Mile 22 Movie Review - Thrilling but forgettable

Mark Wahlberg in a still from the trailer. Pic: Youtube/STX Entertainment

Mile 22
U/A: Action, Adventure, Crime
Director: Peter Berg
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, Ronda Rousey, John Malkovich
Rating:

This film, the fourth in a series of collaborations between Director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg, is a highly strung action thriller about a highly prized and equally misunderstood CIA unit that must transport an asset to safety under deadly circumstances.

James Silva(Mark Wahlberg) sharpshooting Senior Intelligence Officer of the Elite paramilitary force, is aided by a top-secret tactical command team in retrieving the life-threatening information.

The narrative is strategically structured to throw up as many mission threatening obstacles in their path. The script by first-time screenwriter Lea Carpenter, from a story she collaborated on with Graham Roland, has the incremental video game structure with Berg's inputs relegated to keeping the momentum going, pitched high and with obvious breath-shortening intensity.

Watch the trailer here:

There's a lot of spluttering angry emotion coming at you in short explosive bursts. This helps the adrenaline gush while keeping the audience invested in the moment. Unfortunately, it's also the kind of action cinema that is riveting but also imminently forgettable. Neither the characters nor the stunts stay with you beyond the runtime.

Mile 22 may be about bringing a spy in from the cold but it's nothing like Le Carre might have envisaged. Berg's film drums up a fervour that blasts hot and furious without any opacity or nuance. It's, in-your-face and stylistically compressed to lend maximum thrills within a short span of time. The technology enhancements in use here are commendable but the human expression feels entirely short-changed.

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