Directed by: Peter Berg
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Bokeem Woodbine, Iliza Schlesinger, Marc Maron, Post Malone
Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg team up again with Spenser Confidential, a 2020 version of the Spenser character made famous by the late Robert Urich in the 1980's series Spenser: For Hire. We weren't necessarily on the lookout for a 2020 Spenser update, but here it is anyway. Spenser Confidential isn't a comedy, but I found it amusing how ordinary citizens can wreak such havoc and not be arrested, or in Spenser's case thrown back into prison.
Spenser (Wahlberg), whose first name isn't revealed, is a straight-arrow Boston cop sentenced to prison for pounding on his captain for beating on his wife and possibly burying a murder investigation of a local activist. Spenser emerges from prison five years later, shortly after brawling with a few white supremacists, and reunites with old friend Henry (Arkin) who during Spenser's prison stretch rented out his room to the gargantuan Hawk (Duke), an aspiring MMA fighter.
Spenser wants to move to Arizona and become a trucker. He enrolls in trucking school and yearns to ride the sleek black truck owned by the school's curmudgeonly trainer. Anyone want to bet on whether this truck will play a crucial part in the film's climactic fight scenes? Spenser isn't thrilled with having to share his room with Hawk, but the two warm to each other and become partners in Spenser's battle against police corruption. It seems the captain Spenser pounded five years ago was murdered and another straight-arrow cop was framed for it after he committed "suicide". Knowing Spenser was out of prison, wouldn't the conspirators make it easier on themselves by framing Spenser, who already has a bad history with the captain? They don't, and Spenser and Hawk make it their mission to clear the clean cop's name and find out what's what.
What's what is a mish-mosh of corruption, drugs, and local drug distributors opening a new casino at an abandoned dog racetrack. I think there's a land deal in there somewhere, and fervent readers of mine know how I feel about those land deals in movies. Are they really worth all the trouble and energy the bad guys have to expend to get them done? Spenser is a felon, having pleaded guilty to assault, but he is able to not only work with the FBI to bring down the baddies, but to more or less call the shots. Spenser and Hawk are involved in fights, car chases, and untold dollar amounts of property damage with connected cops, yet they are not called to account for the mayhem. We know they are the good guys, but still.
Spenser Confidential doesn't much differentiate itself from other buddy action movies. It runs 110 minutes, but feels longer because there is nothing special about it. It isn't a terrible movie, just a blah one which will be forgotten not long after viewing. I doubt there are many people who recall Spenser: For Hire which such clarity that they can cheerfully recognize any allusions to the show.
The actors don't seem particularly enthused about participating, with each playing stock characters he or she could play while asleep. If you want to see a movie in which Mark Wahlberg plays a morally upright cop who can't stay out of other people's business, Alan Arkin play an irascible old man who kvetches, and Winston Duke as a hulking sidekick, then you should watch them in better movies than Spenser Confidential.
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