Spenser Confidential Starring Mark Wahlberg And Post Malone Now Streaming On Netflix

Wahlberg is the titular character - an ex-cop who has just come out of prison. Planning to leave his native Boston for good, he winds up helping his old boxing coach (played by Alan Arkin) in helping out a young MMA fighter, Hawk, played by Winston Duke.

However, the pair quickly become embroiled in something much more serious than mixed martial arts when two of Spenser's old colleagues turn up murdered.

It's up to him and the rookie fighter - with help from Spencer's ex-girlfriend, played by Iliza Shlesinger - to uncover what's happened. As they dig deeper into the case they discover gangs, conspiracies and corruption that runs right to the top.

The Spenser Confidential character was originally created by crime writer by Robert B. Parker in the 1970s and built upon by the author Ace Atkins - and the film is loosely based on the latter's novel Wonderland.

The movie sees Wahlberg once again team up with director Peter Berg, with the pair having worked regularly together, on films such as Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, Patriots Day and Mile 22.

This latest collaboration is somewhat lighter in tone, although given its concept, and Berg and Wahlberg's penchant for the dark and gritty when working together, they haven't suddenly veered down a route of light-hearted slapstick.

Special praise should be reserved too for Winston Duke, who plays the dry-humoured Hawk with a natural charisma that offsets Wahlberg's straight-guy routine as Spenser.

As for Post Malone, he gives a solid performance as Squeebe, an inmate and enemy of Spenser, whose most notable moment is to give Wahlberg's character good kicking during a prison fight.

In a recent interview with USA Today, Wahlberg spoke of how the 24 year-old Malone prepared for the role 'in his trailer, pounding Bud Lights'.