WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
A little fact for all the millennials and Gen-Zs reading this, Mark Wahlberg used to be known as Marky-Mark and actually has two studio albums to his name with his band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (yes, they are on Spotify if you want to check them out).His first acting roles were mainly in the ensemble cast but actually got his first leading role two years into his career. He played David in Fear in 1996 – a man whose adoration for a woman turns into a dark obsession. Obviously, he’s now a known name in the film-world, including taking over from Shia LaBeouf in the Transformers franchise – but I wanted to take a look at his films outside of this.
Deepwater Horizon
Listen to me when I say, this is a film that will get your pulse racing and may even jerk a tear or two. Based on the true story of an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon (a pretty impressive offshore drilling rig) in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t know about anyone else, even though this incident was 11 years ago – I actually don’t remember it happening. Wahlberg plays Mike Williams, Chief Electronics Technician aboard the Deepwater Horizon, but I don’t think I would class this as a leading role as everyone’s parts are reasonably balanced throughout the film but he does end up as an almost reluctant hero. He does however have possibly the most emotional scene in the whole film but I won’t disclose too much about that.
Ted
So, I used to think that this was actually Wahlberg’s first comedy but research has proven that to not be true as he starred in I Heart Huckabees first. Having not seen I Heart Huckabees, this was my first introduction to Mark’s funny side. OK, there’s a few references some of you may not get on the first watching but there’s enough that will make you cry with laughter. Especially, Wahlberg’s fast rattling-off of the ‘white trash’ women’s names. There’s also toilet humour, for those of you who like that stuff (like me). Actually, if I’m completely honest with you, if you love Family Guy then you’ll love this film. There’s also a relationship at the centre of the story, so I guess you could say that Mark gets to show off his romantic side too.
Four Brothers
What I love about this film is that even though it’s a gritty and quite deep story – there are still little bits of humour here and there. So, if you think about it, it slightly brings together the two side of Wahlberg’s acting style. More importantly, even though it’s predominantly about the death of their mother – I guess it’s actually about the dynamic between these four brothers (makes the film quite aptly named right?) and the love they have for the woman that adopted and raised them. So much so that they do whatever they can find out who killed her. A little like Deepwater Horizon, prepare yourself to shed a tear.
Interestingly, Wahlberg actually works with another singer turned actor in this film – André Benjamin (better known as André 3000 of Outkast).
Honorary Mentions
If you take a look at Marky Mark’s IMDb, you’ll see that the guy seems to be happy to turn his hand to any style of role. Except maybe a horror film, the closest he seems to come is in 2015 in the thriller Mojave. Sadly, there’s a couple of his comedies that I haven’t watched – mainly The Other Guys and Daddy’s Home but that’s nothing against Mark’s comedy styling but because I am not a fan of his co-star, Will Ferrell. He’s even starred in a reboot of Planet of the Apes and he’s got what seems to be a film adaptation of the TV series Six Billion Dollar Man as well as a prequel film to the game Uncharted on the waybut of course, due to the Covid-19 outbreak these have had to be put on hold but they are definitely films I’ll be looking forward to.