There won’t be many new releases in movie theaters for a while. Even our beloved “Fast & Furious” franchise got banished to next year. With that in mind, this column space will be focusing on streaming options, including new content from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and more. There might even be a few Cage Matches, aka America’s third favorite Coeur d’Alene Press Entertainment Section-turned-Coeur Voice Recurring Feature.

Marky Mark still doing his Boston thing with ‘Spenser Confidential’ - Available on Netflix

Scorsese and DeNiro. Spielberg and Hanks. Stewart and Hitchcock. And Wahlberg and Berg?

Director Peter Berg and Funky Buncher Mark Wahlberg love making movies together. Berg first made a name for himself as an actor before directing titles like “The Rundown,” “Hancock” and the movie version of “Friday Night Lights.” Then came “Lone Survivor” with Wahlberg, an intense military thriller based on the experiences of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.

Berg and Wahlberg would work together again on fact-based (ish) dramas “Patriot’s Day” and “Deepwater Horizon,” and again on the fictional thriller, “Mile 22.” The quality has varied, with “Deepwater” and “Lone Survivor” being the better movies of the bunch.

Now comes “Spenser Confidential,” a movie with decidedly smaller stakes than any of their past collaborations. The R-rated thriller strikes a more lighthearted tone and pairs Wahlberg’s ex-cop-turned-reformed-convict with comic relief in the form of Winston Duke (“Black Panther” and “Us”) and the always-welcome Alan Arkin.

The movie opens with Walhberg’s Spenser finishing a five-year prison stint because he assaulted his police captain (don’t worry - the jerk deserved it). The former Boston cop now has enemies on both sides of the law, and he plans on moving to Arizona at the completion of his parole.

Then that jerk captain gets murdered. And a good cop (Spenser knows him) gets framed for the hit (and also murdered himself). The police won’t investigate the crimes for real, so Spenser takes it upon himself to expose the real truth.

“Spenser Confidential” is ridiculous. Wahlberg’s cool Boston guy runs his mouth a bunch and gets into countless fist fights. He takes a few beatings, gets verbally harassed by Arkin and quips alongside Duke. It all breezes along with little consequence, but it’s fun enough in spots to serve as a nice distraction from the real world.

In terms of Berg’s filmography, “Spenser Confidential” most resembles “The Rundown,” the silly action adventure starring The Rock at the early stages of the wrestler-turned-actor’s movie career. There’s an 80s and 90s quality to the jokes and fights that doesn’t exist in the marketplace today. Stallone and Schwartzenegger used to give us these kinds of movies all the time. Few were especially great, but most were fun enough.

Berg and Wahlberg clearly want to continue the adventures of “Spenser Confidential” (the movie ends on a sequel set-up anyway). These smaller-scale action movies aren’t as financially viable on the big screen anymore, so hopefully Netflix can continue the tradition.

- • •

Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected]. He’s been writing professionally about movies since 2000 and is the co-host of Old Millennials Remember Movies, available everywhere you get podcasts and at OldMillennialsRemember.com.