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‘The Union’ Review: Old Friends Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry Reunite in a Middling Spy Movie


As ex-flames who team up to save the world, Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry have chemistry, but 'The Union' lacks the personality to make that work.

And the fantasy is getting to play the next best thing, recruited by former Bond girl Halle Berry (sporting her weirdest haircut since “Swordfish,” an anime-style pixie cut, shaved on one side, spiky and blond-tipped on top). Once Mike agrees to join, the film compresses a two-week training program (already cut down from six months) into a trailer-length montage, during which he meets other Union members: top boss Tom Brennan (J.K. Simmons), combat pro Frank Preiffer (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), psych evaluator Athena Kim (Alice Lee) and an underused IT guy who calls himself “the Foreman” (Jackie Earle Haley). In “The Union,” it’s easy to tell they’re being doubled by stunt people half the time, and when they’re not, neither actor looks very convincing — which is to say, instead of entertaining the notion that a Jersey boy can be a spy, it shatters the previously established idea that Wahlberg should play one.

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