WWE's Marine 4: Moving Target plot is almost non existent and very simple - Sergeant Jake Cater (Mike 'The Miz' Mizanin; The Campaign) must protect whistleblower Olivia Tanis (Melissa Roxburgh; Supernatural, Arrow) from a group of mercenaries stopping her from damaging a military contractor company.
I wish I could say watching it was an enjoyable 90 minutes, but there is a reason this movie is direct to video. Every aspect of the film was horrible. The acting was so awful I wanted to laugh half the time, which is only a compliment when watching a comedy. However, I'm not sure if I can fully fault the actors with this. I have seen actress Melissa Roxburgh in some other projects, and her acting talent is a lot better than what she portrays in this film.
I'm not sure if director William Kaufman was not up to the task of directing this film, or if he just didn't care and needed the money, but every technical aspect of this film was askew. At one point, I thought I needed to adjust my screen because everyone looked yellowish/green. I finally realized it wasn't my television, but the film's lighting, that was making the actors look like they had jaundice.
I suppose there is an audience for this type of film, which is why it got made in the first place. I personally have enjoyed mindless action films in the past, such as The American Ninja series starring Michael Dudikoff. However, I just had a hard time finding any redeeming qualities in this film.
The Blu-ray itself, boasts a nice 1080p transfer with good color details (when the lighting is used correctly). The forest scenes were brightly colored and look good in the transfer. The video transfer, along with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack that is nicely mixed, adds some redeeming value to this release. Also included in the release is a digital copy of the film along with a few featurettes that actually entertained me more than the feature film.
If all you are looking for is lots of shooting, violence, cursing and "hunting" then you might enjoy watching "Marine 4: Moving Target". Let's face it, when the main draw of the title is the fact that it has WWE Superstars in it, you need to give it a little bit of a pass.
I am the type of person that likes at least a little bit of intelligent dialogue in between action sequences, which this film did not provide. That statement may sound a little "snobbish", but there is plenty of evidence to indicate that a filmmaker can produce a great action film with more than just exciting chase scenes. I guess director William Kaufman didn't seem to get that memo. Hopefully, this will be the last film of this franchise for the sake of viewers everywhere.
Marine 4: Moving Target is available for purchase on Blu-ray as well as Digital HD.
