SPENSER CONFIDENTIAL no stars

I wish Peter Berg didn't make such formulaic films because he's certainly a skilled filmmaker and he uses those skills to lift material we've seen a hundred times before. His latest movie, "Spenser Confidential" is another buddy-cop film...well, let's call it a buddy ex-cop and his boxing room-mate film. They're out to find the killers of a couple of cops, one a good cop and the other a corrupt one, in Boston. The ex-cop here is Mark Wahlberg and the room-mate is Winston Duke and the movie is below the standard we have come to expect from co-writer Brian Helgeland. It's not bad exactly but you get the impression that Wahlberg and everyone else are only there for the pay-checks. Next time round, maybe they might actually earn their money.