The Stream: Flimsy and typical storyline with little ok CGI

The Big Screen: Heartfelt motive and intense at times

The Final Bill: A basic military survival movie with bad writing and storyline.

– S2S: Movie Reviews
Director: Patrick Hughes
Writers: Patrick Hughes, James Beaufort
Stars: Alan Ritchson, Stephan James, Blake Richardson
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rating: R (Violence, strong language)
Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
Production Companies: Emu Creek Pictures, Hidden Pictures, Huge Films
Platform: Netflix released on March 6, 2026
Coming soon to Netflix: Goat, My Dearest Señorita, Son-in-Law, Swapped, Remarkably Bright Creatures, Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine, The Boroughs, Ladies First

Welcome back, Streamers! HEE HEE! So, Michael came out this week, and we thought it was the perfect time to throw out this review to get lost in the MJ mania. A few weeks ago, we watched War Machine and just never got around to publishing the review. This straight to Netflix flick follows an elite Ranger selection program that our protagonist just can’t seem to overcome, mentally and physically. Our hero, 81(Alan Ritchson), is plagued by regrets of his past, tries to cross the finish line of this Ranger program but the program hits an unforeseen snag when an unknown war machine gets in his path. War hijinks ensue.

If you haven’t already… check out the trailer… it suggests that this is an action-filled story but then you actually watch the movie.   All of that happens but it’s the in-between moments that contain average that further a flimsy storyline.  Really, this movie should be called, “Wrong place at the wrong time”.  That sums up the story pretty well and you wouldn’t even need a military theme to it.   Let me stop trying to make this movie better.   Ritchson does his thing being BA while beating people up while riding motorcycles but that’s the end of the movie.   Everyone else has lame lines and average roles with unspectacular action sequences.  I’ll admit the underlying storyline isn’t horrible it’s just overused.  The only thing Hollywood struggles with more than an original plot is an original character motivation. 

Nevertheless, the real star of the movie is the war machine that takes out the annoying characters for 40% of the movie.   Don’t try to figure out any background to this machine unless you crave a headache.  Anyway,  the random war machine mixed in ranger special program is a nice mix of training-horror with alien invasion.  The movie is thrilling once the war machine arrives, but it takes a while to get there.  Once we’re there, the writers had zero vision for where their story was going other than establishing whether the rangers actually finish their program.  Either way it makes for terrible decisions and the realization that people’s priorities are all messed up sometimes.

Long story short, War Machine is an average military training thriller that has an unoriginal storyline and character motive only saved by the random war machine stalking Ritchson and cast.  Be grateful this came straight to Netflix lest you be sorely disappointed.   Grab a handful of popcorn and check out War Machine, eventually.