The plot of the Union feels insultingly childish. An undercover agency has to retrieve an important device before it falls into the “wrong” (i.e. non-Western) hands, and to achieve that, they absolutely must have Mike (Wahlberg) on their team. That nothing here seems plausible shouldn’t be the point--it’s an action movie anyway. But even the action isn’t thrilling. There’s no tension or buildup, no satisfying hits and falls. There’s nothing in here that you haven’t seen before. The potential saving grace lies in its A-lister leads, Wahlberg and Berry. They’re supposed to be lovers here but the chemistry they create is closer to “colleagues who have an unexplored spark” more than anything. The Union works as a mid-tier nostalgia-filled film. It’s a perfectly okay movie, neither bad nor good, which seems par for the course for streaming anyway.
Genre: Action, Comedy
Actor: Adam Collins, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alex Brightman, Alice Lee, Cain Aiden, Christian Yeung, Daniel Joseph Woolf, Fahim Fazli, Guy Robbins, Halle Berry, J.K. Simmons, Jackie Earle Haley, Jen Jacob, Jessica De Gouw, Julianna Kurokawa, Lorraine Bracco, Lucy Cork, Mark Wahlberg, Obie Matthew, Patch Darragh, Robert Ryan, Stephane Fichet, Susan Fordham, Tommy Bayiokos
Director: Julian Farino
Rating: PG-13