Film Review: Mile 22

Directed by Peter Berg.

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, John Malkovich, Iko Uwais, Ronda Rousey, Elle Graham. 94 mins.

In cinemas September 19

Mark Wahlberg is now just making films for Republican men. And that’s fine. Entertainment has demographics, and targets them. Except Mark Wahlberg vehicles increasingly treat their audience like they’re incredibly stupid – don’t they mind? Mile 22 marks Wahlberg’s fourth collaboration with Peter Berg after Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon and Patriot’s Day. They were films that spoke to a particular form of American patriotism: an unwavering faith in the military and machismo, and an uncritical suspicion of anyone foreign. This is taken to a somewhat repugnant level in Mile 22, where the action revolves around an unnamed country, because hey, all places with people of colour are the same, apparently. Wahlberg plays Silva, a violent, wired and foul-mouthed member of the CIA’s most elite taskforce, who receive information about government-sanctioned weapons production in the aforementioned non-American country. The informant, Noor (The Raid’s Iko Uwais) demands to be flown to the US for his safety, but with assassins hot on his trail, the 22-mile drive to the airport becomes a bloody chase thriller. As grenades, bullets, bombs and cars themselves fly through the air, Berg’s staging of the carnage has a vicious precision, and Uwais’ martial arts skills are as magnetic as ever. But the action is dampened by the messy, sequel-seeking plot, while clumsy attempts to make the film feel relevant to modern politics are a disaster. MAGA hats and references to collusion feel shoe-horned into Silva’s rants about the necessity of war – monologues about as coherent as a Trump speech. Berg has a brilliant ability to surgically cut through chaos, but even his directorial flair can’t save this reactionary nonsense.