Film Review: "Spenser Confidential" (2020).

"The law has limits. They don't". This is Spenser Confidential. This action comedy film directed by Peter Berg, adapted by Sean O'Keefe and Brian Helgeland, and based on the 2013 novel Robert B. Parker's Wonderland by Ace Atkins. Spenser - an ex-cop better known for making trouble than solving it - just got out of prison and is leaving Boston for good. But first he gets roped into helping his old boxing coach and mentor, Henry, with a promising amateur. That's Hawk, a brash, no-nonsense MMA fighter convinced he'll be a tougher opponent than Spenser ever was. When two of Spenser's former colleagues turn up murdered, he recruits Hawk and his foul-mouthed ex-girlfriend, Cissy, to help him investigate and bring the culprits to justice.

In late June 2018, it was announced that Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg would collaborate for on a Netflix film adaptation of Atkins' novel based on Robert B. Parker's character Spenser, as a continuation of the original series authorized by Parker's estate, with O'Keefe and Helgeland penning the adaptation. The film would be Wahlberg and Berg's fifth collaboration after Lone Survivor (2013), Deepwater Horizon (2016), Patriots Day (2016), and Mile 22 (2018). By late 2018, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine, Donald Cerrone, Marc Maron, and Post Malone were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and took place in Boston, Massachusetts.

The film stars Wahlberg, Duke, Arkin, Shlesinger, Woodbine, Cerrone, Maron, and Malone. The cast gave good performances but not nearly good enough to overcome the incoherent, woeful script, story, and direction. Hope & Crosby. Abbott & Costello. Laurel & Hardy. Wahlberg & Duke won't be joining this select group if the film is any indication.

If you liked Wahlberg and Berg's previous films, you'll probably find things to like about the film, but it's not a classic even for rabid Wahlberg enthusiasts. It's only when Wahlberg and Duke go head-to-head that the film sparkles and its unfortunate that such a good pairing is wasted. Basically you have Wahlberg -- whose recent output might charitably be described as "iffy" -- working a couple of dweeby riffs for all they're worth. A hit-and-miss parody of mismatched-buddy cop films, which is not that easy, given how that grizzled genre has pretty much ossified into parody all by itself. What would have been very funny for fifteen minutes, and pretty funny for forty-five, doesn't maintain the standard over the course of a feature-length film. I just didn't think that there were quite enough of them, and although the effort is a good one the film in my opinion remains a law and order police department parody that doesn't quite make the grade. The jokes begin to repeat themselves, and the plot becomes mired in unintelligible details of the white-collar crime that Wahlberg and Duke are investigating. Somebody didn't pack enough comedy for this long trip - the punchlines in the movie's second half are often callbacks to jokes you may not fondly remember from the first, until every gag is united with its mate.

Simon says Spenser Confidential receives:

Also, see my review for Mile 22.