Mile 22

When diplomacy and the military fails, Overwatch is there. Located in the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, team Overwatch’s goal, as part of the CIA (or I guess, if they get captured, they’re NOT part of the CIA, I suppose) is to do the dirty work that, frankly, the CIA doesn’t want to get their hands muddy in (think Jason Bourne’s CIA, but even more secretive): kill KGB officials, you know… all that cool spy stuff you see on TV.

James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) is one of the lead members of Overwatch, and, today, his team may face their greatest challenge. Overwatch’s mission is to ascertain and acquire stolen bags of radioactive cesium that are said to be weaponized, as bombs, in six major cities across the globe. Through a string of events, James and his crew are able to capture one bag of cesium. The problem is, James and his crew have no idea where the other bags are located. However, as luck would have it, a double agent within another foreign government—named Li Noor (Iko Uwais)—approaches the U.S. Embassy gates and is taken in for questioning. Before being questioned though, during his medical examination, Noor is attacked by an unknown enemy, and Li acquires a thumb drive.

While being questioned, Li mentions that the thumb drive he contains information as to the whereabouts of the rest of the cesium (while the interrogation is occurring, however, the CIA is trying to hack the information in the thumb drive when a virus appears on screen and begins to wipe the information on the hard drive). Li states that the only way to stop the virus from erasing the data is by typing in a code and that only HE knows the code. He will only provide the it if he is given safe passage to America.

Left with no other alternative, James and his crew are given the task of transporting Li 22 miles from the Embassy to an airstrip. However, the virus will completely destroy the thumb drive in 8 hours, and the plane can only wait so long at the airstrip before it will be forced to take off without Li. And there is a horde of enemies after Li.

Just another day for James.

Let me get straight to the point: “ is a ” is a mess from top to bottom. While I appreciate that the film makes the plot simple enough to follow, the pacing is so fast I spent most of the time trying to play “catch-up” or “connect-the-dots” with what has transpired. It is NEVER a good sign when I have to lean over to my guest and state, “Wait, I don’t get it. Why are they doing this again? Who are they?”

Additionally, some of the characteristics of the main characters, as the family member who attended the film with me pointed out, simply detracted and distracted from what could have been excellent performances. For instance, Mark Wahlberg’s character is a mile-a-minute-thinker with loads of aggression (perhaps bi-polar as one character suggests), who rambles a lot without being aware of the social context. Was his performance okay? Sure. Did it really add much to the story? No. Did it detract from his character? Sort of. In parallel, I had hoped that co-stars Lauren Cohan and John Malkovich had much larger roles in this film, but they aren’t given as much screen time and are too often overshadowed throughout the film.

Lastly, my overall feel is that “ as I ” tends to take elements of some of the greatest spy films (such as 007, the Bourne films) and mesh it all into one big film that, truthfully, doesn’t work.

On a much more positive note, the action sequences were really well done (though very graphic at times), and there are some great chase sequences, as well, to entertain the adrenaline lover. Still, some thing’s missing with this film…

Objectionable Content

*Please be aware that I have not listed every moment of violence in the film, as there was too much of it to address.

Violence: Extreme. There is a graphic fight scene involving Li and some supposed orderlies, while he is being examined at the Embassy. He cuts and stabs them with glass, smashes their head with a part of the hospital bed, in addition to repeatedly beating them to a pulp. In another scene, Silva and his men raid a home that is housing KGB agents. They round up the agents and execute them. One of them jumps out of a window and lands in front of Silva who executes him as ordered (although he is at first hesitant. There are several scenes in which people are shot in the knees and in other areas, with a lot of resulting blood; these scenes are incredibly graphic. One Overwatch member commits suicide with grenades, taking enemies with her. Silva graphically recounts detailed results of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Profanity/Vulgarity: Extreme. 60 f-bombs, sh*t (15), and multiple uses of a**-hole, b*tch, h*ll, and a graphic term for oral sex. God’s name is misused twice (once as G*d-d**n) and Jesus’ name is misused once.

Nudity: Moderate. Silva walks in to the women’s locker room when Alice walks out of the shower in a towel (she is covered). Li is asked to strip down to his underwear.

It is sad that, even in a film such as this, I can draw no redeeming morals.

Final Thoughts

“Mile 22” is pure chaos… and I’m not just talking about the action sequences. The plot points, the performances and the overall quality needs some serious work, not to mention the plethora of graphic violence, profanity and small amounts of nudity one has to endure that adds absolutely nothing to the film. This is certainly not a movie for children. It’s not even a movie for adults, and it is CERTAINLY not a movie Christ would approve of if He were to return today. Do yourself a huge favor, since I’ve already viewed it for you, and skip “Mile 22.”

• Violence: Extreme—and bloody
• Profane language: Heavy— • “J*sus” • “G*d-d*mn” • “Holy sh*t” • “My G*d” • “h*ll” (3)
• Vulgar/Crude language: Extreme— • “motherf***…” (5) • other f-words (around 60) • “c*cks*cker” • “pr*ck” • “s*cked” • “a**hole” • s-words (15+) • “a**” (2) • “b*tch” • “son of a b*tch”
• Nudity: Moderate
• Sex: • one moderate sexual comment • no sex scenes
• Occult: none

• Negative
• Critics