Top 8 Mark Wahlberg Films

Welcome, one and all, to the 8 Ball in the Movie Zone! I’m your host Jeremy Thomas and as always, we will be tackling a topic and providing you the top eight selections of that particular category. Keep in mind that this list is meant to be my personal opinion and not a definitive list. You’re free to disagree; you can even say my list is wrong, but stating that an opinion is “wrong” is just silly. With that in mind, let’s get right in to it!

This weekend Ted 2 finds its way into theaters, hoping to take a bit of the bite out of Jurassic World’s juggernaut returns over the past couple weeks. While the film may have trouble making its way to the top of the box office, it should be able to bring in some very good returns based on positive buzz and goodwill toward the original. The franchise has been a major boost to Mark Wahlberg’s career, continuing his rise from former white-boy rapper to leading man to Hollywood power player. Wahlberg is an actor who has managed to overcome the many jokes that came his way when he made the move to film, largely avoiding the pitfalls of similar stars who tried and failed to make the leap. This week we’re going to take a look at some of the best films in his filmography.

Caveat: The only criteria this week was that to qualify, a film had to have Mark Wahlberg as the star or a major supporting role. Nice and simple!

Just Missing The Cut

• Four Brothers (2005)

• Lone Survivor (2013)

• The Big Hit (1998)

• The Basketball Diaries (1995)

• The Perfect Storm (2000)

#8: The Lovely Bones (2009)

There are a couple films on this list that I feel are incredibly underrated, and The Lovely Bones is one of them. Frankly, people expected far too much out of this film, which isn’t entirely surprising. It’s based on a beloved book that had to be very difficult to film, and it was the first film from Peter Jackson after the revered Lord of the Rings trilogy. People were expecting a masterpiece, and what they got instead was a “merely” very good movie. It’s similar to what happens when Pixar releases a film that isn’t the greatest animated film of its particular year; the reaction is far more negative than it should be due to disappointment.

The reason that this film is as low on this list as it is has nothing to do with the quality, which is high. It’s simply that it isn’t perhaps the best example of Wahlberg’s work, and this is a list that focuses on him. He’s far from bad, and in fact performs quite ably. The problem is that he’s just completely overshadowed by the incredibly-talented Saoirse Ronan as Susie as well as Stanley Tucci’s creepy performance as George Harvey. Those two actors deliver performances that are just stunning, and Jackson takes some bold directions with the concepts of the film that don’t work for everyone, but that I appreciated. Wahlberg is quite good as the grieving father who never gives up. The film is a bit too sentimental at times but it’s otherwise a powerful film.

#7: Ted (2012)

Ted shouldn’t have been as good as it was. As much as I’ve enjoy the work of Seth MacFarlane in the past, he can be very hit-or-miss and Wahlberg’s comedic chops were relatively unproven at the time. This film changed that, giving the actor a chance to show what he could do and the results paid off nicely. Wahlberg’s John Bennett is immature, but not just the same sort of lazy man-child that we have typically seen out of Zack Galifianakis, Seth Rogen or Adam Sandler. And he matches up quite well with the MacFarlane-voiced Ted, a sentient teddy bear with a penchant for crass antics.

The best thing Ted has going for it is that it has a surprising amount of heart for an R-rated MacFarlane film. Some of that is brought by the fine supporting work of Mila Kunis, but most of it comes from the best-friend relationship between the two leads. MacFarlane has just the right mix of lowbrow humor and emotional beats here and audiences reacted with what was the biggest hit of Wahlberg’s career at the time. Funny supporting work by Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi and others put this one over the top as one of the most surprisingly funny comedies of the last few years. I never thought I would look forward to a sequel to a movie like this but despite myself I’m excited about Ted 2 and that is in no small part to the amount of goodwill the franchise earned from its first entry.

#6: The Italian Job (2003)

Wahlberg just seems to work well in period pieces. And when I say “period piece” in Wahlberg’s case, I’m obviously not talking about something that sees him in a powdered wig or a suit of armor. The 1970s just seems to be a natural fit for him. 2005’s Four Brothers definitely has that throwback feel to the revenge flicks of the ’70s and The Italian Job similarly feels like a great callback to the car heist films of the same decade. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it is a remake of one of those very car heist films, one starring Michael Caine. Perhaps The Italian Job’s biggest flaw is that it isn’t quite as good as the original, but that is certainly no statement against the film.

Wahlberg finds himself in another great ensemble here, with a fantastic cast that includes Charlize Theron, Mos Def, Seth Green and Jason Statham in one of his better roles outside of Guy Ritchie films. Edward Norton is great as the traitorous Steve and Donald Sutherland brings the same kind of deft skill that he always brings to his roles, no matter how low-brow they might be. The characters are incredibly easy to like; the film spends time building these characters through their camaraderie and interaction with each other. The action scenes are great and the many locations are exquisitely filmed. F. Gary Gray does his usual good work behind the camera, directing with a sense of flash and style. The movie races by with the speed of the cars used and yet it doesn’t just dissipate away into nothingness when it’s all said and done. It’s a good, fun action film that stays memorable after you’ve seen it.

#5: Three Kings (1999)

Mark Wahlberg’s collaborations with David O. Russell have worked far more often than they’ve faltered. I’ve enjoyed all three of their films together, though I Heart Huckabees is just a little too unfocused to have made this list for me. Three Kings, on the other hand, is unequivocally great. Wahlberg was still very young in his career but had gotten some attention already at this point; this was one of those movies that helped solidify him as an actor and not just a wannabe. Wahlberg was once again paired with a great cast in George Clooney and Ice Cube, not to mention Spike Jonze, Cliff Curtis and more.

Russell is obviously a very controversial director and that same problem came to light here; he got into a physical altercation with Clooney because he was treating the crew like shit and Clooney stood up for them. He may not be the nicest man in Hollywood, but he gets the job done because this film proved that all three leads were better actors than they got credit for. You have to remember that in 1999, Clooney was still in the Peacemaker/Batman & Robin era and hadn’t become the great actor that we would see in films like Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, Michael Clayton and Up in the Air. The film was hailed as a modern classic and it quite frankly is; it works on many different levels and floats smoothly through a few different genres. It may not have been the greatest box office success but it did a lot more for the stars than a big-budget formulaic action flick would have accomplished.

#4: The Corruptor (1999)

This is the other film on this list that really doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Taking place in Wahlberg’s filmography just before Three Kings, this crime thriller saw the actor paired up with the fantastic Chow Yun-Fat for an intriguing and layered look at police corruption. Yes, there are films that have done the theme better to be sure, but that doesn’t mean this one should be denigrated. Wahlberg is well-fit in the role of Danny Wallace, the fresh-faced cop thrown into the Asian Gang Unit where he’s partnered with Chow’s Nick Chen and working for Internal Affairs to monitor and investigate Nick. Wahlberg gives a very good performance and has a surprising amount of chemistry with Chow, who is always great and this is no exception. This is another film that suffered due to high expectations; it was one of Chow Yun-Fat’s first Hollywood films and bore a hefty superficial resemblance to his films with John Woo. Let’s be frank; The Corruptor was never going to be as amazing as Hard Boiled. But it’s a damn fine film nonetheless and one of the first (with one exception, above) that showed he was capable of being a real actor.

#3: The Fighter (2010)

Wahlberg’s third film with Russell is easily his best. I actually feel bad for the actor on this one; he comes in and takes on the role of Micky Ward and knocks it completely out of the park. And despite that, no one seems to remember him because Christian Bale was just a little bit better. Both actors are phenomenal as the boxing brothers and they make you believe in them from start to finish. Bale gets the meatier role as the frenetically-energetic, drug-addicted brother but to me Wahlberg had the harder role because it’s playing the straight man, which is always a more thankless job. He has to play the foil for which Bale is able to bounce off of and shine. They both were great and that’s to say nothing of Amy Adams, Melissa Leo and more. Wahlberg has long said that he wants to see a second film that focuses on Micky’s three fights with Arturo Gatti, and I can certainly say I’d be willing to see that. It’s difficult to gain traction as a boxing film because there are so many great ones out there, but The Fighter does it, largely because Wahlberg and Bale make us care.

#2: Boogie Nights (1997)

Boogie Nights is one of my favorite films in a year that is full of great ones. That being said, it’s always seemed to be overshadowed by Paul Thomas Anderson’s other films and that’s incredibly unfair. Just think back with me to the point where no one really thought of Wahlberg as an actor, and no one had really heard of Heather Graham. This was the movie that changed that. Both Wahlberg and Graham gave performances that made them impossible to deny. It’s another film about the 1970s, and Wahlberg just owns the screen every minute that he is on it.

With that secret weapon (Wahlberg, not his prosthesis) in his possession, Anderson made a truly great film about the 1970s. It’s a movie about the pornography business but it does so in a surprisingly non-salacious way. Not to say there isn’t a fair amount of nudity and sex in the film, but let’s face it…in the hands of another director, this film would have focused far more being sexy than it would have on telling the story of the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler and those around him. This film revitalized the career of Burt Reynolds and pushed indy darling actors like Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Luis Guzman and William H. Macy to a new level in their career. It’s an enchanting and thoroughly enjoyable movie-watching experience and deserves its place on this list.

#1: The Departed (2006)

I think it’s fairly well-known that I’m a huge fan of Martin Scorsese, and this is quite possibly my favorite film of his. It’s certainly very close between this and a couple others. The Departed is simply a brilliant film. You have an amazing script by William Monohan, adapted from the equally-amazing Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. You have Scorsese working at one of his finest and delivering work that would finally convince the Academy to honor him with a Best Director Oscar. You have a gripping story with every single element firing in perfect time.

Think about this fact though. The film stars some of the biggest heavyweights in film: Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin to a lesser degree, Ray Winstone and a star-making turn by Vera Farmiga. And none of them managed Oscar nominations. The nomination instead went to Wahlberg, who is one of the best parts in the film as Staff Sergeant Dignam, the foul-mouthed, hot-headed cop with racist tendencies who helps set DiCaprio’s Billy Costigan into the lion’s den. There was word after this film was done that a sequel might be made focusing on Dignam. There hasn’t been a lot of talk about it since Monohan and Wahlberg both expressed interest several years ago, but if it happened I would be first in line to get my ticket. It’s a fantastic film and a hell of a performance on Wahlberg’s part.

And that will do it for us this week! Join me next week for another edition of the 8-Ball! Until then, have a good week and don’t forget to read the many other great columns, news articles and more here at 411wrestling.com! JT out.