Review for The Marine 2

I never watched the original John Cena The Marine and was a little worried that I would be swamped under with incomprehensible back story. Thankfully, the only thing these two films have in common is the first two words of the title. Supposedly, based the 2001 Dos Palmos incident, it is difficult to imagine where the line of truth lies, but having read the real story I think it ends with the line 'a hostage situation happened'. Joe Linwood (Ted Dibiase) is a marine on a holiday with his wife at a new holiday resort, when all of a sudden the resort comes under siege from heavily armed rebels who take everyone hostage. Linwood is able to evade capture, but they take his wife. With a huge ransom asked for, Linwood takes on the entire group to save them. Yes, this film is essentially just a Rambo clone, one man against a whole army and seriously whoever trained these mercenaries to shoot needs to think about a career change.
Now it would be wrong of me to just dismiss this film as a cookie cutter of every action film involving a lone warrior. However, the film isn't a bad one. Dibiase is fine in the lead considering this is his first ever acting role, though it is shame that the rest of the cast of actors are very wooden made even worse by OTT performances by Michael Rooker as an ex-soldier who helps out Joe and Temuera Morrison just awful as the leader of the rebels. Direction by Roel Reine is fine in general, a mixture of Michael Bay's 'let's stick an action scene here' and the frenetic editing of an MTV video director. The music by Trevor Morris works well with all this and really submerges you within the film.
Extras include six featurettes looking at the production of the film, though they only last a few minutes each and really should have been put together as one (Though a 'Play All' option is available). They cover the fighting style Muay Thai, the location of Thailand, Direction of Roel Reine and also one looks at the star Ted Dibiase's wrestling legacy. Though a newcomer, this is a great feature for the wrestling fans who will obviously be aware of Dibiase from the WWE shows.
Muay Fight Outtakes, I expected lots of people falling over, instead we get the same scene filmed over a number of takes from a few different angles. Interesting, if a little pointless. Nine minutes of Extended Scenes, Less than three of Deleted Scenes are fine, though none add anything new to the film beyond time. Making the Cut: Deleted Scenes Montage is not so much deleted scenes but more a montage of establishing shots, scenery and different angles/takes all mashed together with Trevor Morris's music over the top which makes a pretty interesting video that could have worked as a trailer.
The Marine 2 is not a bad film by any means; it's not exactly original and doesn't have the best acting I've ever seen. However, if you know that you are not going to watch an Oscar Winner , it is an enjoyable film that if you like films like Rambo, you will enjoy this one just as much.