6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
While on temporary leave, Marine recon sniper Joe Linwood, joins his wife Robin, a public relations executive, at the grand opening of a luxurious five-star resort on the South Seas. Unfortunately, their relaxing holiday soon comes to an end when a group of local rebels seize control of the property and take the billionaire owner, a group of guests and Robin hostage. With the victims in danger of being brutally murdered by a militant tyrant looking for a substantial ransom, Joe takes matters into his own hands in order to save his wife from certain death.
Starring: Ted DiBiase Jr., Temuera Morrison, Lara Cox, Michael Rooker, Robert ColebyAction | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Thai
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Forget, for a moment, that The Marine 2 is a straight-to-video sequel. Set aside the fact that it’s produced by WWE Films—yes, World Wrestling Entertainment Films—and that it stars third-generation pro-wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr., son of Ted DiBiase Sr., a.k.a The Million Dollar Man. Push aside, if you can, your niggling doubts that this is just a low-budget rip-off of Die Hard. Because I’m here to tell you, friends, that The Marine 2 is not just some chintzy, z-grade action film starring a hunk of man meat with the charisma of a sea sponge. No, it’s actually a marvelously realized reaction against colonialism in Southeast Asia, an emotionally riveting tour de force that grabs you by the jugular and just plain refuses to let go. It’s as if Francis Ford Coppola had…wait…what’s that? You’re not buying it? You think I’m just fluffing this opening paragraph because I’m dreading the process of writing 1,500 words on a film as inherently meaningless as The Marine 2? I give. You got me. The Marine 2 is everything you’d expect it to be judging by its WWE pedigree. I mean, take a look at that cover art. Ted DiBiase is screaming and firing a pistol, with a boat exploding in the background and an American flag proudly rippling overhead. You could call it big dumb fun if only it were fun.
Aqua-Marine
The Marine 2, for what it's worth, has better production values than your average straight-to-video action fest—being shot on-location in Thailand certainly helps—but the film's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is a mixed bag. Occasionally the film lets loose with some impressive detail, like the stubble and beads of sweat on DiBiase's face or the craggy rocks in a beachside cave, but the image often suffers from either soft focus, which is an inherently source related issue, or over-sharpening, which produces slight haloing that's perhaps most noticeable on Temuera Morrison's closely shorn skull. More apparent, however, is the discrepancy between the quality of the daytime and nighttime scenes. Daylight exteriors tend to look okay, with the exception of overblown white highlights, but the night scenes and interiors are abuzz with a potent mixture of heavy grain and noise. Couple this with black levels that frequently crush— wiping out shadow detail—and you have an image that's gritty, chunky, and undefined. The black crush sometimes even creeps into the daytime sequences. In terms of color, the results are similarly uneven. While you'd think Thailand would offer a vibrant color palette—and you do see some nice turquoise ocean blues from time to time—the film goes too often for that dingy, desaturated action film look. There's one sequence where the foliage, which should be a lush green, looks half gray. Overall, The Marine 2 looks better than expected for a straight-to- video film, but it still looks cheap.
There's only two things you need to know about The Marine 2's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track: gunfire and explosions. Because really, for a full two-thirds of the film, that's basically all you're going to be hearing. And if this film's A/V package has one highlight, it's that this audio track serves up almost non-stop surround usage, with rockets ripping through the soundstage, exploding grenades sending showers of concrete raining from front to back, and bullets zipping every which way. There's more Whiz! Bang! Pow! here than in an episode of the Batman TV series. At the same time, the effects sound a bit canned, and the directionality is definitely more concerned with volume and quantity over precision. Dynamics are fairly solid— there's plenty of detail in the high end, bass is tight, and the LFE channel gets a few chances to rumble and roar—but dialogue seems too low in the mix on occasion, even when explosions aren't rendering all other sounds inaudible. Let's be honest though: you're not watching The Marine 2 to listen to Ted DiBiase talk. Action fans will happy enough with this mix.
Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes (1080i, 25:43 total)
The Marine 2 comes to the plate with an almost inordinate amount of behind-the-scenes
featurettes for a straight-to-video offering, featuring interviews with director Roel Reine, star Ted
DiBiase, and others. Includes Village Virtuoso: The Final Fight, The Last Resort:
Inside the Terrorist Seige, East Meets West: Muay Thai Fight, Production
Paradise: Filming in Thailand, Building a Legacy: Ted's Story, and Play by the
Roels: Inside the Production.
Extended Scenes (1080i, 9:20 total)
Includes four extended "character beats."
Deleted Scenes (1080i, 2:43)
See more footage of Ted DiBiase in a shirt with a ridiculous collar.
Making the Cut: Deleted Shots Montage (1080i, 5:47)
Five minutes of random footage that hit the cutting room floor.
Muy Thai Fight Outtakes (1080i, 6:51)
A collection of full, unedited takes of the Muy Thai fight scene.
Unless you're undeterred by the fact that The Marine 2 is a direct-to-video sequel, produced by WWE Films, and featuring so-called superstar Ted DiBiase, I'd advise you to stay away from this dull trip to Thailand. The film's a collection of action movie cliché, and it fares only marginally better as a Blu-ray specimen, with solid sound but shaky video performance. The format is flooded with much better action offerings, so don't waste your time or money here.
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