Mile 22 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Mile 22

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I am a huge lover of action movies, and a lover of Peter Berg as well. With Marky Mark he’s made some great movies, as well as a few “good” movies as well. The two together is usually a recipe for cinematic success, but sadly Mile 22 is far from a success. Made for $35 million it barely squeaked in $65 million (usually 2.5x the total budget is what is needed to garner a profit of any kind), Mile 22 is a jumbled mess of narcissistic angst, incomprehensible plot points, and a frustrating dependence on quick cuts to TRY and get the story from point A to point Z.

Usually I’m a huge fan of the Berg and Wahlberg together, but this was just an effort in futility trying to enjoy the movie. I’m not even sure what went wrong here. Was it the script by Lea Carpenter? Was Jacques Jouffret’s constant use of a billion quick cuts to keep things confusing? Or was Peter Berg just ticked off when he made this movie and directed his rage and sourness into the film? I don’t know. All I know is that Mile 22 looked cool from the trailers, but ended up being one of the most bland and detached action movies I’ve seen this year.

The plot is supposed to be “complex”, but in reality it’s very simple. A group of super secret “above the law” commandos who are code named “Overwatch” (sorry, not the game), are taking out targets in the U.S. when they get redirected to an Indonesian country to track down some nuclear material. Commander Silva (Mark Wahlberg) is at his wits end due to the fact that his source for intel seemed to have stood them up. However, it seems that the source (Iko Uwais) has a little bit of leverage going on. He has the real information on the stolen nuclear material stored on an encrypted hard drive, but is only willing to to give up the information is the Americans are willing to get him on a plane to America so he can defect.

Activating Overwatch, Silva and his team of professional commandos head on out to deliver him to a secret plane that is only available for a 10 minute window. Unfortunately for them, the government of the unnamed Indonesian country that they’re in wants the source as well, and are willing to do whatever it takes to get him back. What happens next is a gauntlet run, with Silva’s team racing against time and a horde of soldiers ever bit as off the book as he is hot on their trail.

After chewing at it for a while I think I have a grasp on why I really didn’t like the movie. I don’t think that it was just the quick cuts, or the choppy editing. Rather it all boiled down to the fact that the film was missing the one thing it needed to survive. Emotional resonance. Everything was there in the right quantities, but you didn’t care about anyone. I liked the action itself (as much as it as you could see due to the nasty nasty use of a million quick editing cuts, even with the presence of highly skilled action veterans like Rhonda Rousey and The Raid’s Iko Uwais pulling some neat hand to hand combat moves), and I liked the hail of gunfire and spy craft. However I just couldn’t emotionally connect with anyone in the film. The super duper commando squad were clinical, cold, calculating, and the rest of the film felt the same way. Cold, clinical, without a heart and without a soul. At the end of the day the viewer feels detached, emotionally, from what’s going on, and that keeps them from actually caring enough to enjoy what’s on screen.

Marky Mark does a solid job as Silva, and they do an interesting job of making him have some emotional “issues” (never stated, but most likely some form of autism or blend of bi-polar with autism) that makes him a singularly focused and unrelenting anti-hero. At the same time, this adds to the narcissism of the film, as Silva is so emotionally disconnected due to his condition that he seems unlikable and raw. Iko Uwais has potential with some neat action sequences, but sadly his best scene in the entire film is ruined with Jacques Jouffret’s helter skelter quick edits. Besides Lauren Cohen’s attachment to her daughter, the rest of the cast is simply wasted with a few one liners, or kept out as a simple bit part, like John Malkovich phoning in his role as Overwatch head of command.




Rating:

Rated R for strong violence and language throughout




Video:

Mile 22 was was digitally shot using Panavision cameras at 8K resolution, then given a full 4K master for home video. Sadly the poor audience reception and ticket sales means that there will be no 4K UHD disc today (which it would have done incredibly well on I think), but the Blu-ray itself is nothing to sneeze at. Besides some digital noise that crops up in low light conditions and a weird panning shake during a few scenes, the movie is just about flawless in the video department. Crisp, clear, fairly neutral in color grading, Mile 22 thrives on shiny digital gloss, revealing all sorts of intimate details. Watch as Dougie makes his last stand against the Indonesian commandos. His feet slipping in blood and glass shows individual glass shards, slimy blood, and little bits of debris all perfectly. Even Mark Wahlberg’s face shows off the age lines and creases that he’s showing nowadays with razor sharp clarity. Dark shots are deep and inky, showing off just as much detail as the more brightly lit sequences, and shows only the digital noise to act as a visual detractor.





Audio:

The 7.1 DTS-HD MA mix is nearly as good as the video is, shoving us right in the middle of the vicious action and never letting go. While I lament the fact that the movie forgoes any real story or emotional resonance for a hail of bullets, I have to admit that it makes for an awesome audio track when bullets are bouncing around everywhere and filled with impressive bass. Dialog is well placed in the center, with the only flaw of the film being that sometimes it got a little bit drowned out with the hotness of the gunfire and heavy score. Surrounds are utilized with great aplomb, allowing bullets to ricochet from all directions and the score to flow through all 8 channels. LFE is simply punishing, making a 5.56 round sound like it’s a howitzer, and the fisticuffs resonating with power and authority. I did notice that outside of the gunfire and score, the ambient noise of the city and traffic didn’t hit the surrounds as much, but it was a fairly minor concern in the grand scheme of things as the rest of the track really utilizes the whole sound stage with ease.





Extras:

• Overwatch: Follow the "Overwatch", the para-military division in Mile 22, and explore the background and inspiration as to why this type of team was chosen for the film.
• Introducing Iko: A spotlight on world-renowned action star Iko Uwais and his experience with combat fighting, stunt work and choreographing his own scenes in the film.
• Iko Fight: Interview with Iko Uwais discussing his intense fight scenes from the practice room to the final shot.
• Bad Women: A behind-the-scenes look with stars Lauren Cohan and Ronda Rousey along with writer Lea Carpenter, discussing stunts, intellectual smarts and the overall tenacity of the film's female characters.
• BTS Stunts: An in-depth take on the creation of the action-packed stunts of Mile 22 with commentary from Director Peter Berg and the film's stars.
• Modern Combat: Explore the concept of modern action cinema, where scenes are created and shot in real time with multiple cameras, mesmerizing cinematography and intense action stunts.
• Colombia: Take a tour Bogota, Colombia with the cast and filmmakers discussing key filming location points.
• Trailers

Final Score: ​

Mile 22 is a film that distances itself from the viewer for some unknown reason, content to spew bullets at the screen in place of character development, and even manages to ruin that thanks to the choppy editing and use of quick cuts (can you tell by now that the copious use of quick cuts bothers me?). Marky Mark and Peter Berg are usually a match made in heaven, but Mile 22 is so narcissistic and emotionally distant and the story itself so uselessly nonexistant that the viewer is left checking the run time every few minutes in hopes that the 95 minute film is actually over. The audio and video definitely earn top scores here, but the lack of extras and boring movie keep it from being anything more than just a pretty face. Unless you’re a great big Peter Berg fan, this movie is better left forgotten from his legacy of films. A very disappointing watch.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, Ronda Rousey, Sam Medina, Billy Smith, Carlo Alban
Directed by: Peter Berg
Written by: Lea Carpenter, Graham Roland
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 7.1, English DVS DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 95 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 13th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Disappointing Watch

 

[Asere]

Thanks for the review. I will skip this one.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will also skip this one.