“Spenser Confidential” Review by Brooke Daugherty : Pop Culture Leftovers

“Spenser Confidential” Review by Brooke Daugherty

March 29, 2020 2:28 pm |

Full disclosure: I don’t usually watch Mark Wahlberg movies. I jokingly said to myself “I wonder if this is a Spenser For Hire reboot? Well, it pretty much is and if it weren’t for Winston Duke playing Hawk, I may not have even clicked on it while scrolling Netflix. I’ve never read the books it was based on, but I watched the Robert Urich television show with my mother in the 80s. I can’t remember what I thought of it as a small child, but I think I would rather rewatch those episodes than this again.

This is the fifth film Wahlberg has done with Director Peter Berg. Sean O’Keefe and Brian Helgeland wrote the screenplay. It wasn’t an adaptation, per se, as just the character names and title from Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland written by Ace Atkins (who took over writing the Spenser novels after Robert B. Parker’s death). From my research, it seems the only similar plot point is the casino outside of Boston.

For some reason, this film is listed as a Comedy-Thriller on Wikipedia. I venture to say it is neither. IMDB calls it a Crime/Drama/Mystery. This isn’t Agatha Christie – it’s a bit too transparent to be a mystery. This film could be a straight up crime drama with a bit of comedy and work. It could even be a buddy cop comedy, with less violent deaths and work. As is, this film doesn’t work. The type of humor is too jarring juxtaposed with the rest of the story. Although the best comedic moment is when Spenser’s ex compares him and his cohorts to the Bat Family.

The soundtrack is done by Steve Jablonsky. The ambient music is all too loud, especially for some of the quieter moments. The “popular” additions to the soundtrack are artists like Boston, Neil Diamond, Foreigner, and Aerosmith. All artists my dad would listen to, so it doesn’t gel with the updated time frame. Those songs are also too loud for me. If I’m going to bust my eardrums on music, it’s not going to be Longtime by Boston.

Watching this movie is like watching an extended rebooted episode of Spenser For Hire. If you enjoy network reboots for the masses like MacGyver or Hawaii 5-0, then this will probably entertain you. If you are into more comedy or action oriented scripts, it is in your hands whether or not you spend two hours viewing this. Luckily, since it is on Netflix, you can stop it whenever you want. There are some good parts of this film, so I can’t completely Toss It.

PCL Rating: Low Taste It

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Rotten