“The union” is silly, but at least knows about it
Published 2024-08-16 14.55
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full screen “The union”. Photo: Laura Radford/Netflix.
The union
Regi Julian Farino, med Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry, JK Simmons, Mike Colter, Jackie Earle Haley, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica De Gouw, Lorraine Bracco.
MOVIE REVIEW. An ordinary working-class guy is drawn into advanced spy work by his teenage love in Netflix’s “The union”.
An action comedy that maintains okay standard quality but could and should have become something more.
ACTIONKOMEDI. At this point, Netflix has pumped out so many mediocre action movies in which big stars cross-country to run on rooftops, fight over classified information, and drive like fools during high-end car chases that they’ve basically become a genre of their own.
And the latest addition is Julian Farinos ”The union” med Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berrywho have apparently been friends for over 30 years (which we get visual proof of in the credits), but here play against each other for the first time.
Mike (Wahlberg) is a working-class man from New Jersey, who remains at home with his mother (Lorraine Bracco), works as a construction worker to the tune of Bruce Springsteensleeps with his old teacher (Dana Delany) and unwinds in the evenings with a couple of beers and a game of pool at his local watering hole.
Judge his surprise when his childhood sweetheart Roxanne (Berry), whom he hasn’t seen in 25 years, suddenly pops in to, it seems, pick up where they left off.
However, he is even more surprised when he wakes up in London after being drugged, and learns that Roxanne is a secret agent in “The Union”. A covert organization led by Tom Brennan (JK Simmons) and consists of working class agents who are “street smart” rather than “book smart” and “get shit done”.
Their latest mission went awry, and in order to recover a large amount of stolen critical information, a list of everyone who has ever served a West Country, they now need an ordinary guy, who doesn’t stand out.
That is, Mike, who will now go through the training program in record time and then be thrown straight into the hot air.
It’s a silly premise, but the fact that everyone involved seems to be aware of it and of what is expected of them gives “The union” a certain light-hearted charm. And Wahlberg and Berry have a warm and convincing chemistry – even if they feel more like old friends than a former couple who are now possibly getting back together.
That and a good pace, some funny lines and a couple of respectable action scenes make “The union” an approved action trifle.
But it could have done a lot more with its workers-as-agents thinking if it had only dared to take a single step outside the box.
Showing on Netflix, from August 16.
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