The bromance between Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg has seen the director make five films in a row with the actor, and the evidence is beginning to hint that maybe action thrillers aren’t the best use of their constant collaborations – with Mile 22 arguably the weakest of the bunch.
The duo who shall forevermore be known as WahlBerg won widespread acclaim for lacing explosive set pieces with genuine drama in Lone Survivor, Patriots Day, and Deepwater Horizon, and while it wasn’t exactly rapturously received by critics, Netflix crime caper Spenser Confidential did become one of the streamer’s most-watched in-house exclusives ever.
On the other side of the coin, Mile 22 landed a weak 22 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, and even action-hungry audiences didn’t deem it fit for anything better than a 44 percent user average. To add insult to injury, the $60 million runner and gunner drastically underperformed at the box office, in spite of its splashy visuals and nonstop depictions of unrelenting carnage.
However, blockbuster shoot ’em ups are impervious to the pitfalls of streaming, with Mile 22 putting its foot to the floor to secure a spot on the Prime Video most-watched rankings, per FlixPatrol. One day, Hollywood will find out how to use The Raid‘s Iko Uwais to the best of his potential, but the mediocre cat-and-mouse thriller marked another missed opportunity.
A couple of the pyrotechnic moments are definitely capable of holding your attention, but for the most part, it’s a completely forgettable flick the likes of which you’ve seen many times before, and done substantially better.