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Spenser Confidential Reviews

It’s disappointing to see Peter Berg slink away from what seemed like a solid career as an action-craftsman/director for hire. He can apply competence, he just doesn’t seem to want to.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 21, 2024

Spenser Confidential is a run of the mill action movie that can’t decide if it wants to be Training Day or Rush Hour.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Jan 21, 2023

It has a throwback vibe to it that makes it all pretty easy to digest. But it’s even easier to forget.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

Boring action sequences, chemistry-free leads and punchline-less jokes...

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 23, 2021

While Berg has offered better efforts from the director's chair, he keeps Spenser Confidential reasonably engaging if never remotely enthralling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 28, 2021

Is Spenser Confidential a kind of dumb but highly entertaining way to spend a couple of hours as the world spins off its axis, is it some good escapism, and does Mark Wahlberg take his shirt off? Yes, yes, and yes

Full Review | Oct 19, 2020

Ultimately, Spenser Confidential is something of a tonally awkward Jack Reacher wannabe, that lacks that film's sophistication and level of self-awareness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 28, 2020

When all's said and done, the film is forgettable.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 2, 2020

"Spenser Confidential" isn't the type of movie you'd run to pay and see, but fortunately you don't have to. You're already paying for it with your Netflix subscription.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 18, 2020

To say that this is an 'Airplane Movie' would be an insult to Airplane Movies.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jul 8, 2020

Too much of Spenser Confidential's mystery plays like warmed-up leftovers-stuff we have seen far too many times before.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 25, 2020

As an attempted buddy comedy, both Mark Wahlberg and Winston Duke fail to generate any worthwhile chemistry as two mismatched partners trying to solve a crime.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 14, 2020

Spenser Confidential feels pedestrian from start to finish. It's got too many clichés to feel lively, and too many poorly shot and edited action scenes to be exciting.

Full Review | Apr 12, 2020

Great shots of Boston, but boy does this slack rolloff by local guy Mark Wahlberg and frequent collaborator Peter Berg leave me wanting.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 6, 2020

Spenser Confidential is too anaemic to be anything other than a paint-by-numbers bore offering nothing new and trying to skate by on Wahlberg's charisma alone.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 6, 2020

Berg's direction is kinetic and eye-popping, even if the criminal conspiracy theory Wahlberg's punch-drunk Spenser uncovers will feel overly familiar to any fans of the genre.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2020

You could do worse, and this one's worth a look one slow evening in the coming weeks and months...

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 4, 2020

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

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 1, 2020

In the 80's I watched Robert Urich in Spenser For Hire. I can't remember what I thought of it then, but I think I would rather rewatch all those episodes than this again.

Full Review | Mar 29, 2020

A nifty action crime drama, Mark Wahlberg puts in a sturdy, head-strong performance as an ex-cop who has just been released from prison. Lots of tough talk and gunplay, set in Boston, a must for Wahlberg fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 29, 2020

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Streaming Movie Review

‘Spenser Confidential’ Review: Good Guy P.I.

The movie may be an easily forgettable action comedy, but as a Mark Wahlberg vehicle it is also easily watchable.

Share full article

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

For their fifth movie together, the director Peter Berg and the star Mark Wahlberg have gone Netflix light. You could easily picture a future in which they alternate between theatrical releases like “Deepwater Horizon” and “Patriots Day,” and sequels to the breezy “Spenser Confidential.”

Indeed, this fleet-footed if disposable action comedy feels like the first installment of a franchise, complete with back story, introduction of sidekicks, and an ending that might as well scream “More to come!”

The movie bears almost no resemblance to the Ace Atkins novel “Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland” (a continuation of the Spenser series created by Parker in 1973) that is its nominal inspiration, aside from the Boston location, the main characters’ names and something or other about an abandoned dog-racing track.

Here, Spenser is a former cop who spent a few quality years in the clink for assaulting a corrupt superior, something that tells us a couple of things: He’s a decent guy with principles and his continuing good health testifies to his fighting skills — by way of confirmation, we see him casually dispatch burly inmates who attacked him.

After his release, Spenser gets dragged into a conspiracy involving dirty policemen, machete-wielding gang members and plans to build a casino on the grounds of the aforementioned track.

The perfunctory plot matters less than the scenes depicting Spenser’s relationships with his old buddy Henry (Alan Arkin); his new buddy Hawk (Winston Duke); his former girlfriend Cissy (the comedian Iliza Shlesinger); and his dog, Pearl. Those moments are Berg and Wahlberg at their loosely funny best, clearly enjoying making room for the supporting cast to strut their stuff — Duke is especially winning as a laconic gentle giant working on his MMA moves. The prospect of spending more time with this crew is not a bad one.

Spenser Confidential

Rated R for violence, language throughout and sexual content. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes.

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