Mile 22
Relations between the United States and Russia won’t be helped along by Mile 22, although it’s another transparent attempt to lure moviegoers from the lucrative Southeast Asia market.
Relations between the United States and Russia won’t be helped along by Mile 22, although it’s another transparent attempt to lure moviegoers from the lucrative Southeast Asia market.
However, everyone can unite across geographic and cultural boundaries over the pedestrian nature of this hyperactive Mark Wahlberg action vehicle about covert government agents fighting terrorists and whatnot.
Wahlberg plays James Silva, an ex-military officer who now works for a high-tech tactical command team loosely connected to the CIA. A few years after he targeted Russian spies in a suburban safe house in the U.S., he’s dispatched to a random Asian nation to again combat Russian espionage aimed at securing some sensitive information about chemical weapons.
Assisted by a tough-minded but less experienced partner (Lauren Cohan), Silva turns his attention to an uncooperative source (Iko Uwais) who apparently has the password to an encrypted hard drive and shifts his loyalties to the highest bidder. Silva’s mission becomes smuggling him 22 miles across town, to the airport, and granting his wish for transportation outside the country before the enemy catches up to him.
The film is the fourth collaboration — and third in the past three years, not counting another one on the way — between Wahlberg and prolific director Peter Berg (Deepwater Horizon), and it’s also their most lackluster. Berg and rookie screenwriter Lea Carpenter emphasize action set pieces over character development or nuanced storytelling. The film hints at potentially provocative connections to real-world sociopolitical conflicts that never really materialize.
Speaking of those action sequences, the hand-held camerawork and frenetic cutting becomes more disorienting than exciting. Such technical self-indulgence tends to compromise some superior stunt work and fight choreography. The film’s best asset turns out to be Indonesian actor Uwais (The Raid), making his English-language debut. His physical bravado provides a highlight during an exhilarating confrontation with hapless caretakers inside a hospital room.
Wahlberg isn’t given much to work with, outside of yelling at everyone within earshot to rationalize his anger issues, and continually snapping a wristband as some sort of eccentric coping mechanism for his myriad emotional demons.
Mile 22 coasts on sheer adrenaline for a while, but without an emotional anchor, the chaotic and convoluted result simply becomes exhausting.
Rated R, 94 minutes.