The Movie:
Mike ‘The Miz’ Mizanin stars as Marine Sgt Jake Carter who after completing a covert mission returns home to his small country town to spend some time with his two sisters Amanda and Lily. When Lily and her boyfriend are witness to a murder at the hands of professor turned extremist Jonas Pope (Neal McDonough), they are kidnapped and held hostage. When Jake finds out he goes full speed ahead on a rescue mission and no one will stand in his way. Not even the FBI. Things get even more complicated when Jake finds out that Pope’s plan is to commit an act of terrorism.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen an action movie quite like this one. This takes me back to the days of when I would turn on the T.V. on a Saturday afternoon and they would show action films like Delta Force, American Ninja or Death Wish. Much like those films the acting in this one wasn’t the best but the action sequences and fight scenes made up for it. I think the thing that really helped was Mizanin’s status as a WWE Superstar. The man definitely has come a long way since being on The Real World years ago and has made quite a career for himself. For this being his feature film debut I thought his acting was pretty decent. It wasn’t overly cheesy or exaggerated. All of the fight scenes involving Mizanin looked and flowed nicely. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with what he does in the wrestling ring. I’m just glad they didn’t include the use of wrestling moves like I’ve seen in previous films with wrestlers in starring roles. McDonough seems to be the “go to” bad guy in a lot of these types of action films. Not that it’s a bad thing at all. What he does, he does very well. He has a menacing calmness about him that works just right. This film probably won’t win any sort of awards but you could more than likely add it to your list of guilty pleasures.
Special Features:
Shipwrecked: Breaking Down The Boat – This feature shows how the cast and crew interacted with the boat (which is a major set point).
The Miz Rocks The Boat – Mizanin gives a tour of the boat used in the filming. He also (very impressively) gives a play by play of one of his action sequences down to the littlest detail.
The Miz Declassified – This feature shows a bit about Mizanin’s life and how he made his way from reality show to WWE Superstar to leading man.
Casting Call: Ready To Enlist – WWE made an open casting call available for anyone to audition during Wrestlemania Axcess and a fan was picked for a role in this film. This was really cool to see. The young guy that was chosen was so excited and got to interact and help out on set as well as his part in front of the camera.
Miz Journal – Mizanin recounts his experiences on set via video camera.
The Marine 3: Homefront is available on Blu-ray and DVD NOW from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment