One thing that always fascinated me is how state departments from all around the world run, especially as they relate to their respective embassies. Some may not know that as the land those embassies sit on belong to those countries, and the country they are in have no authority or jurisdiction whatsoever within their walls. This interesting situation is part of the plot in Peter Berg’s “Mile 22”.
Starring Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights), Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead), Iko Uwais (The Raid: Redemption), John Malkovich (Con-Air), and Ronda Rousey (Furious 7), it centers on “un-official” CIA Ops team that is led by James Silva (Wahlberg in a US Embassy in the fictional country of Indocarr in Southeast Asia. When an informant named Li (Uwais) shows up with a disk and states it has the location of some dangerous nuclear material that is being smuggled on the black market that he will give the code to unlock it if they take his to the local airport, get him on a US military plane, and given refugee status the team has to race time to get the asset to the airport while trying to be stopped by other foreign counter teams wanting Li dead.
The filming actually took place in Columbia, and they did a good job of making it look like Asia with all the hallmarks like crazy street layouts, huge amounts of traffic with no one following the rules of the roads, and poverty stricken neighborhoods. Pros like Malkovich do fine as can expect, but Wahlberg was a little too much and could have turned it down a notch or two, even for an action film. If I have to give a shout out, it goes to Uwais, who was great as a man who only cares about getting out no matter the cost enhanced by his work in the action sequences.
“Mile 22” is a quick ninety-five minutes with plenty of action of all types. However, my biggest complaint is the direction and editing, with too many quick shots that made it difficult for me to keep up in places. Given its nature, it is a bit predictable, but that was fine for me. If you want a film with a ton of action and not too much emotion, you may like this film, and I will recommend it as seeing it as a early showing or in a 2nd run theater.