“Spenser Confidential”
Rotten Tomatoes: 37%
Movie Meter: 4/10
Release: 2020
Genre: Action/Thriller
Available: Netflix (Original)
Review:
Spenser Confidential is a 2020 action film starring Mark Wahlberg as Spenser, a well-intentioned Boston Police Detective who finds himself in the middle of a twisted police conspiracy/cover up. After losing his cool during an encounter with his boss, Captain Boylan (Michael Gaston), Spenser is sentenced to 5 years at the Massachusetts State Penitentiary in Walpole.
Needless to say, Spenser is not exactly the most popular inmate given his professional background, though he is a stand-up guy, and he does his time like a man. Spenser’s lack of popularity becomes evident in the opening scene of the film when has a run-in with a well-known Aryan Nation leader named Squeeb (Post Malone), who is about as tough as his name sounds. Squeeb and his lamebrain group of anti-semites are sent to deliver Spenser a simple message: Get out of Boston!
Upon his release, Spenser does quite the opposite, and decides to go live in Southie with his long time friend Henry Cimoli (Alan Arkin), and his new (somewhat unexpected) roommate Hawk (Winston Duke). While Spenser adjusts to his new living situation, he does everything in his power to avoid his ex-girlfriend Crissy (Iliza Shlesinger), who is somewhat of a trashy, but comical individual.
Director Pete Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg (the Bergs) created an extremely watchable and fun action movie with Spenser Confidential. I will admit the film was very predictable, and the plot was certainly lacking at points, but it never took itself too seriously, and that is massively important with this type of film. While it was not necessarily the most well-scripted movie, I thought it had its promising moments. I would put this movie on the same caliber as a lot of the Berg-Wahlberg collaborations we have seen in the past like Patriot’s Day (2016), Deep Water Horizon (2016), and Mile 22 (2018).
Overall, Spenser Confidential was pretty much exactly what I was expecting, nothing more, nothing less. An action packed, fun-to-watch movie with little-to-no depth and a decent cast. It’s worth nothing that the movie broke the top 3 for most streams per household in Netflix movie history (85 million households) trailing only Extraction (95 million) and Birdbox (90 million). A very impressive feat in my humbly honest opinion.
I will admit I was a little confused by the lack of character development until I realized about halfway through that the movie was setting itself up for an obvious sequel. While I don’t expect the sequel to be any more or less exciting than this one, I’ll admit I will most likely be checking it out. All things considered, Spenser Confidential is getting 4 out of 10 🥜 s.
