Few stars in Hollywood know their way around a mediocre action thriller better than Mark Wahlberg, who possesses an incredibly inconsistent back catalogue of genre titles. The two-time Academy Award-nominated actor is more talented than he often gets credit for, but when it comes to running and gunning; the results have been decidedly hit-or-miss.
The Italian Job remake, Shooter, Max Payne, Contraband, 2 Guns, Mile 22 and Spenser Confidential all range from entertaining to instantly forgettable, but you could make the argument that he’s never been in anything worse than Antoine Fuqua’s Infinite. The high concept sci-fi will be remembered as both the first original movie to stream on Paramount+, and quite possibly 2021’s worst blockbuster.
A 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes puts it on equal footing with Max Payne as the joint second worst-reviewed lead performance of Wahlberg’s career, just ahead of Michael Bay’s Transformers: The Last Knight. Audiences tend to be a lot more forgiving and they only awarded it 32%, which tells you all that you need to know.
There was plenty of potential in the premise, but the execution was a million miles off. Almost four months after release and Infinite is still one of the most-watched titles on Paramount+, as per FlixPatrol, so subscribers are surprisingly willing to subject themselves through the 106-minute snoozefest.