TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 of 2024 (No. 1984) by Leroy Douresseaux
The Union (2024)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPA – PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, suggestive material and some strong language
DIRECTOR: Julian Farino
WRITERS: Joe Barton and David Guggenheim; from a story by David Guggenheim
PRODUCERS: Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg, and Jeff G. Waxman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Alan Stewart (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Pia Di Ciaula
COMPOSER: Rupert Gregson-Williams
ACTION/COMEDY/ROMANCE and SPY/THRILLER
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry, J.K. Simmons, Mike Colter, Alice Lee, Jessica De Gouw, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jackie Earle Haley, Lucy Cork, Stephen Campbell Moore
SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:
If you are a fan of Mark Wahlberg and/or Halle Berry, you may want to watch this film
Although it does have some good moments and some good production values, “The Union,” comes across as a big-budget made-for-television spy movie or maybe even a straight-to-DVD spy movie
As a romantic comedy, Wahlberg and Berry have good screen chemistry, but the violence in “The Union” makes it hard to be a romantic-comedy
The film ultimately comes across as an average hodge-podge of genres that is only worth your time when you have time to waste
The Union is a 2024 American spy-thriller and action-romantic-comedy from director Julian Farino. Starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, the film is a “Netflix Original,” and began streaming on Netflix August 16, 2024. The Union focuses on a down-to earth construction worker who is thrust into the world of spies and secret agents by his high school sweetheart, who is a secret agent.
The Union introduces, “the Union,” a covert agency whose agents work behind the scenes as everyday blue collar workers such as road crews, construction workers, garbage collectors, and water and wastewater treatment operators, to name a few. The film opens in the Grand Hotel Castelletto in Trieste, Italy, where the Union prepares to bring in CIA turncoat, Derek Mitchell. However, the mission is botched, and only veteran agent, Roxanne Hall (Halle Berry), survives, but she has a plan.
Roxanne returns to her hometown of Paterson, New Jersey, where she recruits her high school sweetheart, Michael “Mike” McKenna (Mark Wahlberg), a construction worker, into the Union. Despite the protestations of her boss, Tom Brennan (J.K. Simmons), Roxanne convinces Mike to join the Union. Before long, Roxanne and Mike are on a mission, but once again, things go awry. Now, the former lovers have to straighten out this mess and recover some sensitive government intelligence that, if sold on the black market, will endanger the lives of every American spy and secret agent.
Comic book writer, artist, and publisher, Jimmy Palmiotti (DC Comics' Harley Quinn and Radical Publisher's Time Bomb), suggested via Twitter that the 2010 Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz film, Knight and Day, offers something similar to The Union, but is much better at it. I've been putting off seeing Knight and Day for 14 years, and after trudging through The Union, I think it's time I did the damn thing and saw it.
I like Mark Wahlberg, and Halle Berry is one of my favorite Hollywood people of all time. I really wanted to watch The Union because of them, and I found their screen chemistry sometimes sweet and charming. However, I found The Union to be a slog that took me over a week to watch, as I mostly viewed it in bits and pieces. Sometimes, I had to do something, and other times, I stopped simply because I was bored.
However, the film is not a total loss. It is at times, pleasingly pleasant, although had I watched it in an actual movie theater, I would have not found it pleasant at all. Still, there is about a third of a good action movie here. The Union is for serious fans of Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry. That's all I can say. That's all I should say, lest I say worse, and this review comes back to haunt me.
5 of 10
C+
★★½ out of 4 stars
Sunday, September 1, 2024
The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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