Dave Bautista might be a reasonably big name in Hollywood these days with a plum role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Drax under his belt along with appearances in big budget blockbusters Spectre and Blade Runner 2049, but having made the decision to transition from the squared circle to the silver screen when he was already in his 40s, the former WWE star had to start from the bottom and work his way up.
Bautista’s first two leading roles came in bargain basement actioners Wrong Side of Town and House of the Rising Sun, before he showed up to lend support in The Scorpion King 3: Redemption and RZA’s kung-fu B-movie The Man with the Iron Fists. Despite proving himself as a surprisingly capable dramatic actor, though, through a range of challenging roles that showed he wasn’t just a musclebound meathead, the 51 year-old still isn’t above the odd VOD appearance after admitting he signed on to Escape Plan 2: Hades solely for the opportunity to work with Sylvester Stallone.
Of course, if any actor spends enough time trawling the depths of straight-to-video genre fare, there’s a very high chance that they’ll bump into Bruce Willis eventually, and that’s exactly what happened to Bautista in 2016’s Marauders. Directed by low budget veteran Steven C. Miller, the plot focuses on a series of bank heists that the FBI are led to believe could all be inside jobs.
Marauders is exactly as formulaic as the brief synopsis makes it sound, with Willis once again sleepwalking through his descent into mediocrity, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s actually one of the fallen star’s better recent VOD efforts, and fans will be able to check it out for themselves when it gets added to the Netflix library next week, on December 1st.
