“The Union” Trailer Looks Like Another Fun Summer Movie That Won’t Be in Theaters

Netflix has undeniably changed the media landscape, for good and bad. But for the second time this year, they've got a crowd-pleasing romantic thriller on their hands, and it's going straight to your TVs instead of movie theaters. While Hit Man had the Richard Linklater pedigree, The Union has an equally impressive cast and crew. The high-octane flick boasts two Oscar winners, a reliable character actor, and one of the more bankable action stars of this uncertain decade.

Halle Berry plays Roxanne, the high school sweetheart of Mike (Mark Wahlberg), who never left his hometown in New Jersey. After a night of drinking and rekindling their romance, Mike wakes up in London. It turns out Roxanne has recruited him for a spy mission, which of course Mike will stumble throughout. But the casting might be this film's coup, with J.K. Simmons perfectly fitting in as the grizzled mission commander and Jackie Earle Haley as the tech expert. The cast also includes TV favorites like Mike Colter (Evil), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Game of Thrones) and Alice Lee (My Adventures with Superman).

The Union hits Netflix - but sadly no theaters - on August 16.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.