Mile 22 (15.)
Directed by Peter Berg.
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Iko Uwais, Lauren Cohan, Rhonda Rousey and John Malkovich. 94 mins.
It must've sounded like a genius idea in the Hollywood exec's office when it was pitched: Rainman as an action hero. In truth, if it hadn't been explained in the opening credits sequence that Wahlberg's character had a personality disorder I doubt I'd have noticed. He is a bit more charmless than usual but this time he has a doctor's note to excuse it.
The film never specifies exactly which disorder he has but that is in keeping with a film that is vague on most things. It takes place in an unidentified South East Asian country where Wahlberg's gang, some kind of deep cover, black ops, dirty-work-you-don't-need-to-know-about group group is trying to recover some stolen batches of a dangerous substance called Siezey-um. Turns out Caesium is a real thing, but in this film I half-assumed it was their equivalent of Avatar's Unobtainium. The plot is a blaze of noise and fury, an espionage tale written by a Le Carre who was only allowed to communicate through gunfire, explosions and expletives. Halfway through I was grateful for an intervention by Malkovich, who appears dressed up as Steve Martin in My Blue Heaven (an obscure reference I know, but his not mine), to delineate that the second half would be the gang attempting to make the 22 miles through a hostile city to an airstrip to get asset Uwais out of the country.
The film's editing, a frantic montage of split-second shots, is also intent on keeping things obscured. Everything is cut so quickly that whatever pleasure the action sequences may have offered is frittered away. This seems vaguely criminal when you have engaged the services of Indonesian movie star/ martial artist/ stuntman Uwais, star of The Raid 1 & 2. Pairing him with Wahlberg is like one of those charity football games where celebrities get to play alongside professionals. Here though the pro is being made to play with lead in his boots. The frantic editing is there to make Wahlberg look like he can do the violent things Uwais excels at; it is also there to soften the vicious fury of Uwais fight sequences into something bearable to mainstream audiences.
A rule of Hollywood action films is that the smarter they look the more stupid they are. Mile 22 is very techno slick, all drone shots and heat signatures as it indulges in its berk espionages. It's certainly stupid, but it isn't stupidly stupid; there's an irony to it and even a certain humility. A co-production with Chinese production company Huayi Brothers, it acknowledges that American action heroes can't go tearing around causing mayhem without consequences. The message is that American intelligence is stupid people playing with smart toys but with brains enough to know that they are in a rut of stupidity. Which realistically may just about be about the most hopeful thing an American movie could communicate to the rest of the world right now.
Directed by Peter Berg.
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Iko Uwais, Lauren Cohan, Rhonda Rousey and John Malkovich. 94 mins.
It must've sounded like a genius idea in the Hollywood exec's office when it was pitched: Rainman as an action hero. In truth, if it hadn't been explained in the opening credits sequence that Wahlberg's character had a personality disorder I doubt I'd have noticed. He is a bit more charmless than usual but this time he has a doctor's note to excuse it.
The film never specifies exactly which disorder he has but that is in keeping with a film that is vague on most things. It takes place in an unidentified South East Asian country where Wahlberg's gang, some kind of deep cover, black ops, dirty-work-you-don't-need-to-know-about group group is trying to recover some stolen batches of a dangerous substance called Siezey-um. Turns out Caesium is a real thing, but in this film I half-assumed it was their equivalent of Avatar's Unobtainium. The plot is a blaze of noise and fury, an espionage tale written by a Le Carre who was only allowed to communicate through gunfire, explosions and expletives. Halfway through I was grateful for an intervention by Malkovich, who appears dressed up as Steve Martin in My Blue Heaven (an obscure reference I know, but his not mine), to delineate that the second half would be the gang attempting to make the 22 miles through a hostile city to an airstrip to get asset Uwais out of the country.
The film's editing, a frantic montage of split-second shots, is also intent on keeping things obscured. Everything is cut so quickly that whatever pleasure the action sequences may have offered is frittered away. This seems vaguely criminal when you have engaged the services of Indonesian movie star/ martial artist/ stuntman Uwais, star of The Raid 1 & 2. Pairing him with Wahlberg is like one of those charity football games where celebrities get to play alongside professionals. Here though the pro is being made to play with lead in his boots. The frantic editing is there to make Wahlberg look like he can do the violent things Uwais excels at; it is also there to soften the vicious fury of Uwais fight sequences into something bearable to mainstream audiences.
A rule of Hollywood action films is that the smarter they look the more stupid they are. Mile 22 is very techno slick, all drone shots and heat signatures as it indulges in its berk espionages. It's certainly stupid, but it isn't stupidly stupid; there's an irony to it and even a certain humility. A co-production with Chinese production company Huayi Brothers, it acknowledges that American action heroes can't go tearing around causing mayhem without consequences. The message is that American intelligence is stupid people playing with smart toys but with brains enough to know that they are in a rut of stupidity. Which realistically may just about be about the most hopeful thing an American movie could communicate to the rest of the world right now.
