (Tim Woodward) squatting out in an abandoned Oregon brewery he gets ANOTHER chance to kick some butt.

The duo tries their best to give some food and help to the seriously disturbed Tommy, but as they’re leaving they run into a group of gangsters headed by the vicious Maddy Hayes (WWE Diva Rebecca Quin) who have kidnapped a young girl. Well, what do you expect a pair of Marines to do? They yank the girl out from under Maddy and do their best to escape the massive warehouse alive. The problem is, Maddy is keeping the young girl there to leverage her father who is a juror on her gangster father’s ongoing trial) and she will do everything in her power to keep the two Marines from leaving alive. Even if that means killing them all in the process.
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Yup, not exactly hard to describe. Jake and Luke are trapped in the building and it’s up to them to shoot, beat, and otherwise tear through the bad guys for 85 minutes. It’s stupid, predictable, but actually rather fun. Mike Mizanin is actually quite charismatic for a WWE star, and he’s gotten better and better with his acting personality with each and every one of these films that he’s done. Adding Shawn Michaels to the mix as his old CO and partner actually adds a mild flair to the film. Instead of one manning it like usual, Jake is forced to work with someone and the banter between the two adds some charm to the movie.

I won’t give TOO many spoilers, but this actually acts as the final film for Mike Mizanin as Jake Carter, and they do a solid sendoff for his character. I have no idea if they aren’t continuing the series, or if Mike himself is tired of the role, but they close out the Jake character pretty finally and while they MAY put Shawn Michaels in the role, I think they’re going to not go on, or cast another WWE star in the role of super man Marine.




Rating:

Rated R for Violence and Some Language




Video: :3.5stars:
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The 2.39:1 framed AVC image for the movie is a bit grim and dim, leaning heavily towards a very muted look that features dim colors and not a WHOLE lot of detail to go around. The last film in the series was rather bright at times (even though it was featured in an underground garage), but Close Quarters uses a heavy ash gray color grading that usually only shows splashes of color with the ridiculously obvious CGI blood and the occasional muzzle flash on their weapons. Details are a bit smooth and robbed due to the color grading, but it’s an acceptable image as most of the time clarity is stable and noticeable. Again, the ash color plays hob with the skin tones, giving them an ashy look, but blacks are actually rather deep and inky throughout.







Audio: :4stars:
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The Marine 6: Close Quarters comes to Blu-ray with not one, not two, but THREE lossless 5.1 DTS-HD MA tracks, although we’ll be just focusing on the English 5.1 one for us today. Like the last several Marine films, Close Quarters is a fairly basic mix with your typical loud action set pieces, intermingled with forward heavy dialog portions. The film really doesn’t push the boundaries of the lossless 5.1 mix, but it does well enough with the limited budget. Dialog is always clean and clear (despite Shawn Michaels’ rasping voice) and the LFE is more than appropriate considering all of the fisticuffs and gunfire going off (although like the rest, it doesn’t try too hard to be wild and exciting). It’s a capable mix with decent surround usage and a fairly straight forward design that just works for the DTV action market.







Extras: :1.5stars:
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• Making Maddy and the Marines

• The Breakdown: Epic Fights








Final Score: :3stars:


Lets be honest here. I like The Marine series for what they are, and have had a good time watching them, but these are not great films. The first one was the only theatrical one of the mix, and it was nothing to write home about either. They’re direct to video sequels that just happen to be above average for the genre, and thanks to the WWE’s pool of literal stunt men, their action sequences are better as well. This one marks the final film for Mike Mizanin, and maybe even the end of the franchise (since he’s carried the series ever since the 3rd film), and it’s pretty much par for the course when it comes to quality (if you’ve seen the others). A decent low budget action rental that works well enough as a cheesy watch. Easily a decent rental if you like the genre.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, Shawn Michaels, Rebecca Quinn, Louisa Connolly-Burnham
Directed by: James Nunn
Written by: Craig Walendziak
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French DTS-HD MA 5.1, German DTS-HD MA 5.1, Russian DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish (Latin), Spanish (Castilian), Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 86 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 13th 2018






Recommendation: Cheesy (but fun) Rental

 

Todd Anderson

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Have to be honest. For me, pass. Time is too valuable. :surrender:
 

tripplej

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Thanks for the review. I will skip this one. lol. :)
 
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