RADICAN’S “THE MARINE 5: BATTLEGROUND REVIEW – The Miz returns to face off against The Social Outcasts and more!

RADICAN’S “THE MARINE 5: BATTLEGROUND” REVIEW
RELEASED IN 2017 ON DIGITAL & BLU-RAY BY SONY PICTURES AND WWE STUDIOS
BY SEAN RADICAN, TORCH COLUMNIST

“The Axe Man is coming!”

The line above from an axe wielding Curtis Axel playing a motorcycle gang member named Deacon as he goes after The Miz is actually the highlight of the dialog in what is otherwise a dull action movie. The Miz returns in the leading role in the “The Marine 5: BattleGround,” which is the latest installment of The Marine series. He is the highlight of the movie and not to overstate things, but he has grown to be almost too good of an actor for the lame scripts used for most WWE movies.

Jake Carter and his partner Zoe (Anna Van Hooft) are EMTs, Don’t ask me how Carter went from being a security agent in the last film to an EMT. The bulk of the movie features a motorcycle gang lead by Bo Dallas as Alonzo looking to get revenge after their leader is killed by two men in a truck in front of their biker bar. Carter and Zoe get a call that the men in the truck need assistance after the motorcycle gang shoots their truck up as they make their getaway. The fact that she made the cover of this movie is hilarious.

The hook is that there are more WWE stars in a movie than ever before, as we get six wretlers that make an appearance in this film, but by far the most hilarious appearance is Maryse’s scene, which seems unnecessary and forced into the film. Carter and Zoe end up finding the men in the parking garage where the motorcycle gang follows them. One of them is dead and for whatever reason Carter swears to protect the other despite the fact that he has no redeeming qualities other than the fact that he has a wife and son at home.

I spent the majority of the movie snickering at The Social Outcasts (Curtis Axel, Heath Slater, and Bo Dallas) playing motorcycle gang members chasing The Miz in an abandoned car garage for an amusement park. It gets old to watch Carter play a game of cat and mouse with the members of the motorcycle gang for the majority of the movie, but he has gotten good at fight scenes and pulls off a fun fight with Naomi, who plays Murphy. Naomi seems forced into the motorcycle gang member role by the writers, but she pulls off her role well.

The action picks up during the final quarter of the movie or so once things move along to the amusement park and eventually ends at an abandoned construction site building up to the climactic scene between Carter and Alonzo. The back and forth between Carter and Alonzo as they play cat and mouse throughout the movie is fun at times if you watch WWE on a regular basis. Dallas channels his brother Bray Wyatt in one scene when taunting Carter verbally as he looks for him.

Overall thoughts: (4.0) – This is not a horrible movie. It’s just a bad movie. WWE Studios have done much worse with their talent appearing in leading roles. The Miz actually does well in his fight scenes and delivering his lines. He’s clearly put some time into growing as an action star and with a better script he would be more enjoyable, although I don’t buy him as a leading man.

If you’re a WWE fan, you’ll get some entertainment value out of watching this straight to Blu-ray release. Watching the Social Outcasts trying to track down The Miz in an abandoned parking lot is hilarious, but that isn’t the intent of the people that made this movie. I would recommend to avoid this film unless you are a huge WWE fan and have nothing better to do on a rainy day.

You can purchase this movie digitally and at most major retail stores on Blu-ray now. You can also purchase it online at stores such as Amazon.com.

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Contact Sean Radican at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Follow him on twitter at twitter.com/SeanRadican. For live video content and more visit the Radican Wrestling Community page on Facebook and like it at Facebook.com/SeanRadicanRWC.