Review: Spenser Confidential

SPENSER CONFIDENTIAL (M18)

For those of us pining for the cinemas, streaming feels more "make do" than "go to".

Netflix has some classics - Uncut Gems, The Irishman, Marriage Story, Dolemite Is My Name, Always Be My Maybe - but it is also littered with big-name clunkers (6 Underground).

And then there are films like Spenser Confidential - the fifth pairing of director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg.

Wahlberg plays a former cop who is fresh out of jail and gets involved in corruption in the Boston police department.

The titular Spenser is also your classic Wahlberg character - great at fighting, absolutely no handle on life.

Add crankiness expert Alan Arkin as his mentor, Black Panther's Winston Duke as the mentee/muscle and Iliza Shlesinger as Spenser's ex.

Nothing here will surprise - the set-up, plot, resolution, action - and yet it could be the first of an enjoyable series of lightweight crime dramas.

It would have been better if Berg did not give it such a "TV movie" feel.

It is a classic Netflix joint. Not bad to watch at home, but you'd feel shortchanged had you paid to see it on the big screen.

- JONATHAN ROBERTS - 2 Ticks