Jake Carter (Mike “The Miz” Mizanin) has been a Marine for ten years. He has returned to his small home town of Bridgteton, Washington after 14 months away to see his two sisters, Amanda (Camille Sullivan) and Lilly (Ashley Bell). Jake is protective of his sisters, and doesn’t like the idea of Lilly dating seemingly bad boy Darren (Jeff C. Ballard), or Amanda seeing his best friend, Chief of Police Harkin (Jared Keeso).

One day, Lilly and Darren are getting some alone time in a junk yard when they see a commotion and witness a man get shot. The bad guys are alerted to their presence by Lilly’s involuntary screaming, and abduct the witnesses—but not before Lilly makes a call to her sister. So Jake grabs a shotgun and heads to rescue Lilly, but soon discovers that the man responsible, Jonas Pope (Neal McDonough), is already under the watchful eye of FBI Agent Wells (Steve Bacic) and his team. Pope is an extremist who has been amassing large quantities of RDX explosive, and the FBI are trying to uncover his target.

While the FBI are more concerned about Pope, Jake’s top priority is rescuing his sister and will stop at nothing to get her back.

The Marine: Homefront was my first foray into the WWE’s The Marine franchise, and overall I was pleased. I can’t speak to how the pacing or tone of this film compares with the prior two installments, but I found The Marine 3 to be extremely slow-paced for the first third of the film. It takes 30 minutes to establish the characters and the family drama before getting to the abduction and action of the film. However, the film is great once it gets to this point, and really finishes strong with that over-the-top, single soldier beating impossible odds action I was expecting from a film like this.

Speaking of those impossible odds, this is definitely the type of film that expects viewers to suspend disbelief. At one point Carter is literally squinting his eyes while a barrage of machine gun rounds fly all around him, and that somehow makes them all miss. However, I found that kind of ridiculousness to be part of the enjoyment of the film. Like a John Rambo, a John McClane or a Jack Bauer, Jake Carter is this super-human Teflon man that bullets just slide right by—he’s able to infiltrate defenses that just prior mowed down an entire SWAT team in seconds.

I don’t watch wresting, but I am familiar with Mike “The Miz” from his stint on The Real World. For his first “official” acting role, I thought he did an excellent job, especially when it came to the action and fight sequences. There is one choreographed fight sequence in the final act of the film that was quite impressive, and could easily fit right up there with scenes you’d see in an A-Lister blockbuster. There is so much fighting, bullets and explosions in this film that any action fan should be pleased.

What’s Included:

Film (1:30:09)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, French DD 5.1
• English SDH, Spanish, French subtitles

DVD:

• 480p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DD 5.1, French 2.0 Surround
• English SDH, Spanish, French subtitles

Extras:

• Shipwrecked: Breaking Down The Boat (8:05)
  The cast and crew talk about their experiences, and the challenges they faced, while filming on the ferry.
• The Miz Rocks The Boat (8:17)
  Mike “The Miz” gives viewers a tour of the ferry and talks about what it was like filming his various scenes there.
• The Miz Declassified (10:07)
  Watch the gun and stunt training Mike “The Miz” went through to look like a real Marine.
• Casting Call: Ready To Enlist (7:58)
  The Miz reveals the winner of the WWE Studios fan open audition for a role in the film, and the cameras follow the winner’s time on set.
• Miz Journal (6:52)
  Cameras follow The Miz has he goes through his work day.
• Contains a coupon for $8.00 off Red Dawn (2012) or The Marine 3: Homefront on Blu-ray (expires June 5, 2013)

Final Thoughts:

The Marine 3: Homefront looks great on this blu-ray—the picture is crisp and clear, allowing you to see all the action. I also had no issues with the audio—the dialog was clear and you can really hear every bullet, explosion, and bone crack.

This blu-ray has a nice collection of behind the scenes featurettes, giving the viewer a good idea as to what it was like making this movie.

While the film started off slow, it finished really strong, with some great action scenes and an impressive debut acting performance by Mike “The Miz”. I think it’s definitetly worth a rental as the action sequences will easily make up for the initial slow pacing. After seeing this entry, I’m curious to check out the prior two installments of The Marine franchise.