Film Review: ‘Mile 22’: A Few Miles Too Long

R | 1h 35min | Action, Adventure, Crime | 17 August 2018 (USA)

What’s the only thing missing from Mark Wahlberg’s pretty perfect life? As I’ve said before, it’s been a long time since former rapper Marky Mark modeled Calvin Klein underwear on Times Square billboards, and that was already a pretty perfect life. Now, he’s a bona fide Hollywood mogul-millionaire.

So what’s missing? Thespian accolades. Wahlberg’s clearly shrewd. He’s obviously got uncommon showbiz savvy; one wonders why he’s not aware of his range limitations by now.

In 2014’s “The Gambler,” high school dropout Wahlberg played an English literature professor, of all things; a yakkity-yakking, verbal-abuse-type professor who shamed his class, telling them they should never indulge dreams of being writers.

In “Mile 22,” here he is again trying to stretch out of his blue-collar wheelhouse—this time playing James Silva, a yakkity-yakking special operations leader who verbally abuses everyone around him. It’s already been established that Wahlberg doesn’t do this well. Why must he persist?

“Mile 22” had tremendous potential, and, as is, it doesn’t exactly bore. It’s too violent for that. It’s also the fourth time director Peter Berg and Wahlberg have teamed up. The first three movies were pretty good: “Deepwater Horizon,” “Patriots Day,” and especially “Lone Survivor” were all good hits. “Mile 22” is a miss.

Super-Duper Undercover Secret Special Operations

More and more movies and books are telling stories about super-elite groups made up of former SEALs, Delta, and CIA operatives, who answer pretty much only to the U.S. president, operate outside the law as well as outside most moral confines, and can be immediately and utterly disavowed by the government.

The “Mission Impossible”-type tale told here is for Silva’s ghost spec ops crew to deliver a “package” from point-A, 22 miles to point-B (an airstrip)—the package being a police officer named Li Noor (Iko Uwais).

Mark Wahlberg (L) and Iko Uwais star in “Mile 22.” Motion Picture Artwork/STX Financing, LLC

Some radioactive cesium has gone missing. It’s terrible stuff; a packet of it shaken out on a sidewalk can apparently equal the devastation of Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined. Li Noor informs the American Embassy that he knows the cesium’s whereabouts and is willing to trade that info for U.S. asylum. So if they get him to the airfield and the waiting military C-17 troop transport plane, he’ll tell them how to avoid the release of the cesium.

Great Cast Except for the Lead

I’ve been wondering how the former mixed martial arts star Ronda Rousey’s acting career was going to shape up, and spec ops warrior is a very good role for her. This is the first time she’s radiated serious charisma and believability and does that in a role normally reserved for men. Being an Olympic judo bronze medalist and Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar is good street cred for that.

Ronda Rousey stars as Sam Snow in “Mile 22.” Murray Close//STXfilms

John Malkovich as Bishop, nicknamed “Mother” because he’s the op coordinator and drone strike commander, brings his quirky delivery, along with hair and makeup providing him with the worst fake flattop in the history of movie making.

John Malkovich and Lee Chae-rin (better known by her stage name CL, a South Korean singer-songwriter) star in “Mile 22.” Motion Picture Artwork/STX Financing, LLC

Martial arts phenom Iko Uwais brings the martial magic, but the shaky-cam-saturated delivery of this film robs the clarity that would have made these fight scenes dynamite and sinks the rest of the film by rendering an already convoluted plot even more obscure.

Silva’s backstory had potential; he’s supposed to have an autism-level brilliance for jigsaw puzzle-putting-together. He’s also got a tendency to escalate to insanity in a heartbeat, and uses a yellow rubber band around his wrist to help snap himself back to reality, by snapping it all film long.

The only comic relief is Malkovich’s character saying to no one in particular, while overhearing a James Silva tirade, “Will you please shut your bipolar mouth and do the op?” A computer tech chimes in, “Actually, it’s manic depression.” “No, he’s got cognitive associative disorder,” the drone operator suggests. “I think it’s paranoid schizophrenia,” offers yet another technician.

This all might serve as a metaphor for saying lots of rubber band snapping doth not constitute a clear-cut, recognizable characterization, and Wahlberg needs to never again appear in a scene without a trucker hat or do a lot of talking.

Lauren Cohan stars as Alice, a female super-soldier in “Mile 22.” Motion Picture Artwork/STX Financing, LLC