WWE TLC 2017

A couple weeks ago, WWE held its annual Tables Ladders Chairs (TLC) PPV. I attended the 2017 TLC show at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN with a fellow wrestling fan who happened to co-host a now-defunct wrestling podcast with me many years ago. 2017 TLC was the third WWE PPV I attended live, joining the ranks of Bragging Rights 2010 and Wrestlemania XXVIII as the other two I made the trek out to witness. Like the other two, I had to track down the DVD to commemorate the experience, and combining that with the slightly late timing of the latest TLC PPV is what brings us to today’s entry.

I recall being originally ecstatic when I purchased the tickets for the show several weeks before the event. If you consult the history of past TLC shows, you will notice that most TLC PPVs contains four gimmick matches. One where each of the three weapons that make up the TLC acronym are legal, and a fourth match where all three weapons are legal which usually wound up being a much hyped main event. The 2017 version wound up being one of the exceptions where there was only one special match, but at least it was a much hyped handicap TLC match that saw a freshly reunited Shield taking on the team of Kane, Braun Strauman, The Miz and The Bar (Sheamus & Cesaro). I have professed my disdain here before for Roman Reigns (kick cancer’s ass Roman!), but I convinced myself going into the show at least he will be more likable as a Shield member and that with such a disadvantage of a handicap match the bout will likely have a meticulous story arc to it.

I was more skeptical of the only other match that was receiving any hype, a rematch between Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt that was being billed as ‘The Demon’ vs. ‘Sister Abigail.’ Fans were familiar with Balor’s altered persona as ‘The Demon’ where he fancied himself up with face paint and other ancient artifacts to mess with the minds of his adversaries, but this time Bray was promising to unleash his own alter ego to match Finn’s that night with Bray promising to unleash ‘Sister Abigail’ onto the WWE. Hype packages on RAWs leading up to the PPV showed brief glimpses of Wyatt decked out in his Sister Abigail attire and it looked quite hideous…in all the wrong ways possible. I was dreading that this big match between Finn and Wyatt was going involve all sorts of creepy holograms and other mysticism that the Wyatt character specialized in and has busted out on numerous PPVs before that simply do not play well on screen and only tempt me to change the channel. Come the day before the PPV and I get a text from another friend surprising me of a change I did not see coming from a mile away.

By clicking on that link in that text and finding out about Kurt Angle returning to the ring, it lead me to a news story where I discovered Angle would be replacing a mumps-ridden Roman Reigns in the main event. Additionally, Bray Wyatt also came down with the mumps and he would be substituted with freaking AJ Styles for the show to take on Finn Balor in what WWE hyped as a ‘Dream Match’ between the two former Bullet Club leaders in their first ever official WWE clash. All of a sudden my anticipation for both matches exponentially increased and I was now legit stoked for the show! My friend and I had ok seats; we were a fair amount up in elevated seating as you can tell by my included zoomed-in pic of the main event, but still a fair amount away from the nosebleeds. When we found our seats the Kickoff-Show match just concluded between Sasha Banks and Alicia Fox.

Now thanks to the DVD I was able to witness this for the first time since this preliminary match was a DVD bonus feature (along with a limited edition Topps trading card of Sasha Banks!). The two surprisingly put on a good showing in the kickoff show match that saw Sasha win with the Bank Statement submission. I forgot this card transpired when Booker T was still on the announce team and him and Corey Graves were constantly at odds with each other on every telecast to the point where it was apparent to any avid fan that their on-air discourse had real-world heat behind it. An early commentary highlight was in this kickoff match where both Michael Cole and Graves lost it when Booker T compared Alicia Fox to the Missing Link.

Another thing to point out was TLC 2017 emanated several months before WWE started combining the brands for PPVs again. That meant since most of the top stars were packed into the loaded eight-man main event, this opened up some spots for more women and cruiserweight matches than usual on a RAW PPV. The first five of the eight match-ups consisted entirely of women’s and cruiserweight matches. The first official match of the TLC card was Asuka making her much anticipated WWE debut against Emma. Asuka was fresh off a hot undefeated NXT run, and I was presuming this would be a showcase match for the ‘Empress of Tomorrow’ and she would dominate for about 70% of the match before quickly laying waste to Emma. I was surprised to see this match went on for around 15 minutes in a even-steven match with Emma getting way more offense in than I thought for someone going against a debuting opponent getting hyped up as unstoppable. It was still a good match, and Asuka eventually got the win with her Asuka-lock submission. Asuka won a shorter rematch the next night on RAW where Emma still got a surprising amount of offense in, and something must have rubbed the powers that be the wrong way in these matches because just days later Emma was released from the WWE.

Next up was cruiserweight tag team action with Rich Swann and Cederic Alexander besting Brian Kendrick and Jack Gallagher when Alexander pinned Jack with his Lumbar Check finisher. This was fresh off Jack turning heel and beginning to wrestle in a suit for several months. I still miss his umbrella! Alexa Bliss successfully defended her RAW Woman’s title against Mickie James next with a pinfall coming off a DDT. This happened at the hate part of the love/hate/love part of the current Alexa/Mickie dynamic. This match also benefited suffered from a wealthy amount of gonzo Booker T/Graves commentary hijinx.

Oh yeah, I forgot Enzo Amore was still with the WWE for a few more months at this point in the WWE. Remember Enzo as the top villain of 205 Live and the dreaded faction of evil he headed up that was known as the ‘Zo Train’? It is probably for the best you did not, but I will because I had the fortune of witnessing him recapture his cruiserweight title against Kallisto here. It was an OK match with some noticeable lulls due to Enzo’s lack of cruiserweight prowess, but Enzo got the win with his unique finisher I never caught the name of which was the only thing I really ever dug from his WWE run. The ‘Dream Match’ took place next and AJ Styles and Finn Balor stepped up and delivered a MOTY-calibur spectacular! This was awesome to relive on DVD with all the exhilarating exchanges and the climatic near-falls before Finn Balor walked away with the win after hitting his Coupe de Gras for the pin!

The crowd was red-hot after this bout so naturally they needed a little bit of an unwind before the big TLC main event. A couple times throughout the night, WWE’s favorite drifter, Elias attempted one of his vintage concerts where he would sing and trash talk the crowd only to have Kurt Angle’s storyline son Jason Jordan cut him off and pounce him with fresh produce to the crowd’s delight! Comissioner Angle promptly rewarded his son for interfering in Elias’s performances with a PPV payday and an impromptu match. This match was as awkward as I remembered and was filled with lots of odd collisions and lengthy rest-holds. After several agonizing minutes Jordan got the win with a surprise roll-up. I came to discover later that widespread speculation was these two were instructed to have a dud of a match to calm down the crowd from the AJ/Finn match so the audience could save their energy for the main event. Well….it worked. On a quick side note, I hope rumor is not meant to be believed and that Jordan did not suffer career ending injuries at the beginning of 2018 because he was finally starting to come into his own and get comfortable in his character that took quite some time for Jordan to get a groove with. He has been out for nearly a year now, and I can only hope to see him recover from his injuries and reunite with his on-screen father!

After 11 years away from a WWE ring, we got to see Kurt Angle’s return to WWE action for the first time since 2006 when he teamed up with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to take on Kane, Braun Strauman, The Miz, Cesaro & Sheamus in a TLC match in the main event! Seth & Dean even made Kurt an honorary Shield member before the show and bestowed upon him the trademark Shield riot gear so Angle fit in with the group as they made the iconic Shield entrance through the crowd. This match told a fantastic story in three parts. The first part was The Shield saying screw the odds and taking whatever the opposition threw at them where Ambrose & Rollins put away Braun & Kane through both announce tables simultaneously early in the match to the crowd’s pleasure and Angle proving he still has it by unleashing his lethal German Suplexes. Part two is the numbers game catching up with the Shield with Miz leading the charge in laying waste to the Shield and knocking Angle out for medical attention.

All hope looked lost for The Shield until miscommunications between Kane and Braun lead to the group turning on Braun and literally throwing Braun into a garbage truck Miz brought out intended for the Shield but instead wound up containing Braun and complete with atrocious garbage truck disposal sound effects on the PA system in person, but actually came across decent on the DVD. The numbers game was 4-on-2 for Miz’s ensemble and the Shield looked on the precipice of defeat until Kurt Angle’s theme gloriously erupted over the speakers to the crowd’s approval and he lead a comeback which culminated in Kurt, Dean and Seth all hitting their individual finishers on Miz before all three teamed up for the Shield Powerbomb for the pin on Miz! I got everything I wanted out of this match with it telling an intricate story and taking advantage of many tables, ladders and chairs throughout. Even though I was kind of bummed we only got one weapons match instead of the usual four on a TLC PPV, by having this one weapons match on the show it made every spot involving the weaponry mean that much more.

Setting aside my blatant bias for Reigns at the time, I got a lot more out of this match by seeing Angle’s surprise WWE return, and the fact that it had this in-depth match built around his each and every move made it have far more impact. I once again got to give props to AJ and Finn for delivering a standout match and made me feel that we came out of the show with a much better bout than what WWE originally had in mind. The women’s and cruiserweight division stepped up to have a (mostly) gratifying opening and mid-card matches with the only real stinker of the night being Elias/Jordan and that was by design! I still have great memories of my friend and I originally thinking this was going to be a so-so PPV with hopefully a solid spectacle of a main event, but it would up delivering so much more! My friend and I left the Target Center that night in good spirits and I recall us stopping for a late night slice of pizza on the way back at Pizza Luce as we quizzed each other on if we could still remember the final match at every Wrestlemania in order. What a way to end a WWE PPV that had a bizarre set of circumstances around it that resulted in one of WWE’s best PPVs of 2017. If you somehow missed this show then by all means make haste and watch it in on the WWE Network!

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

Small Town Santa

The Christmas movie blogs continue this month with today’s entry for Small Town Santa (trailer) from 2014. In the previous Christmas movie blog for Die Hard, I referenced how that was the film that finished off a Christmas movie marathon gathering I had last weekend. Small Town Santa was the film I decided to start it off with since it is more of an all ages family film ideal for earlier in the day.

I first saw Small Town Santa last year at my sister’s household on Christmas weekend off Netflix and there was something about its earnest plot and sheer heart that won me over and convinced me to get the DVD. The man I will forever associate as the Superman of the 1990s, Dean Cain, leads up a low-budget cast of unknowns in this unorthodox Christmas film. Cain portrays local town sheriff, Rick Langston. He is winding down his time as the local sheriff as he awaits his big-city promotion, but a twisting Christmas Eve night like no other changes Rick’s life when he arrests an intruder in his home who bears a striking resemblance to good ‘ol St. Nick (Paul Hopper). This Santa shows Rick the error of his ways and how to overcome his strained relationship with his daughter Kara (Mandalynn Carlson) and find new love in newcomer to town, Lucy (Christine Lakin).

In the initial scenes Sheriff Langston does not appear to be all that terrible of an individual as he helps put up a homeless person in jail so he does not freeze overnight, and gets local kids to shovel for an elderly person for the winter after he catches the kids egging a house. He appears good-hearted and then does a sudden shift in attitude when his ex-wife will not let him spend Christmas Eve with his daughter and he finds out last minute his promotion got denied. That is when Rick bumps into Santa, and despite Santa’s best intentions, I could not get over how inadvertently creepy this Santa comes off on screen. Santa’s tone of his voice is a bit too nice, he is dressed in untraditional Santa attire, he has this mischievous look in his eyes and has a presence on him that looks like he is about to con you out of something throughout the entire film. I do not blame Rick for mistaking him for an intruder at all!

It is worth noting the two main acting veterans here are Cain and Lakin as nearly the rest of the remaining cast gives the impression that this is one of their first roles which likely explains why Santa does not sound as well-intentioned as his dialogue indicates. Somehow, I find this oddly endearing. A lot of town locals reach out to help Rick regain his Christmas spirit throughout, and it was amusing watching Rick give them all the cold shoulder and chastise a group of brazen carolers who chuck snowballs at his vehicle. Once Rick admits his wrongdoings Santa grants him some Christmas wishes to have custody of Kara for Christmas, hit it off with Lucy and make it over to a Christmas party that night the movie was building up to throughout for the closing scene of the film where everyone takes in some good ‘ol fashioned Christmas cheer.

Aside from a trailer, there are no other extra features on the DVD, not even subtitles! That is when you know a film is low-budget is when they cannot set aside some resources for the subtitles. Shame! For what it is worth the menus do have some slick snow globe-esque animations to them.

Small Town Santa sounds like a traditional family Christmas film that hits the right notes on paper, and in a way it is by how I earlier mentioned this movie has tons of heart and tries its best with its limited funding. I want to once again re-emphasize that Small Town Santa wears its small budget and inexperienced cast on its sleeve and that results in some scenes falling flat and at least a handful of the lesser cast members who had no right to be there. However, like I said before, it kind of gives this unintentional endearing effect where I found myself patting the cast and crew on its back for trying to make a Christmas movie like no other which faults aside, ultimately has a good message in the end! It is like Small Town Santa is kind of like the Birdemic/The Room of Christmas movies….maybe not that drastic but kind of in that direction.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Die Hard
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-6
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Die Hard

Now, now, do not act surprised to see an entry devoted to the iconic 1988 action film, Die Hard (trailer) as Christmas draws near. It has been long debated among film fans that if Die Hard is truly a Christmas movie or merely a film that takes place at Christmas. I feel that it is both. Nearly the entire feature focuses around a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Building where sinister German terrorists headed up by one Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) seize control of the building and attempt to penetrate its vaults filled with countless riches. The film’s cast is consistently humming/singing Christmas songs throughout and there is various Christmas lingo and jargon peppered in throughout. Protagonist and NYPD officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) who is assisted by the affable,Twinkie-loving LAPD officer Winslow….er I mean officer Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) are among those belting out Christmas tunes and references throughout and both are endlessly fun to root for throughout Die Hard’s just over two hour runtime.

I have an odd history with the Die Hard films. I was always aware of the initial trilogy being much-revered action films, but until last year, yes 2017, I did not get around to watching them until I mentioned that fact to a friend and we then proceeded to knock them out over that summer. I did see the fourth and fifth films when they hit theaters this century, and while Live Free or Die Hard was solid, I very much detested A Good Day to Die Hard and it soured me on the series….until watching the initial trilogy last year turned me back on to the series (minus Die Harder anyways). I loved the first movie so much that earlier this year it wound up being the first movie I picked up on 4K BluRay! I do not have a 4K TV, but it was the only version Target had when I went there to get it, and that version came with a regular BluRay that I was thrilled to make use of yesterday as the final film in a six-movie Christmas marathon with friends this past weekend. I could not think of a better Christmas film to finish off the night with!

Part of me is still surprised I came out of the original Die Hard such a big fan knowing all the high critical acclaim and praise for it going in. I had no choice but to go in with high expectations and that usually comes back to bite me when I am late to the party to a much-buzzed about movie. Longtime readers here probably know I am a sucker for the cliché 80s and 90s action movies, both of high and low budget fares. It only helps that Die Hard was a pioneer for establishing a specific formula of action films where a big gang of thugs/terrorists (of whom almost all have their own unique personalities, moments and even are named throughout the film other than the typical ‘terrorist #6’) overtake a high-stakes building with many hostages and leaves it up to a low-level everyman cop to overcome the odds and slowly work his way through the lower tiered terrorists before having a climactic clash with the ringleader of the pack. Top if off with countless well-produced exchanges of gunfire, explosions, epic stunts and plenty of time to space in moments of character development for Powell, Gruber and McClane that includes classic one-liners that I do not need to remind you of because they are repeated ubiquitously to this day.

Another reason why the first Die Hard is special that is lost in most of the other installments other than With a Vengeance is that McClane takes a beating throughout the film. Taking out Gruber’s goons has taken a toll on him as McClane is a bloody, limping mess by the final act which resulted in me getting behind him even more as he worked his way up Nakatomi Tower. McClane’s relationship with Powell helping him on the outside of the tower is also fantastic to see unfold throughout as Powell represents the viewer at home constantly in McClane’s ear through the CB radio encouraging him to keep hanging in there and how everyone is rooting for him down there despite those pesky FBI officials attempts to interfere. It all culminates in a great payoff towards the finale where McClane has a personal exchange with Powell earlier that foreshadows Powell overcoming his personal demons and taking justice into his own hands!

The final reason why Die Hard lived up to the hype for me is that it has one of the quintessential villains in Hans Gruber. Alan Rickman delivered a masterful performance as this antagonist who remains cool, confident and calm throughout no matter what obstacles McClane overcomes to attempt to thwart his heist. He has a few classic moments throughout which shows how ruthless he is to get the prize he desires. Much like McClane interacting with Powell, watching Gruber command his troops and maintain order amongst McClane’s chaos is an irresistible force to get swept up in. If I were to relate this to sports it would be like McClane representing the weakened and throttled underdog team late in a game overcoming insurmountable odds to make an unbelievable comeback to defeat the heavily-favored competitor.

I cannot attest for how great the 4K UHD looks because I do not have a 4K TV, but the BluRay still looks stunning in HD….for a remastered film from 1988 that is. Other than that there is a smattering of extra features available. There are eight minutes of newscasts scenes taken from the film and also contain unused newscast updates and outtakes from the anchors in a nice extra. There is a ten minute slide show of stills and production shots and a ton of trailers. The only standout extras are ‘subtitle commentary’ from various cast and crew members and feature-length audio commentary with director John McTiernan and production designer Jackson DeGovia. The subtitle track is similar to pop-up factoid tracks I have seen in other films, but it is better at having a constant flow of quotes from the cast and crew relative to the scene playing. Watching the subtitle track along with the audio commentary was a vastly insightful experience. McTiernam and DeGovia have a lot of nonstop facts and stories from the production with some highlights being callbacks to props used in their other films, making the heavies stand out by intentionally casting European models to portray the goons and McTeirnan explaining how the ideal movie shoot is done in under 80 days and how he was doomed for going over that like he did with Last Action Hero.

Die Hard easily ranks among one of my all time favorite action films. That is not nostalgia talking either because as I stated earlier, even though 2018 is the 30th anniversary of Die Hard, I did not watch it for the first time until last year. For a movie that old to be that timeless, especially in a genre where special effects goes a long way in proving how special Die Hard truly is. Regardless of whether you have seen this Bruce Willis classic countless times or never before, go out of your way to watch it now and show to your friends how it is the perfect Christmas movie!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-6
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

The Marine 6: Close Quarters

Season’s greetings dear readers! One of my gifts for you this holiday season is my latest entry for WWE Studios’ sixth installment in their flagship franchise, The Marine! It hit direct-to-video this past month so this is a rare timely review from me! I had The Marine 6: Close Quarters (trailer) on pre-order from Amazon, but for whatever reason it took Amazon an extra two weeks to ship it to me after its street date. I hear more and more studios are doing this intentionally by delaying shipments to Amazon so brick-and-mortar retailers can compete. Just a heads up I will dive into some major spoilers that is imperative I address in the final paragraphs here, but I will make sure to give you a big, bold-faced warning so you know when they are about to hit.

The Marine films have been guilty pleasures for me. Like I have stated in my previous Marine entries, they are a throwback to the low budget action films that would dominate the TBS night with the theme, Movies for Guys Who Like Movies. Marine 6 continues that trend with a film that primarily takes place in one location with a limited cast, and as far as action films are concerned, a smaller scale for gunfights, in-your-face action and blockbuster explosions. What they lack in the AAA budget department, they make up for with the primary cast consisting of WWE wrestlers.

Unlike the previous film which was supported with lower-tiered WWE wrestlers, this film features top WWE talent. Mike “The Miz” Mizanin returns in the starring role as ex-marine, Jake Carter. He starts the film sparring with his former comrade, Luke Trapper (Shawn Michaels). Carter helps Trapper in his VA work where he delivers food to vets having a rough after-life as squatters in an abandoned building. It is there where the duo stumbles into the Hayes gang who have kidnapped Sarah Dillon (Louisa Burnham), the daughter of a juror who is deliberating the verdict of the head of the Hayes gang. The marines manage to wrestle Sarah away from the gang, but Hayes’ daughter, Maddy (Becky Lynch) leads her goons in a full-on attack against the former marines in the abandoned building complex.

What transpires is a game of cat-and-mouse as Sarah, Luke and Jake try and stay one step ahead of the Hayes gang, with many close encounters with intervening thugs they bump into that results with plenty of intense brawls and trading of fire. I liked how creative the producers got with keeping the chase interesting with the small rooms, vents and tunnels the trio found themselves in as they worked their way out of the complex. The sense of action had me glued in whenever a fight occurred, and was complemented nicely with a up-tempo score to keep me fully immersed much like a 80s action B-movie would.

Mizanin is serviceable once again in the leading role, and Michaels was surprisingly solid with his limited acting experience too. Mizanin and Michaels have a few hammed up quips they exchange throughout the film that should flop-by-all means, but their earnest delivery of them surprisingly worked for me in a adorably hammy sort of way. I would be remiss if I failed to mention the outstanding performance of one Becky Lynch. For readers here who do not follow pro-wrestling, Becky is absolutely killing it in current WWE television portraying a female badass ala “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and it is generating main event fandom among the WWE fans in a fervor the WWE has not seen in years. Becky portrays that same take-no-BS attitude in Close Quarters, and I can see it being the catalyst for how she transferred her Maddy persona onto her WWE character months after wrapping production. She is awesome in the film and successfully comes off as a believable badass I would dare not mess with.

As has been the tradition for most WWE Studios home videos, Marine 6 contains only two short extra features. Making Maddy & Marines interviews Michaels and Miz about their on screen chemistry and Becky giving props to Miz for teaching her acting fundamentals. Breakdown: Epic Fights interviews the WWE stars and the fight choreographer about how tough training was for the fight scenes and breaks down the epic final fight scene. They are nice short extras…..but c’mon WWE shell out a few bucks and give me a director and actors roundtable audio commentary track!! Speaking of short, The Marine 6 is a fun, brisk watch at 85 minutes and wraps up before you know it. That is three hits in a row for director James Nunn, whose work on Eliminators, Marine 5 & 6 I would place among the best of the WWE Studios library!

SPOILERS!!!!

Ok guys, I have to chime in with my two cents concerning the surprising moment in Close Quarters when they kill off Jake Carter!!!! I have to admit I did not see it coming and it is not that often you see a long running film franchise kill off its headlining character. The Miz takes a couple of shots to the stomach, but I kept thinking ‘he is going to shake it off’ but instead winds up worse for wear until he meets his shocking demise. This is not a comic-book film questionable death scene either because they definitively kill off Carter and make sure to show his lifeless corpse in a body bag in the film’s final moments when Luke pays him his respects. Props to filmmakers for giving a nice little ‘best of Carter’ montage during the credits, but it is kind of shoddily thrown together with a generic song and does not hold a candle to the tremendous send-off tribute to Paul Walker in Furious 7. I do not foresee the WWE stop making future Marine movies, so I am guessing this was WWE ‘passing the torch’ to Shawn Michaels to take the helm as the lead role in future installments in WWE Studios’ signature franchise.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-6
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past