@kËj Z_\d`ZXc NX_c$]Xi\
MARK Wahlberg and director Peter Berg made three rousing action movies in five years, all based on true stories.
Mile 22 is a slight departure for the Hollywood duo.
Unlike Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day, it’s a fictional romp that doesn’t try to put a spin on recent events.
Walhberg’s Jimmy Silva is a motor-mouthed, special ops agent with a genius
IQ, a short temper and
an unwavering
8E;PËJ I8K@E>
belief that the ends justify the most violent means imaginable.
We open on a Russian safehouse in America surrounded by special forces called Overwatch, led by Silva.
As the Yanks storm the building, it’s like we’re watching the badly lit, badly shot footage from the team’s body cameras. This is also the perspective of the crew’s boss, who goes by the supposedly cool codename of Mother.
Played by John Malkovich in a dodgy buzz-cut wig, his job is to bark sweary orders from a control room while keeping an eye on his crew’s pulse rates on a split screen monitor.
The film calms down a little as it gets to the main plot. It turns out Silva is furious with his comrades because the “intel” on the raid was wrong. The house was supposed to contain the chemical weapons that the Russians will use to wipe out several US cities. Thankfully, a double agent (played by Indonesian martial arts ace Iko Uwais) turns up at the US embassy in a fictional Asian city, claiming to have the spies’ plans on an encoded disk drive.
He says he’ll only give up the password once he’s been granted asylum and safely on a plane.
But as local cops appear to be in cahoots with the Russians, the 22-mile drive to the airport involves shoot-outs, car chases and some gruesome fist fights.
For the most part, the shaky camera and rapid editing works fine but it feels out of place whenever Uwais steps up.
If you’ve seen him in The Raid, you’ll know his amazing fighting skills are best served by long takes and wide angles.
Still, there’s enough to justify the sequel-baiting ending. THE WEEK AFTER: