Mile 22 (2018) (Review)


Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg's fourth collaboration to date suggests that Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg sound no longer make movies together. Loathsome and downright ugly, Mile 22 is the very worst of what filmmaking has to offer; an utterly shambolic and shameful experience as incoherent as it is mean-spirited. While their previous efforts - Deepwater Horizon and Patriots' Day - had their flaws, they look like near-masterpieces in comparison to this downright unstomachable disaster.

Mile 22 follows an elite CIA task force, composed of paramilitary officers from the Ground Branch of Special Activities Division, that must escort a high-priority asset 22 miles to an extraction point while being hunted by the Indonesian government. Co-starring John Malkovich, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais and Ronda Rousey, Mile 22 is completely atrocious and perhaps the worst thing to disgrace our cinema screens in quite some time.

Mile 22 is a perpetually angry film. A flag-waving, aggressive display of extreme patriotism that paints every foreigner as either a criminal, an assassin or contemptuous collateral damage, it is a relentless barrage of offensive character work, despicable morality and horrendous narrative decisions that isolates itself as one of the nastiest pieces of work to be released to a mainstream audience. Lea Carpenter's screenplay painfully combines hateful characters and exasperating dialogue with an utterly dull, aggravating storyline that capitalises on post-9/11 fears with a complete rejection of decency or sensitivity. In between incessant gunfire and undecipherable speech is an attempt at humour, as horrendously-judged and distasteful as imagined, completely failing to lighten the tone as intended and doing more harm than good in the short and long run.

Mark Wahlberg leads, playing the macho, horrible jerk - and it goes just about as well as expected. What an awful, incomprehensible idea: without a sympathetic bone in his character's body, you find yourself actively rooting against him, A man defined by arrogance and an inherent nastiness is just what we need to see on our screens at the moment, right? If the rumours were true, Iko Uwais' unpredictable Li Noor was intended as the film's lead and while that decision probably couldn't salvage this mess, his martial arts' expertise punctuates the otherwise senseless violence and action with a single thrill - neck to glass, anyone? His talents are otherwise wasted because Peter Berg is so driven to make a film the right wing will embrace; it is, hands down, the worst work of his career to date.

This is no hyperbole: Mile 22 is the most poorly-edited thing I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. It is a total car crash, a grimly-assembled shambles that ravishes every set single piece to shreds; it is exhausting, so terribly pieced together to the point of incomprehension. Coupling that with Berg's erratic direction, poorly-coordinated, aimless camera movements and horrendously drab visuals, the action sequences are indiscernible and incoherent. Berg has often proven himself as a competent director but after seeing this you would think that he is a first-time director with no knowledge of the basic principles of filmmaking. His direction is appalling in every sense of the word.

 This is frankly unacceptable: Mile 22 is a mid-budgeted, studio-approved release, and that a final cut  as dreadful as this emerged from a room of executives with the go-ahead is nothing short of a total embarrassment. Everyone involved in this hateful project should hold their head in shame: this is a stain on the filmography of every single person involved with the production of this project. It's insulting, impenetrable and downright nasty. A horribly shambolic film that nobody should be forced to endure.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
(1/10)

Summary: I'd rather be dragged over 22 miles of broken glass than watch Mile 22 again.