Quick Reaction: Spenser Confidential

Peter Berg is my favorite director who I wouldn't call a favorite director. I like him more for the shows he's helped get off the ground (The Leftovers, Friday Night Lights) than a lot of his movies, although I've seen nearly all of the movies. He really is the working-class Michael Bay. Bay makes Pearl Harbor. Berg makes Patriots Day. Bay makes Transformers. Berg makes Battleship. I could list off his movies and probably convince you Bay directed a few of them pretty easily. There's something more grounded about Berg's movies though. Spenser Confidential is like Berg's Pain & Gain. Or maybe it's better to compare it to Stephen Soderberg's Out of Sight. It's a street level crime movie. Part action movie, part comedy. He cast characters more than actors. That's how someone like Iliza Shlesinger, who is more comedian than actress, can fit so easily into this movie. Or, why Post Malone isn't distracting in it. It's also nice to see Berg using Mark Wahlberg well again. They work together very often. Their last movie, Mile 22, was just plain awful. Wahlberg is better in something like this: effective but out of his depth; a little pathetic; a good guy but not a clean guy. This was an easy movie to leave on in the background, but it wasn't quite fun in the right ways to really pull me in.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend