The unconventional mixture of a dramatically weighed direction into a routine action comedy, contextually heightened in attempting borderline thought-provoking, makes this utterly engaging whilst humorously well cast. (B)

I have read every single Robert B Parker written Spenser novel. I'm just getting started on the Ace Atkins ones. The only things this movie has in common with any Spenser book is a few characters' names, proper spelling of Spenser's name (with an S like the poet), Spenser's mission to make things right, and it takes place in Boston. Other than that it has nothing to do with Spenser. One huge floating departure from the books is the writers' poor grasp of quality writing. A good writer doesn't take the easy lady road and fill the script with profanity. Parker's novels rarely contained profanity and when it did it was by a specific character that profanity was used more as a description of the character's intellectual deficiencies. This movie must have had 200+ uses of the F-word. It's sad to see a literary genius be devalued into a run of the mill lazy profanity writer. Speaking of his regular reference of the poet Spenser, Spenser is an intelligent and well read literary fan. Robert B Parker was a master of telling a story through dialogue. Spenser often peppered his witty dialogue with references to literature. This movie had no intelligent dialogue. No witty reporte. The smart dialogue was a Hallmark of Parker's books. A style that few other authors can do as well as he. Because of that I guess I can't fault the screenplay writers because there are few writers with that level of skill set. That said, I do hope Hollywood can overlook this poorly made movie and simply blame it's poor performance as illiterate writers and a director who clearly didn't understand the source material. Hopefully, Hollywood will find an actually talented writer and director who are fans of the source material and make a real attempt to film a good movie.

It was a fun ride. Is it a GREAT movie? No. Is it entertaining? 100% and most of the time, that’s all I’m asking for. There’s decent fighting, there’s funny dialogue (ala The Heat), a decent story. Don’t over think it.

Spenser Confidential - 6.5/10. Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg team up for the 5th time to deliver Spenser Confidential. Though not as good as their best films together (Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and Patriots Day), Spenser is a vast improvement from their most recent collab (the utterly disappointing and fairly bad Mile 22). The film sees Mark Wahlberg team up with Winston Duke as a pair of investigators who team up to take down a corruption ring that is being run in their area, Southie. The usual buddy cop genre hijinks ensue, and we are left with a decent, but not amazing film. As usual with Wahlberg and Berg films, there's a good amount of action, but the difference with this collaboration this time around is that there is a little more focus on comedy. Alan Arkin and Iliza Shlesinger are great as the supporting characters who provide comic relief. As for the rest of the cast and crew, they do their jobs well with what they're given. Overall, a decent watch, and one of the better Netflix film productions.

Absolutely nothing wrong with watching this movie at all More of a comedy than an Action movie but Shlesinger provides a huge amount of the hilarity once she is brought in

I'm not sure why I watched it. They said it was a comedy but somebody needs to look up comedy in the dictionary because this is not a comedy. Not even a dark comedy. Alan Arkin is delightful (not enough of him) and Mark Wahlberg is consistent, but these cannot compensate for the lack of interest generated by the one dimensional characters. What is the ILiza Shlesinger character, even? Left disappointed but enjoyed the diorama tour of Boston, especially the bus stop at Washington Street. Nice bus stop. There was something about buses in this film, thinking about it now, that makes me think the film was written on a bus or waiting for a bus.

It didn't forever change the course of cinematic history lol, but it's an extremely enjoyable movie.

I thought Spencer confidential was a great movie a must see a lot of action mark is a good actor they do have a lot of haters out there buts that’s ok mark keep making them good movies you have plenty of real mark w fans out there. It doesn’t look like your going to slow down anytime soon keeping it real Kevin Kelley

Good cast, fairly well-acted, decent storyline. Main problem was that it was a very out in the open daylight murder mystery when it should have been more cloak and dagger-they should have made the female FBI agent a younger hot geeky computer nerd and have her join with them to unofficially hack into phones and emails to piece things together better. Then they could have brought her into a sequel. But the writers in Hollywood are so F**KING WEAK now. No creativity, just formula action movies with predictable endings, no great twists at the end.

I would have given it 2 stars until the end when Spenser threw away his gun so he and the bad guy could settle it with a fist fight. Come on, Hollywood Writer Guy, you can do better than that. Hell, I can do better than that and I'm not a Professional Hollywood Writer Guy.

Can't say I like Wahlberg. It seems like when the director calls "action" he just wrinkles his forehead. He calls that acting. The movie has kind of a transparent plot. Easy to predict. Some good fight scenes, but that does not make a good movie.

Typical buddy action movie. I never even knew it was supposed to be based on the Robert Spenser books. I’m loved those books and this movie. It’s a typical good guy bad guy buddy movie and enjoyable.

Only gets x2 stars instead of one because I still can’t believe Wahlberg is. In such a mess of a film. This is not very good in every way. I couldn’t actually work out what it was about, who were the bad guys and who was good. The actual premise of an honest cop giving up everything for some weak principles on a matter he didn’t understand was just too daft. It’s so poor as to be annoying in the end because it’s difficult to care about anyone including Wahlbergs character. Avoid………

12 clock at night can't go to sleep and I'm bored, get a sudden urge to watch a Mark Wahlberg movie google his movies and picked Spenser Confidential. Its cool, kept me awake, I did not expect much going into the movie and tbh it was fine and what I expected NOT BAD if your bored and have nothing to watch and don't care too much watch this.

If your standard for what makes a good movie is low. Which, let's face it, is the case for most people these days... then this film is for you. I didn't hate it... But would I watch it again? Absolutely not. Just a generic buddy cop movie with bad acting all round and jokes that fall short. The twist was predictable and this movie fails to bring anything new to the table. I would class this film as good background noise whilst you're scrolling through your phone. It's a shame, anything with Mark W. In it had the potential to be a really enjoyable film.

It'sall right, nothing special

Classic "bad cop" movie. You get what you get, and that's ok. Watch it.

Corruption, fighting for justice, and rooting for the good guys.

This movie is just mid. It is your run of the mill buddy cop movie that tries its best to be funny but just falls flat. With that being said, Mr. Arkin per usual nails every joke this movie has to offer.

This was better than what I was expecting. The comedy is dry and low key, but I found it funny. Great action, the story and villain was predictable.