Sunday Night Movie Magic, 4 August: Mile 22

What an interesting week it’s been. If you need to unwind and stay in, consider settling in for the Sunday movie on M-Net, Wahlberg’s Mile 22.

Mile 22 is a 2018 espionage action thriller. It was directed by Peter Berg and produced by Mark Wahlberg. The film stars Wahlberg and John Malkovich in the lead roles, with supporting acts from Iko Uwais and Ronda Rousey.

The film also marks the fourth collaboration between Wahlberg and Berg. Their other collaborations include Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and Patriots Day.

Mile 22 Plot

CIA operative James Silva (portrayed by Mark Wahlberg) leads a small but lethal paramilitary team on an urgent and dangerous mission.

Moreover, they must transport a foreign intelligence asset from an American embassy in Southeast Asia to an airfield for extraction – a distance of 22 miles.

Silva and the soldiers soon find themselves in a race against time as the city’s military, police and street gangs close in to reclaim the asset.

Critics’ reviews

Kevin Maher from Times UK said it’s alright if you “fancy 90 minutes of nameless extras getting shot in the face, otherwise it’s mostly [expletive]”, while Elena Lazic from Little White Lies added:

“An interesting experiment but not a successful one.”

In addition, Oliver Jones from the Observer described it as a confusing film that, for all of its macho bluster and propulsive forward motion, “doesn’t really know where it’s going.”

The two times Uwais is allowed to bust out his fighting moves, the scenes are Cuisinarted into incomprehensible shreds, and the point becomes not the precision and virtuosity of his skills, but the broken bones and spurting gore that end each mano-a-mano.

Michael Gingold, Time Out

The main cast and characters

• Mark Wahlberg as James Silva / “Child 1”
• Iko Uwais as Li Noor
• John Malkovich as James Bishop / “Mother”
• Lauren Cohan as Alice Kerr / “Child 2”
• Ronda Rousey as Samantha “Sam” Snow / “Child 3”

Also starring in supporting roles:

• Nikolai Nikolaeff as Senior Lieutenant Aleksander Aslanov
• Carlo Alban as William “Dougie” Douglas III/ “Child 4”
• Terry Kinney as Johnny Porter
• Poorna Jagannathan as Ambassador Dorothy Brady
• Sam Medina as Axel
• Natasha Goubskaya as Vera Kuragina
• David Garelik as Anatole Kuragin
• Alexandra Vino as Sergeant Thomas
• Cedric Gervais as Greg Vickers / “Child 5”
• Chae Rin Lee as Queen
• Emily Skeggs as M.I.T.
• Peter Berg as Lucas

Sunday Movie: Stats

• Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
• Runtime: 1 h 34 min
• Age Restriction: R
• IMDB: 6.1
• On air: Sunday, 31 August, 20:05 on M-Net, Channel 101.

Watch: Mile 22 trailer

Also read – M-Net puts up billboard for Dwayne to propose to his girlfriend