A review is a great way to get a perspective on any given film, but since there is no right way to think about movies there are always going to be different opinions. Of course, arguing about movies with friends can be one of the most fun parts of watching them in the first place. We do that a lot at CinemaBlend.
However, while it's always good to get multiple opinions about movies, in the case of this week's big release, the Mark Wahlberg-led Mile 22, it turns out there really aren't that many different opinions about it. Pretty much everybody kicking around the CinemaBlend office thought Mile 22 was a waste. Our official review came from Sr. Movie Contributor Mike Reyes who gave the movie all of one star, saying...
It may only be a little over an hour and a half long, but Mile 22 doesn't need that much time to tell you that it's thunderingly, insensitively dumb.
In a similar vein, Managing Director Sean O'Connell, who clearly had high hopes for Mile 22 going in considering everybody involved, is mostly angry that it turned out so bad
Disappointing. That's my main takeaway from Mile 22. Peter Berg takes an outstanding premise and suffocates it with mediocre execution. Who hires Iko Uwais -- currently one of the most exciting action-fight stars on the planet -- and buries his beautiful fight choreography in a fit of choppy, convoluted edits? Frustrating. Mile 22 had the potential to be something exciting and original, but it fumbles, repeatedly, and ends up being forgettable.
If there were any positives to be found in Mile 22, Project Manager Cody Beck, who keeps everything at CinemaBlend from utterly collapsing on a daily basis, says that if you're looking strictly for gun-based violence, you'll certainly find it here, though that's about it.
Mile 22 starts out like a first-person shooter game and quickly loses focus. The dialogue and bulk of the action scenes are too fast paced for their own good, but without an intriguing enough storyline to carry the audience along for the ride. It's great if you're solely looking for a violent shoot-em-up, but there are better Sicario-esque options out there. If there's a Mile 23, I will not be in attendance.
Needless to say, part of the reason this response is so shocking is that the collaboration between Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg has routinely resulted in solidly entertaining movies, like Deepwater Horizon and Patriot's Day. Staff Reporter Conner Schwerdtfeger sees this as an unfortunate way to see the partnership come to an end.
Mile 22 is a mess on almost every level. The action is sloppy, the characters are unlikable, and the plot makes little to no sense. If Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg were riding a hot streak from their previous three movies, it has come to a definite and unceremonious ending.
Not only is all of CinemaBlend in essentially complete agreement that Mile 22 is bad, they agree that it's terribly bad. The official CinemaBlend review rarely echoes the opinions of everybody here, but in this case, it seems like it pretty much did.
