Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Spenser Confidential 

This film was painfully predictable and slow! Now first off I want to say I really like Peter Berg I’ve seen his other films such as Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor which I loved and think is massively underrated. That being said I would have to say this is his weakest film he’s done as I’ve seen him tackle action before in films like Hancock and Battleship and those films weren’t particularly great either but the films story was a lot more interesting then this film. I don’t want to sound harsh but it’s true the plot is a by the numbers crime drama with action that never raises the stakes and the characters never feel in any real danger as I wasn’t at all invested emotionally Into any of the characters in this film. 

Firstly, The film does not try anything new and I’m not going to be hold back here because I’ve seen a lot of crime dramas and I mean a lot and this film felt like a by the numbers crime film that didn’t try anything new. The whole main plot revolves around corruption within the police and law enforcement which has been done time and time again in better films like Serpico which ironically is even mentioned in the film. The film falls into the pitfalls of many of the tropes that I’ve seen before and what makes me the most upset is that it doesn’t try to go out of its own way to try something new and different instead it plays itself way to safe and ends up being so predictable you can see the outcome a mile away their was never a sense of shock. The films violence was fun to watch but when it did happen it would feel really out of place as their would be long scenes of talking and then a fight would break out for way longer then an actual fight would go on for and then it would be another quiet scene and then another action scene and then comedy. Which is another issue I had the film had this weird need to have to make the audience laugh the films plot itself centres around police corruption you’d expect that to be serious all the way out which actually the film tries to inject itself with this really forced sense of comedy that I’m sorry fell so flat and felt so uncomfortable. As they would go for a Laugh with a joke or quippy comment and you can see they left a five second pause for the audience to laugh to and since it isn’t funny it just comes across as out of place and so not necessary. 

Secondly, This films cast is so weirdly put together. Now I will say the cast tried the best with what they got handed to them Mark Wahlberg actually steps up and tried to save this film with a solid leading performance in the film but the whole rest of the cast felt so out of place. Like don’t get me wrong I love Winston Duke just like the next person but he was massively miscast so was Alan Arkin and you can tell he was brought on for a humorous comedic relief which is exactly what happened the films entire cast felt either miscast or their style just didn’t work with the characters they were playing. You can see that the filmmakers were trying to make this Lethal Weapon dynamic between Mark and Winston and it just didn’t work their chemistry was just not their and I didn’t connect with those two liking one another one bit onscreen. Overall If not for Mark’s performance this film would of been so much harder to get through he is the only perfectly casted person who tries his hardest to save this film. 

Lastly, This is an overlong, Boring, predictable film that falls into all the stereotypes of a crime drama that dose not try to do anything new but just borrow material from other films that did it better and try to see if anything sticks. If the film had focused more on writing a better script with more background on the characters it would actually turn out ok but they didn’t which sucks as this film had potential to be fun. Overall this is a predictable crime drama that just didn’t work but due to Marks solid performance I will say i don’t recommend this film for the overall film but if are a Mark Wahlberg film it is worth checking out for him but that’s it all and all Spenser Confidential is a mess. 

This film centres around a cop that after being released for serving time in prison for believing that his captain on the force may of been corrupt he goes back to only find out that not only he was right but it was a lot worse then he imagined

Rated R : for violence, language throughout and sexual content

Mark Wahlberg : Mark brings much needed life to this poorly written character! Mark has been in the past phoning his performance in I’m not saying all the time but he definitely has that I will say. That being said here he does try to lift the material up from his charismatic performance at the full front of this film as he plays a cop who gets put away for assaulting his captain and when released is looked down upon from the residents of where he lives but he won’t rest until he brings justice to what he sees is a corrupt system operating around him. Mark plays the role quite well now sure he’s done these type of characters before but despite familiar territory for the actor he does bring a lot of passion into the character and really brings the screen alive with his fantastic delivery of his dialogue but also his well shown subtle emotional depth as well. As Wahlberg isn’t one to show very emotionally loud characters with big showy moments and he brings that same approach here. As he is able to convey such deep emotion by simply the delivery of his dialogue or just a look he is able to say so much by also saying so little. You can also tell how much fun he’s having with the role as well even though I said the films use of humour is so out of place when Mark can deliver a quippy lone or a sarcastic remark it’s timed perfectly as the humour dose not work due to how it’s written but he definitely made some jokes work at times. Mark gave a emotionally subtle performance that was entertaining to watch as he oozes charisma through every frame of the film an overall very entertaining performance from Mark Wahlberg. 

Peter Berg : Peter I think you are a solid filmmaker but this has to be your weakest film that you’ve done. As he enjoys making films about the character themselves and then the plot that’s what I like about his directing style but here it seemed that he was more interested in the huge spectacle of showing a gritty action film rather then telling a compelling narrative. The plot was weak and predictable along with the fact I didn’t care at all about any of the characters and didn’t invest into them as I hardly knew about any of the supporting cast the only person who gets some sort of a backstory is the leading character everyone else felt like they faded into the background and were just their as crime drama tropes. Peter could of brought this film to a lot better potential then to what he did as the film didn’t feel at all like something new or different it felt like I’d seen this a million times and Peter your a great filmmaker but the film was boring and bland and had no sense of any tension it just felt like a series of action sequences followed by scenes of dialogue spoke back and forth and that’s it the story never amounted to anything worth investing in which is a shame. It definitely could of been structured so much better and Peter could of brought a lot more of his style to this film as it’s definitely the weakest film he’s made.