A Bland and Forgettable Netflix Thriller
Florida Man director Julian Farino is at the helm of this new Netflix thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as Mike, a blue-collar construction worker whose life is upended when his old high school flame Roxanne (Halle Berry) walks into his favourite bar and almost immediately puts him to sleep.
This isn’t to say Roxanne bores him with conversations about the past and what she has been up to in the years since they were together. Rather, she injects him with a tranquillizer and then somehow manages to transport his unconscious body from his home town in Boston, USA to London, England, where she works for The Union, a super-secret agency that half of the world’s best operatives don’t know exists. Apparently, the other half know it exists but wish they didn’t, according to Roxanne.
You’ll wish The Union (the movie, not the agency) didn’t exist either, as it’s one of the blandest, most forgettable thrillers to have hit Netflix in some time. It’s not as mind-numbingly awful as Trigger Warning, another recent Netflix Original action thriller, but it’s storyline is just as predictable with twists and turns that you’ll surely see coming.
Anyway, back to the plot!
Mike is understandably confused when he wakes up from his extended sleep, especially when he gets into a car and inadvertently drives on the wrong side of the road. He’s even more baffled (as are we) when his former girlfriend (who has clearly never heard of consent) tells him she has picked him out as an agency candidate because of his Blue Collar background (most of the agency’s employees have been drawn from the same work pool) and because she remembers him as being sporty at high school.
The fact that Mike has been chosen as an undercover special agent is ridiculous. Sure, he’s able to withstand heights and he’s probably good with a nail gun, but does that qualify him for the high-stakes mission he is given? We don’t think so, but such is the movie’s contempt for plot logic that it’s probably best not to think too hard about the dumb narrative.
After an introduction to the rest of the agency team, including its leader Tom Brennan (JK Simmons) and tech whiz Foreman (Jackie Earle Haley), who is so-named because he used to work as a foreman at Amazon, Mike is thrown into an intense bout of training, wherein he learns to drive fast cars, run across rooftops blindfolded (to help him trust his teammate), and fight like a pro.
Mike is then tasked with a mission to work with Roxanne and her team to secure a laptop that contains intel about the world’s government agents. If this info gets into the wrong hands, it would break the agents’ covers and put their families at risk, so it’s imperative that Mike and co get to it before it’s auctioned off to the highest bidder.
The predictable plot is just an excuse for a series of action scenes that are perfectly functional but which fail to get the blood racing because we have little connection to the characters. If we knew more about Mike and Roxanne, and their past relationship, we might care more about whether they live or die. But as it is, they are stock stereotypes, with no discernible personalities, played by reliably competent actors who have been handed a paper-thin script that could have been written on the back of a post-it note.
Another problem with the movie is the lack of chemistry between Mike and Roxanne. We’re told they used to be in love – Mike even gets jealous when he meets her estranged husband – but with no flashbacks to their past and no sparks flying between them, it’s hard to believe they might still have feelings for each other, as there is little in the way of underlying romance or scenes of passion.
The Union ends with a hint that there might one day be a sequel. We truly hope this isn’t the case unless the movie’s writers can come up with a better plot than the one they have concocted for this uninspired thriller. There’s one good car chase near the end of the movie, which just about makes The Union worth seeing. But with a lazy plot that is laden with cliches – missions go awry, a key player turns out to be a traitor, the wrong people are blamed for the villain’s crimes – you might not get to the end if you tire of the movie’s writers insulting your intelligence.
Ultimately, the movie is a waste of some very good actors and a waste of your time. With a smarter script, it may have been more enjoyable. But as it stands, it’s another bland movie on Netflix that, once seen, you’ll likely remove from your watchlist with no desire to ever watch it again!
Read More: The Union Ending Explained
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Verdict - 5/10
5/10