- Director: Julian Farino
- Screenplay: Joe Barton, David Guggenheim
- Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry, Mike Colter, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alice Lee, Jackie Earle Haley, J.K. Simmons
- Cinematography: Alan Stewart
- Editing: Pia Di Ciaula
- Score: Rupert Gregson-Williams
- Genre: Spy action-comedy thriller
- Runtime: 107 minutes
When his high school sweetheart Roxanne (Halle Berry) appears out of the blue with an agenda, everyman construction worker Mike (Mark Wahlberg) finds himself thrust into a deadly world of espionage and foreign terrorists courtesy of Roxanne’s employers, The Union, a top-secret organisation. They want to recruit him because he can blend into the background well – that’s code for he’s a nobody. With plenty of car chases and fight scenes; it’s thrill-a-minute stuff.
Halle Berry, bouncing back from 2022’s critical flop ‘Moonfall’, gets to utilise her action hero abilities – she can sure handle a gun! Wahlberg makes a suitable leading man and the duo have authentic chemistry as old flames; you’d almost be convinced they really had known each other all those years (don’t let the awkwardly edited pictures of the pair in the 90’s during the end credits fool you though). And J.K. Simmons, playing Roxanne’s boss at The Union, is good in everything he does; he deserves more screen time in this.
There are genuinely funny one-liners, which surprised me as I thought at the beginning that this would be another ‘Red Notice’-style spy comedy from Netflix (which I ended up hating) where the jokes were as stale as weeks-old bread. ‘The Union’, however, is hugely enjoyable. You’ll forget how formulaic the plot is, and be wanting the sequel the cheesy ending sets up.
I hope the location scout gets a raise too; Piran, Slovenia looks beautiful.
My rating: 8 / 10
SilverScreen 