'Spenser Confidential' Trailer: Mark Wahlberg And Peter Berg Head To Netflix

With the world of theatrical films becoming less and less stable, more and more filmmakers are making the leap to Netflix. In 2018, director-actor team Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg had themselves a bit of a misfire with the odious action film Mile 22 – a movie that didn't flop, but didn't set the box office on fire, either. Rather than risk that again, Berg and Wahlberg are now at Netflix with Spenser Confidential, an action-comedy based on the book series from Robert B. Parker. Watch the Spenser Confidential trailer below.

Well, this certainly looks...like a movie. I guess. I don't have anything against the works of Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg, but this definitely seems like one of their lesser efforts. The style of this footage looks flat, the "humor" doesn't really work, and the plot seems to involve little more than Mark Wahlberg walking into rooms where he proceeds to beat up a group of dudes. But maybe the end result will play better.

In Spenser Confidential, "Spenser (Mark Wahlberg) — an ex-cop better known for making trouble than solving it — just got out of prison and is leaving Boston for good. But first he gets roped into helping his old boxing coach and mentor, Henry (Alan Arkin), with a promising amateur. That's Hawk (Winston Duke), a brash, no-nonsense MMA fighter convinced he'll be a tougher opponent than Spenser ever was. When two of Spenser's former colleagues turn up murdered, he recruits Hawk and his foul-mouthed ex-girlfriend, Cissy (Iliza Shlesinger), to help him investigate and bring the culprits to justice."

The film is based on Robert B. Parker's Wonderland, a book that wasn't actually written by Parker, but Ace Atkins. Parker, who died in 2010, wrote 40 novels involving Spenser. After Parker's death, Atkins took over and kept the series going with eight more books. This isn't the first time Parker's work has been adapted.  There was a TV series called Spenser: For Hire, starring Robert Urich as the character, and also a series of made-for-TV movies where Joe Mantegna took on the role.

In addition to Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, and Iliza Shlesinger, Spenser Confidential also stars Bokeem Woodbine, Marc Maron, and Austin Post. Look for it on Netflix March 6, 2020.