Back in 2006, The Marine cost $20 million to shoot and earned around $22 million worldwide. That doesn’t seem like a recipe for financial success, but someone decided to launch a franchise, albeit one that subsequently avoided big screens. After the first film’s less than prosperous cinematic run, all its sequels went straight to video, and that’s where we find 2015’s The Marine 4: Moving Target.

Now out of the military, Sgt. Jake Carter (Mike Mizanin) takes on a job as part of an elite private security team. As part of that group, he gets an assignment to protect a high-value “package”: whistleblower Olivia Tanis (Melissa Roxburgh).

Inevitably, baddies confront Carter and his group. They ambush the team and take out most of the guards. Carter survives, and we follow his efforts to protect Tanis from capture.

Going into Target, I knew two things about the franchise: it always starred WWE wrestlers, and it always focused on loud action. Actually, the latter fell into the “assumption” category; I never saw the first three, but I think it’s a safe bet that they revolved around lots of bombast.

For the first time in the series, Target reuses the same lead actor/character. In the opening film, John Cena played John Triton, while the second flick used Ted DiBiase as Joe Linwood. Marine 3 introduced Mizanin as Carter and carries over his narrative into Target.

Now that I’ve viewed Target, I’d be curious to see Marine 3 to compare the two. Is it even vaguely possible that Mizanin could’ve seemed more stiff and unnatural in that flick? Maybe, but the sight of the wrestler as he lumbers through Target makes it hard to imagine.

Of course, one doesn’t watch a movie like Target because they desire excellent acting, so I can’t criticize Mizanin too much. However, I’d like to see an “actor” who at least manages to say his lines in a moderately competent manner. Mizanin delivers dialogue like he’s reading an unfamiliar second language phonetically; he couldn’t be more awkward and flat if he tried.

The rest of the actors follow suit, though I don’t know how much I can fault them, as the script of Target leaves no room for interesting performances. Essentially we find a group of anonymous characters who try to harm other anonymous characters. Not only will you find it tough to remember the names of any of the participants, but by the end you might forget your own name. Target feels so generic and braindead that it’ll turn your own mind into mush.

Although I don’t expect great acting from a movie like this, I do anticipate at least moderately intriguing characters, and that makes the dullness of Target such a problem. That seems especially true in terms of villains. Target includes a visually diverse group of baddies – including sexy Summer Rae as token female assassin Rachel Dawes. The movie’s advertising features her prominently – heck, the Blu-ray’s cover gives her co-billing with Mizanin!

Despite that build-up, Rae gets little to do in Target. She gets one brief fight but nothing to merit her star billing in the least. I guess she’s a “name” in the wrestling world and that’s why she receives so much attention in the advertising, but fans who hope to see much of Rae will encounter severe disappointment.

As will movie buffs who want an interesting, enjoyable experience. Essentially a cheaper, even less interesting version of 1996’s Eraser, The Marine 4: Moving Target offers the definition of cheap, anonymous filmmaking. Utterly lacking in style, excitement and originality, the movie fails on all fronts.

The Marine 4: Moving Target appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a generally positive presentation.

Sharpness looked solid. A few shots were slightly soft, but not to a substantial degree. Most of the movie seemed pretty accurate and concise. No jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws were a non-factor, as the movie stayed clean.

Like most modern action flicks, Target favored a teal tint. That became a pretty heavy overtone and we didn’t get much room for other hues. Within their parameters, the colors appeared appropriate; I’m tired of all this teal but I can’t fault the visual execution here.

Blacks seemed deep and tight, while shadows were decent. They could be slightly dense – mainly in wooded scenes - but they remained positive for the most part. In the end, the transfer proved to be good, if not great.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Target, it became a peppy mix. With all the action scenes, we got a lot of good material from all sides. Gunfire, explosions and other elements zoomed around the spectrum and added a nice sense of activity to the film. Stereo music also worked well, and this turned into a pretty vivid soundscape.

Audio quality seemed fine. Speech was crisp and distinctive, with no edginess or other concerns. Music was full and rich, while effects came across as lively and accurate. The track boasted good low-end when appropriate. All of this was good enough for a “B+”.

In terms of extras, the disc includes three featurettes. We find “Firepower” (10:12), “The Franchise” (5:48) and “Beauty Is Dangerous” (4:14). Across these, we hear from armourer Rob Fournier, property master Valentine Pavuls, key production assistant Zoe La Liberte, SPFX best boy Kim Mortensen, line producer Donald Munro, stunt coordinator Kimani Ray Smith, SPFX coordinator Darcy Davis, fight choreographer Dan Rizzuto, key hairstylist Forest Sala, key makeup Candice Stafford-Bridge, and actors Mike Mizanin, Summer Rae, Melissa Roxburgh, Josh Blacker, Ted DiBiase Jr. and John Cena.

The programs look at weaponry, stunts, training and action, aspects of the Marine series, story/character areas, and cast/performances. Of the three, “Firepower” becomes the only truly useful one, as it details the action challenges pretty well. The other two tend toward promotional fluff, so don’t expect much from them.

The disc opens with ads for Taken 3, Kingsman: The Secret Service and Badasses on the Bayou. Sneak Peek adds promos for Unfinished Business, The November Man and Homeland Season Four. No trailer for Target shows up here.

Witless, silly and dull, The Marine 4: Moving Target boasts no charm or excitement. The film meanders through from one predictable situation to another without life or passion. The Blu-ray brings us good picture and audio but lacks notable supplements. With so many great action movies on the market, don’t waste your time with this cheap, anonymous tripe.