Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: Mike, a down-to-earth construction worker, is thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne, recruits him on a high-stakes US intelligence mission.
Review: Let's get right to it shall we? How does a movie that "spans the globe" and star A-listers like Halle Berry as Roxy and Mark Wahlberg as Mike, look so cheaply made? I have no idea, but it seems to be the new normal in Hollywood these days.
I have more onscreen chemistry with my toaster
This was such an issue for me I couldn't get past it the entire viewing runtime! While it was hard to pin down exact numbers, I did find out production costs for shooting in Slovenia alone was about 11 million US dollars. Now not counting the cost for shooting in London and the States, plus everything else, they probably spent an easy 20 million on making this right? Yet every scene in this movie looks like it was made-for-network television instead of one of the world's largest streaming platforms (i.e. Netflix). But before I go too deep down the rabbit hole of mediocrity that is this movie, let's talk plot details.
The Union is your usual tale of an ordinary guy (Wahlberg) living his ordinary life (in Jersey) when an old flame (Berry) approaches him out of the blue. She recruits him into a secret agency she works for whose special thing is unlike the CIA, Mi6 or any of the other alphabet agencies, employs only blue-collar folks like construction workers, janitors and the like. "Ordinary" folks who have street smarts to battle in the world of international crime hence the name - The Union. Get it? Because folks like these usually would be in a union? Yeah, it's as silly as it sounds. The MacGuffin they're after this time is a brief case with the identities of every undercover agent in the world (also a trope we've seen a million times before like the Knock List in Mission Impossible). Oh, and Mike Coulter (Luke Cage) is in this movie too in (SPOILER ALERT) the most obvious heel turns since Daffy Duck turned on Bugs in "Ali Baba Bunny".
I was in Whiplash you know? Now that was a good movie
I have no issues with movie tropes (they exist for a reason) but at the very least you need to utilise them in fun and energetic ways, which is something The Union never does. Say what you will about Red Notice, The Gray Man or even Wahlberg's other Netflix action original Infinite, those movies with all their flaws were high energy. Director Julian Farino shoots every scene in the most straight-on and unimaginative ways while the writing - which was handled by two guys no less - plays out like it was written by a highschooler.
A waste of picturesque locations, talented actors (they even dragged poor J.K. Simmons into this mess) where every scene feels like it was typed into ChatGPT, I usually give a lot of leeway when it comes to watching Netflix-made action movies, but The Union is beyond lazy and uninspired. Skip it and don't bother to pay your union dues on this one.
Sommer's Score: 4 out of 10
And you can check out better thriller fare below:
'INFINITE' IS A FUN AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING FLICK
'RED NOTICE' STAR TRIO LIFTS NETFLIX'S HEIST FLICK
'THE GRAY MAN': RUSSO BROS' SMART, SPECTACULAR ACTION FLICK
BERRY'S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT 'BRUISED' PUTS UP A FIGHT
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I'll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More
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