MILE 22
***
Dir: Peter Berg (15, 110 mins)
After collaborating on three real-life dramas – Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon and Patriot’s Day – Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg have teamed up once again for their first work of full-on fiction. This action-packed B-movie, with nods to 70s thriller The Gauntlet and Bruce Willis actioner 16 Blocks, has Wahlberg playing a CIA man, Jonas Silva, part of the shadowy Overwatch unit. He’s a get-the-job-done kind of guy, happy with making morally dubious choices. He is tasked with transporting an asset across the eponymous 22 miles and out of a foreign country. The asset is enigmatic policeman Iko Uwais, the martial arts supremo from The Raid movies. Unsurprisingly, nobody wants him to leave the country and spill his beans. Wahlberg is backed up with a crack team that includes The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohan and MMA fighter Ronda Rousey, whilst taking his orders from an alarmingly bewigged, scenery-chewing John Malkovich. Director Peter Berg marshals the gung-ho action with customary visceral flair in a well-staged albeit generic actioner. Opens Sept 19
words Keiron Self