Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry play old flames rekindling their relationship through the most ordinary of means – by entering the covert world of global espionage. That’s the gist of “The Union”, a new Netflix action-comedy that plays like a rehash of countless other film’s of its type. It’s a movie that is so by the numbers you’ll struggle to find anything that feels remotely inspired. And that’s a shame because there is some good talent attached to it.

“The Union” is directed Julian Farino who works from a script by Joe Barton and David Guggenheim. Their story follows a pretty conventional path, never veering anywhere close to originality either with its premise or its characters. Everything feels old hat and borrowed which leaves the audience with nothing to latch onto and certainly nothing to take with them. Yet it’s never boring…so there’s that.

Mike (Wahlberg) is a New Jersey construction worker and an all-around everyday guy. One evening his old high school girlfriend, Roxanne (Berry) walks into his favorite bar. The two haven’t seen in other in years and they immediately begin reminiscing about old times. They even go to one of their old hangouts overlooking the city. And that’s where Roxanne jabs Mike with a tranquilizer that knocks him out. Talk about escalating quickly.

Mike eventually wakes up in London where Roxanne reveals she is a member of a clandestine organization known as (you guessed it) The Union. She introduces him to Tom Brennan (J.K. Simmons), the head of The Union who spends most of his screen time spitting out cheesy lines meant to sound witty. We learn that Roxanne’s entire team was killed and vital intelligence stolen. To retrieve it, The Union needs someone with no history – a nobody. No lifetime commitment required, just one operation and then Mike can go home (so much for clandestine).

Mike agrees to help and after one swift training montage he’s suddenly qualified for the mission. He and Roxanne will need to track down the location where the intel is being auctioned off. But they quickly learn other people are after it too. This leads to the bulk of the movie’s action as the field-tested Roxanne and the newbie Mike fend off a number of generic bad guys. And of course we get a little romantic tension along the way.

The filmmakers throw us a couple of second half twists but neither move the needle. And even they are ideas copied and pasted from other movies. Other possible story angles pop up but never amount to much. Instead the movie keeps chugging down the most routine of routes. Even with its flaws, Wahlberg and Berry bounce off each other pretty well. There are some witty lines and some decent spurts of action. But finding much past that can be a chore, even for the most forgiving moviegoers. “The Union” is streaming now on Netflix.

VERDICT – 2 STARS