5. I Heart Huckabees (2004) (dir. David O. Russell)

Here Russell takes a story that would be right at home in the hands of someone like Wes Anderson and makes it a little less obtuse and a little more character based. We get to watch as Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law and Wahlberg all in different stages of life deal with their own personal breakdowns and realizations of what the world and life really is what they need to do with themselves to get past these blocks that stop them from living. It’s a great film that doesn’t stop giving every time you revisit it.

4. The Other Guys (2010) (dir. Adam McKay)

I just can’t stop loving this movie. On paper everything should go wrong, but it keeps making me laugh everytime I see it. It is uneven and has trouble towards the ending, but Wahlberg and Ferrell make it completely tolerable by how the two of them are able to play off each other’s misery and suffer each other’s existence for my personal entertainment.

3. Boogie Nights (1997) (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

Here’s a film that I wasn’t completely sold on initially. Even as a massive PTA fan I felt like this movie was completely self-indulgent and not saying enough about anything to be worth all the effort it took to decipher it. A couple years later and all I can say is that it’s one of his best works. Here Wahlberg is actually asked to display a little range as he has to go through a complete cycle of a entertainment career and make us realise that while it’s kind of like a frat party, porn stars have feelings too.

2. The Fighter (2010) (dir. David O’ Russell)

I’ve described as one of the best films with Mark Wahlberg where everyone around Wahlberg plays off his lack of emotion so as to make a brilliant film. But the truth is that if Wahlberg tried to be anything other than that empty whole of emotion in a film which has Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Mellisa Leo playing roles like this it would’ve just become the game of who’s going to win the scene and then the film would’ve been just too distracting, so I give the director and Wahlberg some points for this turnout.

1. The Departed (2006) (dir. Martin Scorsese)

This is the role which gave me hope that he could win an Oscar, then we’d have to see “Academy Award Winning Actor” in every trailer ever released after this with Wahlberg in it. Sgt. Dignam is one of the few roles that uses what Wahlberg already has about him and amplifies it into an actual large character on screen that takes scenes by the horns and wrestles them to the ground into submission until we all recognize that he’s an amazing force. If it weren’t for the fact that the story is about DiCaprio and Damon I’d just want to see the Dignam show.

What’s your favourite film with Mark Wahlberg?