10. The Marine
Guilty pleasure filmmaking at its zenith: a full-fat, high caffeine throwback to agreeably moronic 80s action pictures that exists for no other reason than to make an action hero out of wrestler/rapper John Cena, the drinking mans Matt Damon. Abruptly discarged from the marines because he disobeyed a direct order, Cena makes the mistake of pulling into the same gas station as Robert Patrick and his crew, whove just heisted some diamonds. When Patricks comic relief henchman wastes a cop, they kidnap Cenas wife and turn the station into a fireball with him inside, but of course he survives, steals a car and heads off in pursuit. With this material theres no point claiming the narrative is thin and far-fetched, that its leading man, while required to show superhuman grace onscreen, may have some limitations as a thespian or that weve been here often enough to guess every plot point ahead of time. Its fast and funny (if Terminator and Deliverance gags are your thing) and theres lots of crash-pow stuff. What more do you want?
Ian Watson
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
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