The Films of Mark Wahlberg

Yesterday, on facebook, I praised the brilliance of Black Swan. Prior to seeing it, I debated if I liked FIGHTER or SOCIAL NETWORK better. Now that I’ve seen Black Swan, it doesn’t matter which of the other 2 is better. Black Swan beats them both.

This lead to commentary that Mark Wahlberg is a terrible actor, but despite that, my cousin wanted to see FIGHTER anyway. I responded that I don’t think Mark has a lot of range, but he’s good at what he does and I like most of his movies. My cousin responded that HAPPENING is completely awful. It is. Max Payne wasn’t much better. I hated shooter.

So, I decided to review what he has done and see if I actually did like most of his movie. From IMDB in chronological order

THE SUBSTITUTE – Didn’t see it

RENAISSANCE MAN – don’t remember it

BASKETBALL DIARIES – I hated this movie when I saw it in 1995. I didn’t even know Mark was in it. I can’t fairly judge this after not seeing it for 15 years.

FEAR – very good. He plays a great bad guy.

TRAVELLER – didn’t see it

BOOGIE NIGHTS – saw it, but don’t remember it.

THE BIG HIT – one of my favorites of its genre. He’s an assassin trying to keep his wife and girlfriend happy at the same time. Lou Diamond Philips is very good in it too. This is a fun movie.

THE CORRUPTOR – good action movie, a lot more serious than THE BIG HIT.

THREE KINGS – classic. The movie is genius, and he play a pivotal role very well.

THE YARDS – Didn’t see it

THE PERFECT STORM – great movie.

PLANET OF THE APES – eh. I watched it again not too long ago. Its barely good.

ROCK STAR – Another really good one. The thing I always remember about this movie is how it kept getting me to change my mind about his career. I thought it was completely fine that they were a cover band seeking perfection. Then, I though it was great that he got to become the lead singer for his favorite band, and the cover band was no longer a good idea. Finally, it seemed perfectly reasonable for him to go out on his own. It was, at least to  me, a clear character evolution that took me along for the rid.

THE ITALIAN JOB – a very good heist movie (although I didn’t like the end. The bad guy gets handed over to the bad-bad guys, and the good guys chuckle about it like someone just told a knock-knock joke. It tainted their characters.)

I HEART HUCKABEES – didn’t see it. With that title, the only way I’d see it would be by accident.

FOUR BROTHERS – A good movie.

INVICIBLE – this one’s great. The best feel-good sports movie I’ve seen is THE ROOKIE. This isn’t as good as THE ROOKIE, but it’s a contender.

THE DEPARTED – Scorsese. Classic. I think few people would disagree that this is a great movie. The only real problem with this is “small world” syndrome. Hey… never realized that Leo and Mark had worked together before. Now that I know that Mark is in Basketball Diaries, I see the connection. See? I learned something by writing this.

SHOOTER – Junk. This is on a very short list of movies that actually makes me mad like a movie shouldn’t. (The other movie on that list is ANNAPOLIS… god, I hate that movie). Shooter doesn’t make any sense. He obtains recorded evidence of the crimes, and he burns them to make a point or something, then gets arrested. I’ve been told that this movie is fun; one of those bad movies that you can appreciate later on TNT or something. I disagree; I just don’t like it. (The worst part is that its from the director of TRAINING DAY, which is an incredible movie. From hero to zero.)

WE OWN THE NIGHT – eh. It tried to be a lot more than what it was. I didn’t care for it.

THE HAPPENING – completely awful. The only thing I can say in its defense is that its not as bad as LADY IN THE WATER. Why do they keep letting M. Night make movies? His streak of good movies ended 4 or 5 movies ago.

MAX PAYNE – This was bad, but I’d watch this again over Shooter.

THE LOVELY BONES – amazing movie.

DATE NIGHT – he was funny in this. He just had to show up and take his shirt off. Funny role.

THE OTHER GUYS – I watched this last week, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It’s not great, but its funny. I’m still thinking about and laughing at the jokes. My favorite gag is that Mark has all kinds of skills and knowledge because he kept taking classes to learn about these things so he could make fun of people who liked them. For example: he wanted to make fun of male dancers, so he took some ballet classes so he could properly ridicule them. Every time something obscure comes up, he knows how to do it, or he knows about it.

THE FIGHTER – Until I saw BLACK SWAN, this had my vote for best picture.

CONTRABAND – not out yet. They’re still making it.

TED – they haven’t even started making this yet.

UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE: I played the games. They’re great. But, I don’t think Mark fits the role. Marks’ going to be about 15 or 20 years older than how I perceived the character. If it works, it works.