The Marine

Infobox_Film
name = The Marine


caption = Poster for "The Marine"
director = John Bonito
producer = Vince McMahon
Joel Simon
writer = Michelle Gallagher
Alan B. McElroy
starring = John Cena
Robert Patrick
Kelly Carlson
music = Don Davis
cinematography = David Eggby
editing = Dallas Puett
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = United States:
October 13, 2006
Australia:
June 28, 2007
New Zealand:
March 1, 2007
United Kingdom:
May 7, 2007
runtime = 93 mins
language = English
budget = $23 million
website = http://www.themarinemovie.com/
amg_id = 1:337498
imdb_id = 0419946|

"The Marine" is a 2006 action film starring professional wrestler John Cena. The film was directed by John Bonito, written by Michelle Gallagher and Alan B. McElroy and produced by Joel Simon.

Produced by the films division of World Wrestling Entertainment, called WWE Films, and distributed in the United States by 20th Century Fox, the film received a PG-13 rating from the MPAA for "intense sequences of violent action, sensuality and language". However an unrated version was released on DVD and Blu-ray.

Cast

Plot

After returning home from Iraq, ex-Marine John Triton (Cena), and his wife Kate (Carlson) decide to take a vacation. Meanwhile, criminals Rome (Patrick), Angela (Bianca), Morgan (Parker),and Vescera (Gibson) rob a jewelery store. While running from the cops, they stop at a gas station, where John and Kate have stopped as well. When the cops arrive to get gas, Morgan shoots one and Rome injures the other one. After Verscera knocks John out with a fire exstinguisher, Kate is kidnapped. Morgan shoots at the gas tanks, causing the store to blow up with John inside. John comes out alive, and takes the cop car. He chases after them, with every single member shooting at him. They go through a construction path, and to the edge of a lake. Under heavy fire, John jumps out the car and into the lake. With Kate thinking John is dead, Rome and his crew travel through the woods, dragging a bound Kate with them. John comes out of the lake and follows them through the woods to save Kate.Infobox movie certificates
Argentina =
Australia = M
Austria =
Belgium =
Bulgaria =
Brazil = 18
Canada = 14A
Canada (Quebec) = 13+
Chile =
Colombia =
Cyprus =
Czech_Republic =
Denmark =
Finland = K-15
France =
Germany = 16
Greece =
Hong_Kong =
Hungary =
Iceland =
India = U/A
Indonesia =
Ireland =
Israel =
Italy =
Japan =
Luxembourg =
Malaysia =
Malta =
Mexico =
Netherlands =
New_Zealand =
Norway =
Peru =
Philippines = PG-13
Poland =
Portugal = M/12
Puerto_Rico =
Romania =
Singapore = PG
Slovakia =
South_Africa =
South_Korea =
Spain =
Sweden =
Switzerland =
Taiwan =
Thailand =
United_Kingdom = 15
United_States = PG-13

Production

The script for "The Marine" was originally written with Stone Cold Steve Austin in mind for the lead role of John Triton and Hollywood Heavyweight Academy Award Winner Al Pacino in mind for Rome. After Austin and WWE parted ways in 2004, Dave Batista and Kurt Angle were considered for the role of John Triton, which was eventually given to John Cena. Al Pacino turned down the role of Rome due to low salary. After Pacino turned it down, Patrick Swayze was considered for the role of Rome, which was given to Robert Patrick.

Principal photography for the film was actually shot and completed in 2004. In order to cover for John Cena's absence from WWE events a storyline was written after Carlito beat Cena for the United States Championship, saying that he was stabbed by Jesús, the bodyguard of Carlito and was taking time off to recover.

Filming was done at Movieworld in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The Marine Base was filmed at Bond University. The part in which skyscrapers are shown is the downtown area of Brisbane, Australia, in addition to being filmed throughout the outer areas of the metropolitan area in bush land.

The footage of an airplane landing is of Iran Air.

Release

Originally planned for a January or February 2006 release, it was later moved to Spring 2006, then September 8 (which was changed because former professional wrestler The Rock's "Gridiron Gang" was released September 15). It was finally released to theaters on October 13 2006.

The film was released on DVD on January 30 2007. It is available in "Rated" and "Unrated" versions. The Blu-ray version was released on February 13 2007, with a DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 track and a 1080p HD transfer. The Region 2 DVD was released in the UK on May 7 2007.

Box office performance

In its first week, the film made approximately $7 million at the United States box office.cite web | url = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marine/numbers.php | title = The Marine: Box Office Summary | publisher = RottenTomatoes.com | accessdate=2007-07-04] In its first weekend, it placed #3 in domestic sales. On October 22 2006 BoxOfficeMojo.com reported that "The Marine" had dropped to #9, grossing $3.75 million. Even so, ratings were poor, and the movie garnered a 21% rating from RottenTomatoes.com.

After a total of ten weeks in theaters, the film grossed $18.7 million domestically. Worldwide, "The Marine" earned $20,226,432.

"The Marine" is noted as being WWE Studios's most successful film to date, beating out its predecessor "See No Evil", starring Kane and its successor "The Condemned", starring Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Criticism

The movie was largely panned by critics, [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marine/ Rotten Tomatoes.com 21% ranking] ] leading one reviewer to refer to it as "a movie so dumb, it may actually cause brain damage." [ [http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Reviews/M/Marine/2006/10/14/2024549.html JAM! Movies] ] . Critics have also complained about the movie's reductive dramatization of Marine operations in Iraq, [ [http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=2593 Slant Magazine] ] and its lack of respect for the military. [ [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/10/14/the_marine_is_a_stiff_salute_to_the_action_genre/ Boston.com] ]

DVD Sales

The Marine was the #1 most rented DVD in its first week of release. [cite web |url=http://imdb.com/boxoffice/rentals?date=2007-02-04&region=us |title=Top 50 United States DVD Rentals for the week ending 4 February 2007 |accessdate=2007-03-15] By March 2007, it had made over $24 million in home sales and rental. [cite web |url=http://imdb.com/boxoffice/rentals |title=Top 50 United States DVD Rentals|accessdate=2007-03-15] Overall, the film made $30 million in rentals in the first twelve weeks.

Goofs

In the chase scene where Triton is driving the cop car the hood is off but later in the scene it reappears then is gone again.

Trivia

While the chase scene is taking place Vescera (played by Damon Gibson) says "This guy's like the Terminator" and Robert Patrick (Rome) played the The T-1000 in Terminator 2 Judgment Day. Another reference to the Terminator is at the end when everybody thinks Rome is dead he reappears looking like the Terminators half human half machine face.

References

External links

* [http://www.themarinemovie.com Official website]
* [http://myspace.com/themarinemovie The Marine] at MySpace
*
* [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marine.htm The Marine] at Box Office Mojo
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marine/ Reviews at Rotten Tomatoes]