Now, in his early 50s, Mark Wahlberg seems to take great enthusiasm in being the most Bostonian he can. I don’t mind that he talks about his religion. But most of his movie roles for the past decade seem to be playing blue-collar types. And yes, he may have that look where all he needs is a ratty baseball cap, a pair of blue jeans and three-day-old stubble, but I seriously doubt Wahlberg ever worked a blue-collar job in his life.
That’s why a movie like The Union doesn’t interest me that much. Wahlberg plays Mike McKenna, a construction worker from New Jersey, who spends his days on high rises and his nights in the local hang-out spot. He still lives with his mother, Lorraine (Lorraine Bracco), and has had a one-night stand with his seventh grade teacher, Nicole (Dana Delany). That is until Roxanne Hall (Halle Berry) walks back into the bar and his life.
Mike and Roxanne were a high school couple who split up. There’s a hint of the interracial issue that is mentioned but never addressed again. Roxanne has joined a government agency that employs people who look more like blue-collar working class people. Many of them have been recruited from these jobs because they could look more like everyone else. This is basically nothing more than a reverse of Wahlberg’s previous movie The Family Plan where he was a former assassin living a quiet life as a car salesman in Buffalo before finding his past coming back.
This type of movie uses the go-to format since the backlash over True Lies 30 years ago where Middle-Eastern terrorists were used as the bad guys. It’s not EuroTrash anymore either because there was criticism about that. So, if you’ve already guessed, it’s someone on the inside who is the bad guy. Yep. This is a by the numbers spy action comedy thriller like True Lies, The Family Plan, Knight & Day, The Spy Who Dumped Me and many others I can’t mention because they’ve been so forgettable.
Part of the problem is that the chemistry between Wahlberg and Berry is too forced. Berry, herself, seems like she’s bored at times. This is unfortunate because I will say the action scenes are noteworthy at times. Director Julian Farino is more known as a TV director. He also directed 23 episodes of Entourage, which Wahlberg helped produced. So, it’s obvious this is another vanity project for Wahlberg now that he’s realized how shameless it is to exploit recent violent acts and events such as the Boston Marathon bombing (of which his character didn’t even exist in real life) and the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Even that Pain & Gain movie was in poor taste if you know the true story.
So, Wahlberg, who now is embarrassed by Boogie Nights and not the two Vietnamese grocers when he was a teenager, is trying to change his image. The Union has the look and feel of something that has been done too much before and all a lot better. The movie was released on Netflix on Aug. 16, a good three months after the better The Fall Guy and after a lot of blockbusters like Twisters and Deadpool and Wolverine.
In the olden days before streaming, this would’ve been one of those movies that would commonly be released in late August/early September, when everyone’s gone back to school or college or busy spending time outside before it gets cooler. It’s no surprise this movie was released when it was. Netflix executives probably looked at it and realized people wouldn’t be in too big of a hurry to watch it instead of as background noise.
What is bad is this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Netflix action movie where scenes take place inside warehouses and factories or out on desolate roads and fields. Along with scenes filmed in and around London, there are scenes in exotic locations such as Piran, Slovenia and Trieste, Italy. The script needed more work and a more experienced director and it could’ve been a good generic spy action comedy thriller rather than a movie you treat like porno, skipping the dialogue scenes just to watch the action.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 