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Netflix’s latest action-comedy The Union has risen to No 1 on the streaming giant – but it’s not all good news for the movie’s stars.
Since its release on Friday (16 August), the film has shot up to the top spot on Netflix in the UK, ahead of 1998’s US Mashals and 2021’s Kingsman: The Secret Service.
The Union stars Mark Wahlberg as Mike, a construction worker in New Jersey, who finds himself thrust into the world of super spies when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne (played by Halle Berry), enlists his help on a high-stakes US intelligence mission.
The film has received mostly negative reviews from viewers, with only a minority applauding the “fun” plot and “great chemistry” between Wahlberg, 53, and Berry, 58.
Most subscribers have deemed The Union “generic” and “cheesy”. “Movies should make us feel something, so full marks to The Union on Netflix for generating so much boredom and depression,” wrote one person on X/Twitter.
Another added: “I mean my expectations were low, as in I had no expectations But Netflix still managed to disappoint with this The Union movie.”
This sentiment is reflected in the film’s unfavourable rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a 28 per cent audience score based on more than 100 reviews.
The paltry score marks a low point for both Wahlberg and Berry, who have not starred in a film with such a low audience rating in over 10 years.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, of the 10 films that Berry has starred in since 2014, The Union is the lowest rated according to audiences.
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Second lowest is Kings, which was released in 2017, and has 31 per cent. 2017 was not a good year for Berry, with Kidnap, coming third lowest with 50 per cent.
Her highest rated audience score in the last decade came courtesy of X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014, followed by 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and 2022’s Sidney with 86 per cent and 85 per cent, respectively.
It is a similarly unfortunate story for Wahlberg, whose last 10 years in film have not seen him dip as low as 28 per cent in audience ratings until now.
The actor has his fair share of low scores, however, with 2015’s Mojave coming in at 30 per cent, 2022’s Me Time at 32 per cent, 2021’s Infinite at 34 per cent, and the 2017 Transformers sequel The Last Knight at 43 per cent.
On the top end for Wahlberg are Arthur the King, which came out this year and has 97 per cent, 2022’s Father Stu with 95 per cent and Uncharted with 90 per cent.
Its terrible audience rating, however, has not stopped The Union from soaring to No 1 on Netflix in the UK – and there has already been talk of a sequel.
In an interview with Variety, Wahlberg, Berry, and director Julian Farino said that the creative team had made decision not to have the characters kiss in an effort to build anticipation for a potential sequel. They even teased that Netflix had perhaps suggested a multi-movie plan for the franchise.
On the press tour for the film, Berry has been asked about her 2004 critical flop Catwoman, with the actor giving a brief NSFW defence against critics who said it “sucked balls” at the time.
The Union is out on Netflix now.
