22 Miles Too Far

‘Mile 22’ is the latest joint effort from director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg, who previously collaborated on such movies as ‘Lone Survivor,’ ‘Deepshit (I mean Deepwater) Horizon’ and ‘Patriots Day.’  Given how those films were well received critically and commercially for the most part, they probably thought joining forces again in this latest release wouldn’t be a bad idea.  Well, they couldn't be more wrong.

 

‘Mile 22’ is a big dumb action movie with a thin and convoluted plot that makes even the most forgiving of viewers shake their heads in disbelief.  The story is stupidly simple.  Smart-mouthed operations team leader James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) and his hand-picked crew of black-ops badasses are presumably (but unofficially) troubleshooters for the CIA so as to provide Uncle Sam with “plausible deniability” in sticky and politically sensitive situations.  The film’s clever tagline even suggests that when diplomacy (Option 1) and military force (Option 2) are unsuitable or unavailable, Silva and his team including tough girls Ronda Rousey and Lauren Cohan give us the logical third option.  They do the necessary and dirty secretive "wet work" that others simply can’t be bothered with. In the case of ‘Mile 22,’ their "mission impossible" is to simply escort an Indonesian cop and Russian spy (Iko Uwais of ‘The Raid’ and ‘The Raid 2’) who asked to defect over 22 miles of Indonesian city streets to an airstrip where a C-130 awaits in exchange for intel regarding some nuclear material or other.  Doesn't matter in the final analysis really.

 

We've all seen these "running the gauntlet" type chase movies before, even if you don't remember any of them in particular because they're so damn forgettable.  The last one I've seen was 'The Assassin's Bodyguard' starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, which for all its faults had its enjoyable moments.  'Mile 22' in name and in style most resembles the 2006 Bruce Willis-Mos Def flick '16 Blocks.'  Don't remember that one you say?  I don't blame ya.

Grade: C-