Paramount’s decision to get into the streaming business began with CBS All Access undergoing a revamp and rebrand, but with precious little fresh content available to pad out the library at launch due to the pandemic, the newest entrant into the crowded market needed something big to draw in subscribers.
As fate would have it, the company was sitting on a big-budget sci-fi action blockbuster starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Antoine Fuqua, so Infinite was abruptly pulled from theaters and sent straight to Paramount Plus instead on June 10 of this year.
Was it the right call? Hard to say, because the movie would have definitely died a death at the box office, for it is comfortably the worst blockbuster of 2021.
Wahlberg is a very inconsistent action hero, but he’s awful at trying to pass himself off as an everyman. For the vast majority of Infinite, he wanders around aimlessly with his brow furrowed quizzically, his facial expression permanently contorted into the look of a man who isn’t quite sure if he’s only farted, or gone and sh*t his pants entirely.
The plot makes little to no sense, the action is handily shot if choppily edited, and Chiwetel Ejiofor appears to be the only person in on the joke that something terrible is unfolding right in front of our eyes. And yet, Infinite is back with a bang on streaming as per FlixPatrol, having reappeared in the Paramount Plus Top 10.