Released: November 2018
Director: James Nunn
Rated R
Run Time: 85 Minutes
Distributor: Sony Pictures/WWE Films
Genre: Action/Thriller
Cast:
Mike “The Miz” Mizanin: Jake Carter
Shawn Michaels: Luke Trapper
Rebecca Quin a.k.a Becky Lynch: Maddy Hayes
Louisa Connolly-Burnham: Sarah Dillon
Terence Maynard: Shawn Taylor
Tim Woodward: Tommy Walker
Back in the day, I used to watch professional wrestling quite a bit. It was either WWE’s(then WWF)Monday Night Raw or WCW’s Monday Nitro, depending on my mood and which wrestlers I wanted to see. WWE had legends like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Edge, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. WCW had superstars like Sting, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. That was all before WCW got bought out and folded into the WWE. Now, professional wrestling is really nothing more than a soap opera except with body slams, clotheslines and piledrivers. I didn’t much care for the melodrama between matches. I watched the shows to see people beat the shit out of each other on live television. Obviously, some of it was stage and planned, but sometimes things got really physical and wrestlers got hurt; some to the point of forced retirement, so it’s not all fake. I want to make sure that is clear. Getting thrown from the top of a steel cage is not something you can just walk away from unscathed. That being said, I stopped watching wrestling after The Rock left when he started getting into his film acting career. A number of wrestlers have followed suit, some successfully, some not. So imagine my surprise when John Cena got his own action movie called The Marine in 2006. It wasn’t actually a terrible movie. It was fun, action-packed, and had a lot of massive explosions. The problem was with Cena himself. He just didn’t have the charisma needed to carry a movie like that. Still, the film was fairly successful and spawned a number of sequels. For this review, I have selected the latest entry in the franchise: Close Quarters.
The film opens as a young girl is kidnapped by a group of Irish gangsters to force her father into causing a mistrial for the gang’s boss. Later, two former marines, Jake Carter and Luke Trapper, end up at an abandoned factory to check up on an old veteran who has taken up residence at this factory. Unwittingly, they run into the same Irish gang and girl that was kidnapped. The group is led by Maddy Hayes, the daughter of the mob boss that’s on trial. It’s a simple set up that doesn’t offer much in the way of twists, except for one major shift in direction that I didn’t see coming. It surprisingly works, but I won’t spoil it here. You have to see it for yourself. While the overall plot is mostly predictable, there are a few issues that I have with it that don’t make sense to me. How did they find the girl’s father and why was he specifically targeted? On top of that, we don’t get to actually see the main Irish boss, whom I thought would be important considering the lengths that Maddy is going to get him freed. While those details aren’t necessarily that important, it does affect the film when certain situations don’t make a whole lot of sense. It’s just something that I noticed that kinda bugs me a bit, but the film moves at a quick pace, so it’s not a huge detriment.
I don’t think anyone in this film is going to get an Oscar for their acting. There’s not enough characterization to really drive those performances. That being said, the acting in this film isn’t actually that bad. In fact, I think it’s actually pretty good for a film of this type and budget. After I stopped watching wrestling, a whole lot of new folks showed up including Stu Bennett, A.J. Styles, and Mike “The Miz” Mizanin. Stu Bennett kind of left wrestling for the acting bug when he starred in Eliminators and I Am Vengeance, both of which were surprisingly good. The Miz has been in action films before, namely, the last three Marine films playing the same character. Now, I haven’t seen a Marine film since the original back in 2006, so my expectations for this film were fairly low. Not only am I surprised at how decent of an actor The Miz is in a film like this, he’s kind of likable here, which is more than I can say for his wrestling persona. Shawn Michaels has been one of my favorite wrestlers since I was a kid. He had a natural flair for the business and he stole the show, because he could. Seeing him in action movie is actually kind of cool. I’m surprised he hadn’t branched out in that direction earlier. He’s clearly still got the physicality for something like this. What surprised me was the chemistry that he had with The Miz. Now, the two had obviously worked together in the WWE before, so there was already a connection between the two, and that actually translates to the film surprisingly well. Rebecca Quin, or as she’s known in the ring, Becky Lynch, plays the main villain, Maddy. She’s not half-bad, but she’s not that great either. It’s her first movie, though, so I can forgive her for some issues. She’s clearly a talented athlete, as well as being a very stunning woman and that comes across pretty well.
While the original film was a completely over-the-top experience, The Marine 6 is basically the polar opposite. This is a grittier and far more violent film than John Cena’s movie. For one, there’s quite a bit more blood and bone-breaking here. The action is pretty brutal and hits pretty hard. What makes the action work in this film is a number of reasons. One: The camera-work is fantastic. Instead of the whole shaky-cam that we tend to see in movies like this, we can definitely see what’s going on and it’s pretty close-quarters, hence the film’s subtitle. Two: The actors are obviously well-trained in terms of physicality because of what they have to do in the ring on a daily basis. That means you don’t see a lot of stunt-doubles here. There are obviously some, especially for Shawn Michaels, but that’s because he’s getting older, but he still manages to hold his own when he needs to. The Miz goes all in feet first. Even Rebecca gets to do some really solid fighting. The fighting is staged by one of my current favorites, Tim Man, who stage fights in films like Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, Undisputed 4, and Accident Man. He knows what the hell he’s doing and the fights are grounded in a gritty and realistic fashion. So, yeah, no wires. There is some CG involved, but it’s nothing terribly obtrusive. Overall, the action is really solid and it keeps on coming.
I have to be truthful: I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this film when I first saw the trailer. The only reason I was actually curious was because of Shawn Michaels. I hadn’t seen him since he retired from wrestling, so it was pretty awesome seeing him in an action film. Does this mean I’m going to go back to watching wrestling? Not really. I’ve long since let that ship sail, it’s not something I’m big on anymore. I pay attention once in a great while, but it’s not the same as it used to be for me. The days of the Attitude Era are long gone and most of the great wrestlers have retired and moved on with their lives. That being said, I’m actually glad that the WWE has branched out into the film business with WWE Films, because some of this stuff is actually pretty damn good, so I’m paying attention to the film division of the WWE, just not the actual wrestling. Before I wrap this up, I want to give a shout out to Richard Hawes and Mike Parkin of The DTV Digest and their podcast. I met these two when I was in London for the Fighting Spirit Film Festival, and they were incredibly knowledgeable and fun to talk to. Their coverage of the film convinced me to check it out for myself, and I’m glad I did. It’s a pretty solid action flick. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than I was expecting it to be, so I’m looking forward to seeing what The Miz does next. I would also love to see Shawn Michaels in another action movie, as I think he’s pretty good at it. I actually recommend this one.
My Final Recommendation: Why do I like this movie? Because I can. 8.5/10