Monday, 30 May 2022

The Marine 4 - Moving Target (William Kaufman, 2015)

Jake Carter (The Miz) is back.

Now retired, he has taken a job as a bodyguard.

His first job is to protect a whistleblower (Melissa Roxburgh) with intel on a weapons company.

Said company has hired mercenaries to kill this witness, and it falls to Carter to get her to safety.



For the first time in the series, The Marine did not need a new recruit. The Miz returns as former Marine Jake Carter, and it is the one great decision made on this movie.


The direction is fine - there is none of the shaky camera of Part 2, but there is a network TV quality to the coverage, with a lot of the action created through editing rather than choreography within the same frame. These issues feel like a result of budget and shooting time rather than the director, William Kaufman. He is a name I have heard of - his DTV action stuff is pretty well-regarded - but Marine 4 is just vaguely functional. 


The scenario is workable for this level of action film - it is basically a chase through the woods - but the script is awful.The exposition dumps come thick and fast at the top, and the characters are inconsistent.


This movie is the most rote - it is not as bad as Part 2 but the script is packed with cliches and bizarre logic jumps that completely destroy the stakes.


Fellow wrestler Summer Rae appears as one of the mercenaries, but she gets little to do. It is a mistake that the next entry in the franchise would remedy.


Easily the blandest entry in the franchise, Marine 4 is for completionists only.


CURRENT RANKING


1. The Marine 5: Battleground (old review)

2. The Marine 6: No Quarter (old review)

3. The Marine 

4. The Marine 3: Homefront 

5. The Marine 2

6. The Marine 4: Moving Target

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