The Union is perfect fodder for anyone and everyone thoroughly disheartened by the lack of any significant news about the future of the James Bond franchise. Come on, Eon, it’s been over three years since No Time To Die! Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt has long since eclipsed Bond in the action hero stakes anyway, but The Union offers us a new breed of blue-collar two-fisted espionage agent in the unlikely form of Mark Wahlberg’s Mike McKenna, a New Jersey construction worker inducted into the covert espionage agency known as ‘The Union’ by his former high school squeeze Roxanne Hall (Halle Berry). Mike is drafted into the organisation as a fresh face – literally a “nobody” – when a Union operation in Italy results in the loss of several agents. Mike is whisked across to London, where the Union has its base (including an operations centre at the top of the Post Office Tower), and after a swift training montage, he is tasked with joining a mission to retrieve sensitive information on spies who have worked for allied Western nations. Cue lots of chases around London landmarks, slap-’em-up fights and a spectacular and impressive car chase in the third act.
Directed by Julian Farino and co-written by Joe (Lazarus Project) Barton, The Union is very much Bond-lite stuff, its Neflix provenance meaning that it can’t quite compete with the big screen action boys – but it makes a damn good stab at it. Powered by the fizzing chemistry between Wahlberg and Berry and with JK Simmons in place as the Union’s snarky London-based head honcho, Tom Brennan, The Union is an enjoyable concoction that rarely pauses for breath yet still manages to add some light and shade to the core relationship between Mike and Roxanne. The plot is the stuff of most high-concept action films with our heroes trying to recover top secret information in the face of some implacable force determined to stop them but it handles its cliches deftly and knowingly, and Wahlberg, in particular, is on top form as the fish-out-of-water Ordinary Joe who suddenly finds himself out of his depth and struggling to keep up. Bright, breezy and full of life, The Union clearly sets itself up as the first in a series – and frankly, if Bond can’t be bothered to resurrect himself, then we’d be quite happy to join this Union for a sequel or two at least.
THE UNION is streaming now on Netflix.
