EARLY ACCESS: The Marine 6: Close Quarters – Movie Review

By Gisberto Guzzo

 

The Marine 6: Close Quarters is exactly what you’d expect it to be, maybe less.

Mike “The Miz” Mizanin returns as ex-marine Jake Carter for the fourth time. Unfortunately, he is quite forgettable. I don’t blame him, however, as he’s rarely the focal point of the film. He makes the action look good and delivers the dialogue as well as you could hope, but does noticeably struggle with a key emotional scene near the end. It’s a shame when a title character doesn’t feel necessary to their own franchise.

WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels plays Luke Trapper, Carter’s former commanding officer, and holds his own next to Mizanin. Their chemistry is fine, but you never believe they are as close as the filmmaker would have you believe. Michaels is central to many of the films comedic beats (intentional or not, mostly not), but they don’t play for laughs because they’re out of place tonally. This is a very bleak and washed out picture, both visually and narratively, and Home Alone(ish) gags don’t work in that setting.

The Marine 6 delivers an enjoyable villainous performance from Becky Lynch. Her motivations are clear and simple. Her father is on trial for murder and she’s holding one of the juror’s daughter’s hostage as leverage. Sure, she’s one-dimensional, but for this film, which focuses on the heroes rescuing the girl, we didn’t need much more. Becky seemed to be channeling the spirit of Michael Rooker in Guardians of the Galaxy. Every time she reached for her knife I pictured Yondu and his arrow.

Craig Walendziak’s script is exposition heavy and features dialogue that’s on an Anakin Skywalker “I don’t like sand” level of bad. It’s unforgivable. He sets-up a (seemingly) Raid inspired escape scenario, which had potential, but was missing everything else that made those films so incredible. Director James Nunn, not Gunn, Nunn, brings equally little to the table. This an action film and yet there is no sense of excitement or energy. I was bored from start to finish.

WWE Studios’ latest installment in The Marine franchise plays like the season finale of a floundering TV procedural. It’s formulaic and devoid of any charm. There’s too much other quality content right now for you to be spending your time on this. Feel free to skip it.