Every Mark Wahlberg Action Movie, Ranked Worst To Best

Custom image by Yalin Chacon.

Mark Wahlberg has starred in plenty of action movies over the past 30 years, although admittedly some were better than others. With countless roles as determined police officers, petty criminals, and expert thieves under his belt, Wahlberg was no stranger to the action genre as he chased, fought, and shot his way through an assortment of over-the-top action-packed films. While acclaimed roles in epic crime thrillers like The Departed or sci-fi movies such as the Transformers series don’t count as pure action entries, there were still plenty more Wahlberg action movies to consider.

The worst Wahlberg action movies suffered from poor character development, predictable plotlines, and bad performances, while Wahlberg's best movies were well-crafted cinematic spectacles. As an incredibly prolific actor, not all of Wahlberg’s action roles were hits, but the sheer commitment he has shown to turning up time and time again for bombastic action flicks. Looking back on his entire career, it’s clear that Wahlberg has had some really great action movies over the years.

16 Max Payne (2008)

Mark Wahlberg As Max Payne

When it came to Mark Wahlberg's action movies, it didn’t get any worse than Max Payne, a woeful adaptation of the beloved neo-noir third-person shooter that stood as one of the worst video game movies ever made. While there were stylish elements to the action in Max Payne, Wahlberg gave an underwhelming performance that was an insult to the interesting graphic novel aesthetic of the original game. A true low point for Wahlberg’s career as an action star, Max Payne missed the mark big time.

15 Mile 22 (2018)

Mark Wahlberg As Officer James Silva

Mile 22 committed one of the greatest sins of action movie failures, it was totally and completely forgettable. Full of action tropes and clichés, Mark Wahlberg played an elite CIA officer who was part of a top-secret tactical command unit trying to smuggle a police officer out of Indonesia. While Mile 22 contained plenty of twists and turns, it all felt a little underwhelming, and although the stakes were high, things never felt quite urgent enough to truly care about them.

14 The Big Hit (1998)

Mark Wahlberg As Melvin Smiley

Mark Wahlberg teamed up with Hong Kong film director Che-Kirk Wong for the disappointing action-comedy The Big Hit, which was a major step down from Wahlberg’s previous role as Dirk Diggler in Boogie Night the year before. Full of shootouts, explosions, and car crashes, The Big Hit starred Wahlberg as an anxious hitman who fell in love with his kidnapped victim. While The Big Hit had some funny moments, it paled in comparison to the stylistic power of the Quentin Tarantino and John Woo movies it was trying to emulate, although Woo did act as an executive producer.

13 The Family Plan (2023)

Mark Wahlberg as Dan Morgan

A low point in the latter stage of Mark Wahlberg’s career, The Family Plan felt like an inferior copy-and-paste version of different movies where an undercover agent was surrounded by children, such as Kindergarten Cop. While there was plenty of high-stakes action and shooting in The Family Plan, it lacked the real sense of humor and characterization needed to make an action-comedy like this work. While there were hints of Wahlberg’s action-star charisma throughout, this was not enough to save The Family Plan.

12 Spenser Confidential (2020)

Mark Wahlberg As Spenser

Unfortunately, Mark Wahlberg’s action-comedy Spenser Confidential did nothing to make it stand out from the hordes of easily watched and quickly forgotten disposable movies on Netflix. Wahlberg played Spenser, a convicted ex-cop who, after being released, teamed up with his roommate to take down criminals and uncover a conspiracy. While there’s a buddy-cop relationship at the center of Spenser Confidential, it never quite managed to hit the right tone and deviated far too much from the Ace Atkins novel Robert B. Parker's Wonderland that it was based on.

11 Shooter (2007)

Mark Wahlberg As Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger

Although director Antoine Fuqua has made some truly great movies, like Training Day, his action thriller Shooter with Mark Wahlberg was sadly not one of them. With Wahlberg as a marksman coaxed back into action to stop a plan to kill the president, Shooter worked well as exciting entertainment, but its numerous plot holes stopped it from reaching the heights of the best work by Fuqua or Wahlberg. Shooter had its moments, but it failed to stand out from the countless other action movies of its type.

10 The Corrupter (1999)

Mark Wahlberg As Detective Danny Wallace

The Corrupter saw Mark Wahlberg star opposite Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-fat in an action-thriller set in New York’s Chinatown. A story of bribery, corruption, and drug smuggling, The Corrupter was a solid crime story, and director James Foley hit all the right marks for a Hong Kong-inspired action movie. A forgotten entry from the heyday of over-the-top 1990s action movies, The Corruptor lacked the incredible characterization of other Foley movies like Glengarry Glen Ross but was still worth checking out for those interested in Wahlberg’s action career.

9 Contraband (2012)

Mark Wahlberg As Chris Farraday

As a remake of the Icelandic action-thriller Reykjavík-Rotterdam, Wahlberg starred the former smuggler Chris Farraday, whose peaceful family life was upended in Contraband. An entertaining, although at times convoluted, journey through heist clichés, Contraband was an effective thriller that suffered from repeating too many of the same plot beats that viewers have already seen a million times. While the action in Contraband was fun and exciting, Wahlberg’s performance left a lot to be desired, and it felt like he was simply going through the motions when he made this one.

8 Flight Risk (2025)

As Daryl

Mark Wahlberg's latest action movie sees him team with a veteran of the genre. In his first directorial effort since the Best Picture nominee Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson helms the much smaller action thriller Flight Risk. The movie stars Michelle Dockery as a US Marshal transporting a cooperating witness (Topher Grace) in a mob case from Alaska in a small single-engine plane. However, as the pilot Daryl (Wahlberg) takes them over the isolated wilderness, he reveals he is actually an assassin sent to kill the witness.

Flight Risk is a straightforward action movie that both serves as a positive and a negative. It wastes no time getting going and throws the audience into the setting of the small airplane for the duration of its short runtime. However, it also drags as its bare-bones script comes up with new dilemmas and threats. While it is interesting to see Gibson switch gears from his usual epic filmmaking style, his skills seem wasted here. Meanwhile, Wahlberg's villainous turn is uneven with it being fun and obnoxious all at once.

The movie offers some thrills and its script manages to balance the humor nicely to make it a rather fun ride. However, considering the talent involved, it is a letdown.

7 Pain & Gain (2013)

Mark Wahlberg As Daniel Lugo

Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made a great duo in Michael Bay’s action-comedy Pain & Gain, a flawed but highly enjoyable look at the real-life story of the Miami Sun Gym gang. As one of the few movies that featured Johnson as a villain, Pain & Gain explored a group of bodybuilding ex-convicts convicted of kidnapping, extortion, and torture in the 1990s. Pain & Gain was satirical, sensational, and stylish, and it must be commended as one of Bay’s most interesting films that was produced right in the midst of the creative slump that was the Transformers sequels.

6 Four Brothers (2005)

Mark Wahlberg As Bobby Mercer

Betrayal, bloodshed, and brotherhood were central themes in Mark Wahlberg’s action movie Four Brothers, which told the story of unlikely delinquents brought together by the caring love of their adoptive mother. However, when the four brothers' mom was gunned down in a store robbery, they decided to take the law into their own hands and find her killer themselves. While Four Brothers could be seen as an endorsement of vigilante justice, it did so with compelling characters, over-the-top violent entertainment, and a solid sense of style that made it one of the best lesser-known action movies of the 2000s.

5 We Own The Night (2007)

Mark Wahlberg As Captain Joe Grusinsky

After having already appeared together in the crime film The Yards, Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix teamed up once again for We Owe the Night, the story of a New York nightclub manager trying to save his brother from the Russian mafia. An atmospheric, intense, and well-acted action film, We Own the Night received mixed reviews from critics but was a hit at the box office. Bringing together themes of anger, grief, loss, and love, We Own the Night contained more passion and emotion than the average action movie.

4 2 Guns (2013)

Mark Wahlberg As Michael Stigman

Two action legends came together for 2 Guns, a buddy cop action-comedy that paired Mark Wahlberg with Denzel Washington. While many of the action movies that had Wahlberg teaming up with notable stars tended to miss the mark, 2 Guns played into the incredible charisma of both actors to deliver a wise-cracking, no-frill action movie that proved they were a match made in heaven.

While 2 Guns did not break any new ground when it came to the action-comedy genre, it didn’t need to, and it succeeded as a compelling piece of over-the-top violent fun with a great sense of humor.

3 The Italian Job (2003)

Mark Wahlberg As Charlie Croker

As a star-studded American action heist movie based on the 1969 British crime film The Italian Job, this elaborate crime caper proved that Mark Wahlberg could hold his own amid its talented cast that included Edward Norton, Donald Sutherland, and Jason Statham. With an original story, The Italian Job updated the British classic for a modern audience, with Wahlberg as the team leader, master thief, and professional fixer Charlie Croker. As Wahlberg’s best action movie from the 2000s, The Italian Job, along with movies like Ocean’s Eleven, helped kickstart the heist movie revival of the early 21st century.

2 The Other Guys (2010)

Mark Wahlberg As Detective Terry Hoitz

The Other Guys was a hilarious buddy cop action movie that stood as one of the best comedic performances in Mark Wahlberg’s entire career. Featuring Wahlberg and Will Ferrell as two unlikely partners, The Other Guys was a clever parody that poked fun and paid homage to the entire buddy cop genre, where the only thing bigger than its impressive action set pieces were the sizeable laughs that it delivered. While spoof movies like The Other Guys often failed, its strong script, great performances, and impressive direction from Adam McKay made it one of the best movies of its kind.

1 Patriots Day (2016)

Mark Wahlberg As Sergeant Tommy Saunders

Patriots Day was a powerful dramatization of the real-life Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 that paid respectful tribute to those involved in the citywide manhunt for the terrorists responsible. A compelling action-thriller, Patriots Day managed to walk the fine line between depicting the story on film without exploiting the victims of a real-life tragedy. Mark Wahlberg gave a strong performance as Boston Police Department Sergeant Tommy Saunders in a highly moving, well-paced, and extraordinarily effective film that proved how great Mark Wahlberg could be when he had strong material and was surrounded by effective performers, filmmakers, and crew.