Oh, Marky Mark, you do know how to churn out the cheese. Mostly TV director Julian Farino helms this action spy comedy about regular guy Mike McKenna (Mark Wahlberg), a New Jersey high-rise steel worker who likes to drink beer with his pals in the local watering hole and hook up with … well, when the film opens, he’s waking up in his seventh-grade teacher’s bed. He’s just a happy-go-lucky blue-collar bro living in a comfortable rut. That is until his old high school flame, Roxanne Hall (Halle Berry), shows up out of the blue.
The next thing he knows, he’s in London being recruited for a clandestine spy agency known as The Union. It’s not staffed by suave agents like MI6 or squares like the FBI. The Union is staffed by regular Joes who “get the job done.” Or at least they usually do. After a botched operation in Trieste, Italy, they need a fresh face, a “nobody.”
Insert Mike, who after two weeks of training suddenly finds himself squaring off against Iranian terrorists, Russian spies, and North Korean agents, while also maybe sort of falling for Roxanne all over again. Is it good? Not really, but it’s lightweight fun! (107 min.)
—Glen Starkey
This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 8, 2024.