Much like fast-food chains make sure their menu items have just the right amount of sugar, salt and fat to make their products addictive, Netflix delivers action movies that feel as if they were created in a lab.
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That doesn’t make them any less enjoyable as long as you recognize their artificiality and don’t mind signing on for it. The latest example is The Union , featuring a terrific cast led by Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, exotic locations, high-energy action sequences and sufficient doses of light-hearted humor to assure us that no one involved is taking the proceedings too seriously. It’s a pleasant enough diversion that you’ll likely instantly forget until the inevitable sequel comes along.
Wahlberg plays to his (shirtless) strengths as Mike, who only deviates from the actor’s usual working-class persona in that he’s a Jersey boy rather than a Southie. A construction worker (natch), he’s the sort of blue-collar, regular guy who throws back beers with his buddies at the local tavern and sleeps with his former 7th-grade English teacher (Dana Delany, sadly underutilized). Needless to say, Bruce Springsteen songs accompany him on the soundtrack.
His normal routine is suddenly interrupted by the unexpected appearance of Roxanne, his old high-school flame whom he hasn’t seen in 25 years. She walks into his usual watering hole, amazingly not causing too much of a stir despite the fact that she’s played by Halle Berry wearing a skin-tight black leather outfit. The two enjoy a warm and friendly reunion that they take outside, where she injects him with a sedative and knocks him out.
Mike wakes up in London, at the Savoy Hotel of all places, where he’s informed by Roxanne and her boss Brennan (J.K. Simmons, exuding wryness as only he can) that he’s been brought there to join their secret spy organization (see the film’s title for its name). Their special mission is to retrieve a MacGuffin, I mean classified data, that’s fallen into the wrong hands after a failed mission involving one of the organization’s agents (Mike Colter). It seems that they need “a nobody, someone with no history,” since apparently every other U.S. intelligence operative’s identity has been compromised. Mike, like the film’s viewers, will just have to go with it.
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After meeting the other members of the team, including medical expert Athena (Alice Lee), combat specialist Frank (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, reuniting with Simmons after Oz ), and tech whiz Foreman (Jackie Earle Haley), Mike takes part in the obligatory training montage. This one differs from most in that his exercises seem to take place in only the most prominent London locations, with at one least notable landmark, such as the Tower Bridge, seen in the background at all times. For a supposedly secret organization that’s headquartered in the prominent BT Tower, the Union doesn’t exactly court anonymity.
Mike quickly fits in with the team members who make sure their missions are peppered with amusing wisecracks. In his first venture with them, he makes a few mistakes — including somehow winding up onstage during a West End performance of Matilda: The Musical — but he sufficiently demonstrates his secret agent bona fides to embark on a mission with Roxanne during which old romantic sparks start to fly. It all leads to a stunt-filled action climax in a gorgeously picturesque seaside village location (actually, Piran, Slovenia, which should enjoy a boost in tourism after this), ably orchestrated by director Julian Farino ( Ballers , Entourage ).
The film goes down as easily and smoothly as you’d expect, with Wahlberg exuding his regular Joe charm and Berry demonstrating that, besides being an Oscar-winning thespian, she’s an impressive cinematic badass. Joe Barton and David Guggenheim’s screenplay features a winking self-awareness that lets us know that nothing in the proceedings is to be taken too seriously — as evidenced by such moments as Mike’s amusing phone conversations with his apparently all-knowing mother (Lorraine Bracco, scoring laughs in her brief screen time).
The Union proves as entertaining as its Netflix algorithms would have predicted, balancing its impressive star wattage with lavish production values to remind viewers of the value of their monthly subscriptions.
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