Caffeinated Clint
Having emptied the well of true stories, cinema’s diet Scorsese-De Niro coupling dip their bucket in the well of non-fic, fishing out a gritty, fast-paced bit of action fluff that plays a bit like ‘Bourne’ on caffeine pills.
While director Peter Berg – teaming with actor Mark Wahlberg a fourth time – overflows the machoism mug and sadly leaves the Redbull board in charge of the editing console, the politically-coated drumstick features a tasty coating – even if it comes in brief crumbs – of brawn, badassery and biffo, making “Mile 22” an entertaining, if forgettable joyride.
Wahlberg plays James Silvia, an angry and brash but super-skilled American intelligence officer who, with a top-secret tactical command unit, has been assigned to smuggle a “low level cop” (Iko Uwais), with the power to stop a major tragedy, out of Southeast Asia. En route to the airport, the team – and their “package” – have to horde off military, police and street gangs.
Where “Mile 22” succeeds is in its detailed description of the job. Wahlberg, in a ‘get the job done’ turn that mirrors his Oscar nominated performance in “The Departed”, gives a mostly believable turn as the type of person (“If you’re chaos I think I might be worse. I am a killer who looks like a hero.”) one imagines you’d have to be to survive a field position in intelligence. The thesp, whose been slimming it in overproduced, bloated “Transformers” films for the past couple of years, also excels in the film’s unyielding action sequences, showing as much skill with the plastic props as he does clobbering. Having tried to get a feature film adaption of video game “Splinter Cell” up for years, no surprise to learn Berg and Wahlberg designed the closely-themed vehicle specifically for the movie muscle.
While famed co-star Iko Uwais (of “The Raid” fame) doesn’t fare quite as well – I’d only because he’s the victim of having his few brief fight scenes replaced by a loud, scattered- he’s well cast as the mysterious target, Li Noor.
And while John Malkovich’s role as the film’s main eyes-and-ears (‘Mother’) is a rather thankless, two-day gig for such an esteemed actor, Lauren Cohan, Ronda Rhousey and Sam Medina get some meaty moments for their respective showreels here.
Where similar-themed action-thrillers – be it the ‘Jack Ryan’ series of films or Michael Mann’s crime capers – leave “Mile 22” for dust is in their prioritising of script over spifiness. The style to substance ratio here is a little off, with Lea Carpenter’s libretto too concerned with implementing action in capital letters and leaving the statement on today’s political-cultural anxiety amongst the scattered shavings of a grenade.
“Mile 22” is, at times, a captivating, sweat-breaking excursion from iPhone apps but fails to be more because of its inclination to play it too safe, armed with popcorn-filled airbags that have undone Wahlberg and Berg’s films before.
One for the lads.
Blu-ray : A sharp transfer and striking soundtrack is accompanied by at least half-a-dozen featurettes.
