Over the past five years, director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg have enjoyed one of the more curious filmmaking collaborations in recent memory: each of their films have cherry-picked a recent real-life tragedy from contemporary American history to fictionalize. With 2013’s Lone Survivor, they recounted the events of a botched military operation that resulted in the deaths of three U.S. Navy SEALS. In 2016’s Deepwater Horizon, they detailed the destruction of the eponymous offshore drill rig, infamous for being one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history. That very same year, the duo dramatized the events of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and ensuing manhunt in Patriot’s Day.
Along with this thematic strand, Berg’s films can be signified by their jingoistic attitudes and shaky moral stances. This is less an indication of a bad actioner and more of a result of a filmmaker who’s not looking to make any deep connections or incite a line of questioning. Instead, Berg’s much more at home highlighting the fortitude of the human condition, all while maintaining a strict sense of honor and reverence towards his subjects. Berg has also demonstrated a knack for sustaining extended sequences of intense action, often succeeding on a technical level when the rest of the film does not, and Wahlberg has always been game to go wherever the reins pull him.
Two years later, the pair return to duty for Mile 22, their fourth feature together and easily their worst feature yet. A raucous, incomprehensible, and hyperviolent affair, the picture indulges in the worst of Team WahlBerg, who literally go out of their way to physically assault any poor audience member unfortunate enough to sit through this film. Instead of adapting a real-life disaster for their fourth go around, they’ve opted to make their own disaster from this cinematic abortion.
Shots Fired, Opportunities Missed
In many ways, Mile 22 could have been a coming out party for Berg and Wahlberg. Based on an original screenplay by novelist Lea Carpenter, the pair have been offered a golden opportunity to craft a taut, 90-minute actioner in the form of a chase movie, marrying Berg’s technical know-how with Wahlberg’s leading man gravitas. Surely, this could have been a new film that would’ve enjoyed a long life of reruns on a late-night cable network.
Alas, this is not that film.
The reality of Mile 22 is much more dire. Any of Berg’s technical prowess is absent here, with much of the action so ineptly staged and frustratingly edited that you’d have a hard time believing Berg has ever directed a movie before this. Spatial relationships are nonexistent, motion is blurry, and the Berg’s maximalist style is headache-inducing. But I’d argue he’s not even the worst offender here; that would be Wahlberg, who delivers one of the worst performances of his career.
Marky Mark the Motormouth
Wahlberg plays James Silva, the leader of a covert black ops team code named “Overwatch.” The opening sequence introduces James and his squad (which includes Lauren Cohan and Ronda Rousey, both giving dismal performances) as they infiltrate a Russian safe house. They’re guided by the commanding voice of Bishop (a typically hammy John Malkovich), who provides “eye in the sky” surveillance via a drone cam. Though one of their teammates ends up dead, their mission goes off without a hitch, led by the tightly coiled James, a no-nonsense soldier who executes without hesitation.
You see, James has got issues. Lots of issues. After the pre-title sequence, we’re treated to an exposition dump that fills us in with his backstory. Orphaned at a young age, James is established as an Accountant-level savant who operates at a much higher level than those around him. His treatment? He wears a rubber band to snap against his wrist whenever “he gets too far ahead of everyone else.” Wahlberg snaps that damn thing relentlessly, clinging to it like it’s the last bit of characterization he’ll ever receive.
Our protagonist is also quite the chatterbox. Much of Mile 22 is comprised of Wahlberg spewing F-bomb fueled diatribes at hapless cohorts and enemy agents. He rattles these off with Gatling gun levels of precision, hurling insults and put-downs with breathless abandon, each one punctuated with a loud snap of his rubber band. The monologuing becomes so incessant that by the time Bishop orders him to “stop monologuing,” you really feel for the guy. If you were to imagine Michael Bay directing a film based on a rough draft by Aaron Sorkin, you would not be far off the mark. Wahlberg irritates more than he entertains, serving up a petulant, unsavory performance from an actor who’s typically reliable with this sort of material.
A Fragmented Structure
The film jumps ahead to sixteen months later, in an unnamed Southeast Asian country. An Indonesian police officer named Li Noor (Iko Ukwais of The Raid and The Raid 2 fame) turns himself in as a double agent at the American embassy. Li has the possession of a stolen hard drive that contains the whereabouts of a missing shipment of cesium. In exchange for the key to unlock the encrypted data, Li requests a plane ride to the United States for asylum. No points for correctly guessing the distance to the airport from the embassy, or who will be tasked with escorting him to safety.
Mile 22 eventually hits the road, following Overwatch’s chaotic journey to the finish line as they are attacked on all fronts by nameless, faceless extras on motorcycles (the anonymous villainy is one of the screenplay’s many issues). Those expecting a propulsive, non-stop adrenaline rush will be sorely disappointed. The action in Mile 22 is largely start and stop, portioning out explosions and shootouts while the team takes refuge between battles, only to be confronted with more explosions and shootouts. Rinse and repeat.
Admittedly, the lone highlight of Mile 22 is Uwais. A gifted martial artist and tremendous physical performer, Uwais has got the goods to deliver ass-kicking choreography when needed. Unfortunately, he’s betrayed by poor editing, with his movements lost to a blitzkrieg of cuts, angles, and limbs, rendering much of his fight sequences indecipherable. A few moments manage to stand out (one particular altercation featuring a broken car window is satisfyingly gruesome), but these are few and far in between. Why hire a guy with a particular set of skills if you’re not even going to bother showing them?
Bad editing is one thing; poor structure is another. The events of the mission are recounted by James as he’s being debriefed in a postmortem of sorts. This is not introduced right off the bat and forgotten – Berg returns to these scenes constantly, torpedoing any of the film’s momentum. It’s an unusual storytelling choice, one that effectively kills off what little suspense there may be in regards to the fate of James, replete with more monologuing and rubber band snapping.
Mile 22: Conclusion
Mile 22 eventually reaches its destination, concluding with a drone strike, a useless 11th hour twist, and the promise for a sequel that will likely never come to fruition. Team WahlBerg’s latest effort is abysmal, wasting the talents of all parties involved for a schlocky, aggressive shoot ‘em up picture. If you ask me, it’s a real lowlight of 2018.
What do you think? Do Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg have another good movie in them?
Mile 22 was released in theaters in the U.S. on August 17, 2018, and is released in the UK on September 19.
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