Mile 22 review

MILE 22:

A THRILLING BUT CONFUSING AND POORLY-WRITTEN MESS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

STX FILMS

Mark Wahlberg in Mile 22

            From director, Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Hancock, Patriots Day) comes the new action thriller, Mile 22, based on an original story by novel writer and editor, Lea Carpenter in her screenplay writing debut. The film stars Mark Wahlberg (Rock Star, Ted, Transformers 4 and 5) in his fourth collaboration with Berg following Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and Patriots Day, and sadly their partnership has gotten stale the fourth time around.

            This isn’t Berg being a Michael Bay clone with Battleship but compared to his other more recent films that earned praise from both critics and audiences, Mile 22 feels like a step backwards in his career. Aside from its undeniably thrilling action sequences, nothing about the movie stands out and it comes off as dull and forgettable.

            The film follows American Black-Ops agent, James Silva (Wahlberg), an operative of the CIA’s most highly-prized and least understood unit, codenamed Overwatch (Sorry gamers, no Tracers or D.Vas here). Silva retrieves an asset known as Li Noor (Iko Uwais-The Raid 1 and 2, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Headshot) holding life-threatening information.

            Aided by his top-secret tactical command team, Silva must transport this mysterious asset to Mile 22 for extraction before their enemy closes in. What follows is exposition and a continuous car chase stitched together like a weird Frankenstein monster.

            The film also stars John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire, Burn After Reading, RED 1 and 2) as James Bishop, Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead, Supernatural, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) as Alice Kerr, WWE Raw Women’s Champion, Ronda Rousey as Sam Snow, Nikolai Nikolaeff (Sea Patrol, Power Rangers: Jungle Fury, Marvel’s Daredevil) as Alexander, Carlo Alban (Strangers with Candy, Prison Break, Law & Order) as Douglas, Terry Kinney (Miami Vice, Oz, The Mentalist) as Johnny Porter, and Poorna Jagannathan (The Weather Man, Royal Pains, House of Cards) as Ambassador Dorothy Brady.

            Overall, Mile 22 feels like an action thriller that was a decade too late, perhaps if this movie came out during the popularity of Paul Greengrass’ Bourne films it might have had a better chance. But after seeing action movies like John Wick, Mad Max: Fury Road, or even Mission: Impossible: Fallout, there’s not much of a point in watching the film, it’s just some old-school tricks (Shaky Cam Galore!) with occasional action sequences filmed decently.

            However, even if the film didn’t use the old camera tricks, it wouldn’t excuse the wooden characters and absolutely atrocious dialogue. Don’t get me wrong I think Mark Wahlberg is a decent actor when he’s given the right project, but I found his character so annoying and unlikable, I could have cared less if his character lived or died by the end, it’s not as bad as his performance in The Happening but at least his role in that film was unintentionally funny.

            The only character I had a spark of respect for was Cohan as Alice, she wasn’t annoying, she kicks ass, and I could take her seriously all the way through. Unfortunately, this tough badass gets subjected to the “Dumbass in Distress” effect and we all know who comes in to save the day despite the fact she has the skills to get out of the situation.

            The script and dialogue fail at establishing its characters or engage the viewer as most of it consists of boring exposition, insufferable one-liners, and wise-ass remarks from Wahlberg. Most of the side characters are completely forgotten or they weren’t given enough time to develop, and the film plays like it’s on auto-pilot, even the movie itself is trying to get to the end credits as fast as possible, not a good sign.

            This is just under 2 hours but the way it progresses makes it feel like it comes and goes with no middle act. One moment you’re watching Wahlberg snipe a bunch of bad guys in a house at the beginning and the next you’re at the end credits, I guess you could say it’s the Peter Berg equivalent of Jurassic Park III.

            If Peter Berg is really trying to mimic the directing style of Paul Greengrass with this movie, there may still be some work to do on it. I appreciate that he’s trying to do something different and this could have been a legitimately fun action movie, but it tries to be so much more to the point where it becomes a slog to get through.

            I can’t think of a demographic to recommend this movie to, it’s too confusing and convoluted as a smart thriller and the action sequences are too few and far in between. I guess if you want a bare minimum Mark Wahlberg/Peter Berg collaboration then you might enjoy Mile 22, everyone else should just go see Fallout again.