In a European metropolis, a top-secret government organization executes a carefully planned operation. But things go awry, as the team members are killed one by one. On an adjacent bridge, the mission leader is shot and falls into the river below. No, this is not the memorable opening of the spy thriller. Mission: Impossibleby Brian De Palma, but rather that of the action comedy The Union (Unity is strength), by Julian Farino. However, this “borrowing” of the second film from the first will not be the last.
A judiciously deadpan Halle Berry plays Roxanne, the sole survivor of said operation. Roxanne works for the Union, an unofficial agency based in London, whose mandate is to prevent bad guys from harming various official agencies, such as the CIA, MI6, etc.
As in a certain film mentioned right away, a list containing all the names of spies and other double agents throughout the world has been stolen and will be sold to the highest bidder.
With the Union compromised, Roxanne and her boss (JK Simmons, always funny even when the material isn’t) decide to recruit Mike (Mark Wahlberg, on form), a construction worker from New Jersey whom Roxanne dated in high school.
This is followed by various chases on foot on rooftops, and of course in cars, the kind of sequences that are essential in action cinema. From the saga Jason Bourne following — again — Mission: Impossiblenot only have we seen all this a thousand times in the past, but it has been done much, much better.
Indeed, these supposedly thrilling passages do not generate any tension. There is certainly the unimaginative staging of Julian Farino, who has mostly held the helm of episodes of series ranging from Sex and the City (Sex in New York) has Ballersbut above all there is the completely ineffective editing by Paul Rubell.
Visually, the film also has no identity. Some exterior panoramas are pleasing to the eye, but the interior sets often look artificial. At least Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg, accomplices, seem to be having fun there: that’s already something gained.