MILE 22

Cert

Running time

Mark Wahlberg is at his single-minded best in this blistering and bonesnapping action thriller.

As a top CIA agent in its most secretive branch, his task force must convey an “asset” 22 miles through a hostile city in south-east Asia to a remote airstrip where a transport plane will hopefully pick them up.

Indonesian stuntman-turned-actor, Iko Uwais, plays the asset, and the straight-forward narrative allows him to deploy the ferocious combat skills demonstrated in 2011’s The Raid, which made him a star.

And with Asia once more a proxy battlefield between the US and Russia, the script plugs straight into historic and contemporary political concerns.

This is the fourth collaboration between Wahlberg and director Peter Berg, and it is every bit as flag-wavingly entertaining as previous films, such as 2013’s Lone Survivor.

Perfectly tailored to Wahlberg’s spiky tough guy screen persona, it’s as intense as the astonishing exercise regime he recently revealed to the world.