Movie Review - Spenser Confidential

Director Peter Berg has now made five films with Oscar-nominated star, Mark Wahlberg. Berg and Wahlberg's first collaboration was the box office hit, Lone Survivor (2013), which grossed over $125 million. The following collaborations include Deepwater Horizon (2016), Patriots Day (2016) and Mile 22 (2018). I would argue that with each subsequent collaboration the quality has gone down, along with the box office intake. Deepwater Horizon only made $61 million in domestic theaters. Mile 22 only made $36 million in the United States. Berg's Rotten Tomatoes score has been up and down, so his career is a mixed bag. Patriots Day wasn't as bad and was actually a fairly decent trip through real-life, horrific events, but, in general, his films have been on a downward trajectory for me and this film represents a low point, a very low point.

I feel like I understand what Berg was trying to do. He was trying to craft what could be called a buddy cop, action comedy. The bellwethers for this film would most likely be titles like Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Lethal Weapon (1987) and Bad Boys (1995). Those titles are iconic buddy cop, action comedies that are excellent in their buddy cop aspects, as well as their action comedy aspects. This film from Berg isn't excellent, not all that good, in either its buddy cop aspects or its action comedy aspects. This film is based on a series of novels, starting with The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker, and continued in novels like Wonderland by Ace Atkins. I haven't read any of the books, which probably have a lot of buddy cop and action comedy to them. Unfortunately, if those books do, little to none are translated to this motion picture.

Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter and The Departed) stars as Spenser, a man whose first name is unknown, but he is a former officer with the Boston Police Department. Yet, he is arrested and put into prison for years because he lost his temper and assaulted a captain in the Boston PD. The reason he assaulted that captain isn't revealed until the end, but the film starts with Spenser being released from Walpole and going to live with a father-figure named Henry, played by Alan Arkin, in South Boston, aka "Southie." It's obvious that Spenser is s bit of a tough guy. Henry, the father-figure, runs a boxing gym and clearly Spenser is a product of that kind of place that takes in bruisers from Southie and tries to focus their aggressions in productive ways. Spenser is definitely a bruiser too, but he does have a soft spot and that's for his dog, which looks like a beagle or Basset Hound.

Things kick off when two police officers are killed on the same day. One is the captain that Spenser assaulted and the other is a black cop named Terrence. Spenser knows that the captain was corrupt, but the fact that Terrence died on the same day suggests a connection. Yet, Spenser doesn't believe that Terrence was corrupt, so Spenser is motivated to investigate as an unpaid and unsanctioned, private eye in order to get at the truth of who killed the two cops and why.

Winston Duke (Us and Black Panther) co-stars as Hawk, a man whose real name is also unknown. He's a six-foot-five and 250 lbs., MMA fighter who is training at Henry's boxing gym. The one thing about him is that he can't throw a punch or Spenser notices that he can't throw a punch in the way that Jack thinks is effective or proper. The only other thing that is known about Hawk is that his father is former military who was killed. Spenser recruits Hawk to help with his investigation for no real reason, except that Spenser and Hawk are roommates in Henry's house.

Spenser and Hawk make up the buddies of this so-called buddy cop film. Unfortunately, their dynamic is no where near as interesting, entertaining or funny as dynamics in films like Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys. Wahlberg feels like he's trying at times, but, opposite Duke, the two just can't muster the energy to deliver any effective comedy. Wahlberg has done several comedies, but normally he's paired with a more established comedian like Will Ferrell in Daddy's Home (2015) and Seth MacFarlane in Ted (2012). When you don't have established comedians, usually the film can survive if the writing or direction is strong, but that's not the case here.

Iliza Shlesinger (Last Comic Standing) plays Cissy Davis, a blonde battle-axe who curses up a storm and yells insults. She's probably the funniest thing about this whole film. She's a little annoying at first, as she's supposed to be, but, as the film progresses, she becomes a great comedic force and the little bit of life that this film can muster. If she were Spenser's buddy in the buddy cop stuff, that would've been better.

Instead, Hawk is the buddy, but his chemistry with Spenser falls a bit flat. That lack of chemistry almost feels designed, so it's not as if I can even blame the actors. Duke's failing as an actor might be in this arena to really generate a comedic performance. Yet, he did bring some humor to his role in Jordan Peele's Us, so my issue with this film has to go to the writing, which is surprising, given that the writer here is Brian Helgeland, the Oscar-winning scribe of L.A. Confidential (1997). The fact that the title of this film is similar to that Oscar-winner is probably no coincidence and designed to invoke thoughts of that 1997 classic. This film even has the audacity to reference Serpico (1973), a film that Berg's flick has no chance of even coming close to comparison.

Rated R for language, violence and sexual content.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 51 mins.

Available on Netflix.