The Marine 3: Homefront

The Marine 3: Homefront is a 2013 American action film, starring professional wrestler The Miz and directed by Scott Wiper. It was released on March 5, 2013. It is a sequel to The Marine starring John Cena and The Marine 2, starring Ted Dibiase Jr..

Plot
Sergeant Jake Carter (The Miz) of the U.S. Marine Corps' Special Operations Forces is returning home to his small rural town after a dangerous covert mission in Central America. He's looking forward to spending quality time with his two sisters, Amanda (Camille Sullivan) and Lilly (Ashley Bell). Jake's homecoming is short-lived though when Lilly and her boyfriend are kidnapped and Jake is forced to make use of his military skills to save them. Taken by Jonah Pope (Neal McDonough), a former foreign college professor turned extremist, Pope determined to unleash an elaborate terrorist attack on American soil, Carter will do whatever is necessary to save his sister and to stop Pope before it's too late.

Cast

 * Mike "The Miz" Mizanin as Jake Carter
 * Neal McDonough as Jonah Pope
 * Michael Eklund as Eckert
 * Ashley Bell as Lilly
 * Camille Sullivan as Amanda
 * Jared Keeso as Harkin
 * Jeff Ballard as Darren

Production
The Marine 3: Homefront is the sequel to The Marine starring John Cena and The Marine 2 starring Ted DiBiase. On February 25, 2012, WWE Studios announced a three film distribution deal with 20th Century Fox Home Video and The Marine 3: Homefront was the first of that deal. 20th Century Fox will handle the global distribution of the film on DVD, Video On Demand, and Online outlets. WWE Studios also used WWE's television and internet status to promote and market the film.

On March 28, 2012, is was reported that WWE star Randy Orton was set to star as the lead role in the film and Orton himself later tweeted to confirm it. However it was reported on April 3, 2012 that Randy Orton had been pulled from the role due to his bad conduct discharge from the Marines in the late 1990s. Orton twice was absent without leave and disobeyed an order from a commanding officer. Orton's old Marine unit displayed public outrage of Randy being cast in the film due to his history.

On April 30, 2012, it was announced that Mike "The Miz" Mizanin will be replacing Orton as the lead in the film. The Miz was a surprise to many people as being cast as the lead. On June 11, 2012, it was announced that Ashley Bell and Neal McDonough have joined the cast. Scott Wiper was in talks to direct the movie and to write the script. Filming began in the summer of 2012. The entire movie was filmed in Vancouver.

Reception
The Marine 3: Homefront gained mixed reviews from critics, a review from Pro Wrestling Torch.com states, "athough Marine 3 is not a good movie and Miz is miscast in the lead role, he did show some chops as an actor here and could definitely play a supporting role in future releases and not seem out of place. Unfortunately much like his current role in WWE, Miz is out of his element in Marine 3." Another review from Bleacher Report.com states; "This movie won’t win any Oscars anytime soon, but it wasn’t meant to. And while it is undoubtedly yet another cheesy action movie, there are times it strives to be more and has a level of intelligence you wouldn't expect it to have." Another review from The Action Elite.com states: "The Miz is actually a very good and entertaining action star. I am surprised and impressed with his performance. The action is more grounded in reality than the original. The fights are brutal and fun to watch,If you need a nice change of pace, you will definitely enjoy The Marine 3. It is a very fast paced piece of action cinema that will get you pumped."

On IMDB, The Marine 3: Homefront has an average rating of 4.7/10 based on 9 user reviews and 14 critic reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, The Marine 3 had a 21% audience reception with an average rating of 2.7/5 based on 95 user ratings.

Release
The Marine 3: Homefront was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 5, 2013 and upon its release it rocketed to the top 20 DVD chart ranking in at #12 and #15 on the DVD and Blu-ray lists respectively. The Marine 3 is WWE's most successful straight-to-DVD release in a long time. After 4 weeks out it had sold 153,226 units for $2,291,262,thats more than any other WWE regular DVD will do this year with the possible exception of Wrestlemania 29.

Promotion
The film has been promoted on all of WWE programming including Raw. WWE advertised the movie on WWE.com for several weeks and held various interviews. The trailer for the film premeired on WWE Tribute to the Troops. WWE also promoted by showing the trailer and interviews to the general public by uploading them onto YouTube. The star of the film, The Miz, also appeared on Conan to promote the film.