Mark Wahlberg has proven to be one of the most successful and acclaimed actors in modern Hollywood, lending his talents to various genres to be one of the biggest faces of modern Hollywood success. From massive blockbuster action films like Uncharted and The Italian Job to critical darlings like The Departed and Boogie Nights to beloved comedies like Ted and The Other Guys, Wahlberg has one of the most varied and creative filmographies out there.
However, no super-successful actor has a perfect filmography without any misfires, with Wahlberg certainly having his fair share of missteps throughout each era of his career. Between the unlikely films of his early career before he truly found his footing as an actor to generic underwhelming wannabe blockbusters that fail to utilize the actor’s talents, Wahlberg’s worst outings serve to make his exceptional films that much greater by comparison.
10
‘Mile 22’ (2018)
Directed by Peter Berg
While the actor-director combo of Wahlberg and Peter Berg has resulted in several exceptional action thrillers, including the likes of Lone Survivor and Patriot’s Day, Mile 22 serves to be the clear outlier of quality from the duo. The film sees Wahlberg as James Silva, a member of an elite top-secret CIA unit that is composed of some of the best agents and soldiers that the U.S. can provide. His team is tasked with transporting a rogue police officer who has life-threatening information to an extraction point 22 miles away, fighting through heavily hostile and dangerous streets in the process.
The trends and filmmaking conventions that made Berg and Wahlberg’s previous collaborations so compelling and effective manage to be overplayed and obnoxious in Mile 22. As a story of high-praising American exceptionalism and patriotism, its style simply doesn’t feel as compelling or captivating as the previous times that they tackled these thematic elements. Combined with some distracting camera movements and a jittery, over-edited style, Mile 22‘s lackluster attempts at style and flair prove to crumble the entire experience.
- Release Date
-
August 17, 2018
- Cast
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Lauren Mary Kim
, Sala Baker
, Iko Uwais
, Terry Kinney
, Poorna Jagannathan
, nikolai nikolaeff
, John Malkovich
, Ronda Rousey
, Alexandra Vino
, Mark Wahlberg
, Lauren Cohan - Runtime
-
95minutes
9
‘The Truth About Charlie’ (2002)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
A strange and largely underwhelming remake of the classic 60s thriller Charade, The Truth About Charlie acts as not only one of Wahlberg’s worst films, but easily the worst film in acclaimed director Jonathan Demme’s filmography. The film follows the unexpected bonding and falling in love of Regina (Thandiwe Newton) and Joshua (Wahlberg) when Regina meets him while vacationing in Martinique, as she contemplates ending her marriage with the chaotic Charlie. However, when Regina returns home to Paris, she finds that her apartment and bank account have been emptied and Charlie has been murdered.
While the original Charade proved to be a deeply captivating and effective mystery thriller that kept audiences on the edge of their seats, The Truth About Charlie‘s strange approach to the story undercuts its thematic resonance. While the film attempts to act as a love letter to French New Wave cinema, its attempts at recreating this style and filling the film with cameos don’t do enough to elevate the actual core of the film.
The Truth About Charlie
- Release Date
-
October 25, 2002
- Runtime
-
104 Minutes
8
‘The Union’ (2024)
Directed by Julian Farino
Wahlberg has become one of the prevalent faces when it comes to streaming service original movies, lending his talents to a wide variety of Netflix’s pseudo-blockbusters in recent years. Easily one of the most generic and formulaic of these collaborations is The Union, a by-the-numbers action comedy with little to offer outside the star power of its leads. The film sees Wahlberg as a construction worker reconnecting with a long-lost high school sweetheart, unexpectedly being wrapped up in a global espionage mission in the process.
The Union follows the same formulaic structure and trend of various other low-effort Netflix original films, with an execution that is largely focused on uninteresting filmmaking. The action comedy film doesn’t have enough thrilling action or effective comedy to make it worthwhile, made worse by the fact that there is next-to-no chemistry between Wahlberg and Halle Berry. The film will simply go in one ear and out the other for many Netflix viewers, leaving no discernable impact or memorability in the process.
- Release Date
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August 16, 2024
- Director
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Julian Farino
- Runtime
-
109 Minutes
7
‘Scoob’ (2020)
Directed by Tony Cervone
One of the only times when Wahlberg lent his talents as a voice actor for a blockbuster animated film, Scoob was already facing a large array of fundamental issues before Wahlberg’s strange and unexpected inclusion. The film acts as an outlier among other Scooby-Doo movies, replacing the classic voice actor cast for an array of celebrity voices, including Zac Efron as Fred and Will Forte as Shaggy. The film also doesn’t have a real central mystery as its story, instead seeing the mystery gang in a superhero story as they team up with the Blue Falcon to take down Dick Dastardly.
Wahlberg plays the role of Blue Falcon in the film, one of many classic Warner Bros. characters who are brought back in attempts to cater to long-lasting fans of Hanna-Barbera’s history. However, its these very cameos and characters that actively detract Scoob from the strengths and likability of Scooby-Doo stories in the first place, giving the film minimal engaging attributes among other generic animated films.
- Release Date
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July 8, 2020
- Director
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Tony Cervone
- Runtime
-
93 Minutes
6
‘Infinite’ (2022)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Initially slated to be released in theaters, Infinite eventually found itself as one of the few leading original titles for the Paramount+ streaming service, where it would be quickly forgotten as soon as it was released. The film actually manages to have a half-decent premise, yet its dull and bland execution actively goes against the creative possibilities and resonating essence of the original story. It certainly didn’t help matters that the film released just a year after The Old Guard, another streaming-service action movie about undying warriors who have fought across history.
The film sees Wahlberg as Evan McCauley, a man whose scattered memory has always hindered him, while at the same time giving him strange and unexpected talents and skills that he’s never learned. He soon gets an answer to these problems that have affected him his entire life, as a secret group known as the infinite shows him the truth behind his memory, and that he is simply the latest reincarnation of one of history’s strongest warriors.
Infinite
- Release Date
-
June 10, 2021
- Cast
-
Dylan O’Brien
, Liz Carr
, Toby Jones
, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson
, Sophie Cookson
, Rupert Friend
, Jason Mantzoukas
, Tom Hughes
, Wallis Day
, Mark Wahlberg
, Chiwetel Ejiofor
, Kae Alexander - Runtime
-
106minutes
5
‘Planet of the Apes’ (2001)
Directed by Tim Burton
Considering all the praise that is given to the more high-tech Planet of the Apes movies of recent years, many are quick to forget that the beginning of the 21st century saw a massive misfire reboot of the franchise by Tim Burton. While the film has its occasional highlights, such as the top-notch practical effects and makeup done to transform actors like Tim Roth and Paul Giamatti into monkeys, the vast majority of the film is a complete bastardization of the masterful original film.
The film sees Wahlberg as astronaut Leo Davidson, who, while on a renegade mission into space to save one of his station’s lab monkeys, ends up being sucked into a wormhole and crash-lands on a planet ruled by hyper-intelligent apes. Leo soon finds himself taken captive by the apes, where he connects with the enslaved humans of the world and attempts to find a way back home through his crash-landed ship. At the same time, Leo and the rest of the humans are hunted down by the apes’ ruthless leading general, Thade.
- Release Date
-
July 27, 2001
- Runtime
-
120 Mins
4
‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ (2014)
Directed by Michael Bay
While Shia LaBeouf was the human lead for the first three live-action Transformers films under Michael Bay, following his departure, Wahlberg would take on the reigns as leading man starting in Transformers: Age of Extinction. However, Wahlberg’s introduction to the franchise wouldn’t save it from the downward spiral in quality that was already taking place within the series, with Age of Extinction still being filled with obnoxious editing, over-the-top action, and constant product placement.
The film follows a similar story of the Autobots having to team up to take down another deadly intergalactic villain that threatens to destroy the Earth, with them now teaming up with a new leading human, Cade Yeager (Wahlberg). While Wahlberg manages to provide some distinct energy and differences as a lead from LaBeouf, it isn’t enough to save from the array of other cataclysmic issues that plague Age of Extinction as an action blockbuster. Still, the film holds the record for the highest-grossing film in Wahlberg’s career, grossing $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office.
Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Release Date
-
June 27, 2014
- Runtime
-
165 Minutes
3
‘Max Payne’ (2008)
Directed by John Moore
Considered by many to be one of the worst video game movies of all time, Max Payne downplays the original weight and emotional power of the original video games to create one of the most generic and boring action films of the 2000s. The film sees Wahlberg as titular DEA Agent Max Payne, still reeling from the loss of his family who were murdered as a part of a conspiracy. Max finds himself teaming up with a revenge-fueled assassin, solving a series of mysterious murders around New York City in an attempt to inch ever closer to the culprit.
The Max Payne video games were more than just some of the most effective adult narratives in action games of the era, but also utilized slow-motion gameplay mechanics to create some of the most satisfying and visually compelling combat in a shooter. The blueprint was certainly there to create an exceptional adaptation, yet Max Payne completely butchers the strengths of the series to create a muddied and shallow bastardization of the original games.
Max Payne
- Release Date
-
October 15, 2008
- Runtime
-
99
2
‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ (2017)
Directed by Michael Bay
The final live-action Transformers film that featured Wahlberg in the leading role or Bay in the director’s chair, Transformers: The Last Knight‘s shocking editing decisions and baffling lore dumps easily make it the worst of the franchise. The film sees Transformers and humanity as a whole at war with one another, with Optimus Prime being completely missing from the picture as he is being mind-controlled by a vicious threat on Cybertron. As one of the last pillars of heroism on the planet, Cade and the remaining Autobots find themselves on a quest searching for secrets of the past that could save the future.
The flaws present throughout The Last Knight are blatant and overwhelming when it comes to detracting from the main film, ranging from the classic flaws that have plagued the entire series to more egregious mistakes like the constant changing of aspect ratios for no good reason. It makes for one of the most aggravating and painful major blockbuster experiences that the 2010s had to offer, as well as demanded a monumental change in how Transformers films would be made from then on.
Transformers: The Last Knight
- Release Date
-
June 21, 2017
- Runtime
-
149 minutes
1
‘The Happening’ (2008)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Few filmmakers have a more infamously shaky and divided filmography as M. Night Shyamalan, who has lent his hand to both some of the greatest and some of the worst films of all time. One of the director’s most egregious films where his signature flairs and styles only served to create unintentional comedy was The Happening, one of the strangest and worst disaster films of all time. The film sees the widespread populace finding itself in a state of shock and terror when an airborne virus that forces those that it infects to kill themselves begins spreading across the northeastern U.S.
While its premise harkens back to classic terrifying disaster thrillers of the past, the confusing and comical execution is what makes The Happening one of the best unintentional jokes in film history. From stilted pacing and confusing dialogue to massive shifts in tone in the same scene, the film constantly surprises and one-ups itself in terms of mismanagement and confusion. The true standout among the worst that the film has to offer, however, is Wahlberg’s lead performance, easily the worst performance of his career and not melding at all with Shyamalan’s filmmaking style.
- Release Date
-
June 13, 2008
- Runtime
-
91 Minutes
- Main Genre
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Sci-Fi
