Spenser Confidential: Peter Berg’s film is entertaining, in spite of (or maybe because of) the outlandish conspiracy at the center of it all; it’s the kind of product that works wonders as a lazy, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer afternoon. The characters are easy enough to get engaged with, starting with the troublemaker with a heart of gold and an infinite stock of resiliency, played with aplomb by Mark Wahlberg; the big sidekick with a heart of gold, played by Winston Duke, and the odd-duck old man with heart of gold, played by Alan Arkin (who has been playing nothing but these types, so he knows the drill quite well); only the villains don’t have a heart of gold, clearly. The film is polished in its look, with cinematographer Tobias A. Schliessler moving the camera around nicely and editor Michael L. Sale giving it a snappy pace and a manageable runtime.