The Marine 2

As much as I like Die-Hard-style action movies, I never go into them expecting a masterpiece. They're usually cheesy, endlessly similar and useful only as an entertaining escapist diversion. This one doesn't break the mold.

That said, it's not bad. There's some really quite accomplished cinematography on display, and obviously some highly skilled people working on the production. Some of the gun battles are shot in an exciting and dynamic way. The acting varies a little, but nobody lets the side down.

The fights are good and Ted DiBiase Jr acquits himself well. His role is not colourfully written, he's a run-of-the-mill, vanilla flavoured action hero. In fact, this entire movie is about as unimaginative as they get, presumably having been plotted by a computer that generates the storyline by choosing generic plot points, locations and characters at random.

So despite the linear nature of the plotting, and the fact that it went a bit wonky in the last 30 minutes, it's worth a bash. Especially if you like to see terrorists get shot, stabbed, punched, impaled, blown up and otherwise molested.

You'll need to overlook the usual (comparatively) low-budget action movie silliness, and some slightly jarring video effects during one section, but on the whole this is a fairly well made example of the genre. All it needed was a bit of a creative spark at the scripting level to elevate it to seven stars or better.