Movie Review: Yesterday

Yesterday (2019) 

Directed by Danny Boyle 

Written by Richard Curtis 

Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran, Kate McKinnon 

Release Date June 28th, 2019 

Published June 27th, 2019

Yesterday was a complete delight. Directed by the ingenious Danny Boyle, Academy Award winner for Slumdog Millionaire, and Love, Actually writer-director Richard Curtis, Yesterday is charming, romantic, and quite funny. The acting is wonderful as well with a core duo of newcomer Hamish Patel and Lily James providing romantic and friendly chemistry that leaps off of the screen. All of that, and some of the greatest music of all time and Yesterday becomes irresistible. 

Jack Malik (Patel) has spent 10 years trying to make his music industry dreams come true with no success, but with his trusted friend and manager Ellie (James) always at his side. Despite Ellie’s constant support, Jack finally appears ready to give up his dream and return to teaching when something dramatic happens. On his way home from his last gig, Jack gets in an accident just as all of the electricity on the planet goes out for 12 seconds. 

When Jack wakes up in the hospital the following day, minus his front teeth, he makes a reference to The Beatles that Ellie dismisses in unusual fashion. Later, after Ellie gives Jack a guitar to replace the one he lost in the accident, Jack goes to play “Yesterday” by The Beatles and his friends react as if they have never heard the song before. A confused Jack returns home in a rush and begins googling The Beatles only to find that they no longer exist in any way. 

Apparently being the only person on the planet who remembers The Beatles songs, Jack decides to start performing Beatles songs from memory, not without a serious struggle, as if he had written them. Jack finds success in a fashion not unlike the Fab Four, with a brief struggle and then a massive breakout, all while Jack wrestles with his conscience over the decision to capitalize off of someone else's art and his relationship with Ellie which he has misjudged for the past 20 years. 

Director Danny Boyle is a directorial chameleon, leaping from genre to genre, country to country and masterwork to mediocrity. Yesterday, thankfully, is in the masterwork category. While the movie is minor in social relevance, unlike his Steve Jobs or Slumdog Millionaire, it is masterful as a work of genre. Yesterday is gloriously, ridiculously, heart on its sleeve romantic in ways that modern Hollywood has struggled to be for decades. 

Much of the credit, of course, goes to screenwriter Richard Curtis, who has been at the forefront of the romance genre since the 90’s and the release of his Four Weddings and a Funeral. Curtis is a genius at giving a unique spin to the romantic cliches that are at the heart of the romance genre dating back to the early days of sound in film. What makes Yesterday even more unique is Curtis teaming with a visual master like Danny Boyle who places Curtis’s big romantic ideas into a wonderfully visual, eye-catching package. 

Of course, both Boyle and Curtis are helped by the fact that they have somehow secured the chance to use some of the greatest music of all time to tell their story. It’s famously not easy to get the rights to use the music of The Beatles in a project but the team of Boyle and Curtis were apparently enough to get this movie a break. Of course, I am sure, $10 million dollars in rights fees also helped their case. 

The music in Yesterday isn’t used as you might think. You might assume that Jack deploys the songs in a specific fashion related to his place within the story. Instead, the movie subverts expectations by having Jack simply record Beatles songs in an almost random order, just as he is able to remember them. It’s a clever approach that allows the story to exist outside of The Beatles. Was this done in case the producers could not get the rights to The Beatles and they acted accordingly in building the story? Perhaps, but the approach works nevertheless. 

The supporting cast of Yesterday is exceptionally well chosen. Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live fame plays Jack’s new, high powered manager who treats him like dirt even as she is giving him worldwide fame. McKinnon’s oddball dialogue which combines radical honesty with a sociopathic zeal, rarely fails to get a laugh in Yesterday. It’s a brilliant comic performance. McKinnon is backed up by pop star Ed Sheeran who sheds all pop star ego to play himself as a fan of Jack who is willing to compare himself to Salieri to Jack’s Amadeus in one particularly great scene. 

Yesterday, as I said at the start, is a complete delight. It’s a delight for any audience that gives it a chance but it is a special treat for fans of The Beatles. Yesterday is a love letter to The Beatles that balances idolatry and fandom without becoming overly precious. Yes, the film is entirely uncritical of The Beatles but it felt to me like a genuine appreciation and not overly worshipful. The Beatles are only part of this story and not the entirety of it. 

The heart of Yesterday is the romance between Jack and Ellie and the struggle to escape preconceived notions of romance and friendship. There is a warmth and complexity to Jack and Ellie’s relationship that I bought into simply because I loved these two actors so very much. Hamish Patel and Lily James are just wonderful together and I fully believed in their choices, from Jack being blind to Ellie’s feelings to her heartache and his revelation. It’s a simple but well portrayed arc and I think everyone who loves a good love story will appreciate it as much as I did. 

I was a little worried by the trailer for the film that Yesterday would simply be a movie with a clever premise and little more. What a wonderful thing to have all of my worries dashed in the first few scenes and then to grow more and more comfortably immersed in this movie as it unfolded. Yesterday invites you in and if you are open to it, especially if you love this music, and you simply fall in love with it. Yesterday is just so darn charming.

Movie Review: 127 Hours

127 Hours (2010) 

Directed by Danny Boyle 

Written by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy 

Starring James Franco 

Release Date November 5th, 2010 

Published November 4th, 2010

While I have no doubt that The Social Network will be the movie that defines 2010 with its intimate commentary on the dividing time of net life and real life, 127 Hours is, for me, the movie that affected me the deepest. The unbelievably true story of adventurer Aron Ralston's fateful trip into Utah's Blue John Canyon is brought to life by director Danny Boyle and actor James Franco in ways that even Aron Ralston likely never imagined.

Aron Ralston was not one to pause for reflection, or really pause for anything. Always looking for the next adrenalin rush, Aron rushed off on the morning of April 26th 2003 without telling anyone where he was going. His plan was a day long canyoneering adventure that would have him home just after nightfall.

Along the way Aron met a couple of girls, Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn) and after a brief, flirty sojourn into an underground lake, Aron is back on track and off again on his own but with plans to possibly see the girls again. That plan would have to wait as not long after leaving them behind, Aron grabs hold of the wrong rock over the wrong canyon and ends up falling with the rock right behind him.

The rock lands on Aron's arm pinning it against the canyon wall and leaving Aron stranded miles from where any other adventurer is likely to go. For the next 4 days Aron Ralston will subsist on a pair of uncooked burritos, a modest amount of water and urine and a strong will to live. During this time he will narrate some of his time on his video camera in between bouts of trying to move the rock.

127 Hours would seem an impossible prospect for a movie. The focus is on one character in one very specific place for a very long time. There are flashbacks and fever dreams but surprisingly few of them. For the most part, director Danny Boyle trains his camera on James Franco and relies on Franco's face and vocal rhythms to carry the day and carry it he does.

127 Hours is a truly remarkable film, a nightmarishly visceral, painfully realistic rendering of Aron Ralston's remarkable written account aptly titled "Between A Rock and A Hard Place." With the aid of cinematographers Oscar Winner Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, director Danny Boyle exploits angles, colors other visual flourishes to give a strange action to a film that is mostly stationary.

And then there are the actual things that happened to Ralston during the time he was trapped. Boyle and Franco take a pair of Ralston's experiences and make them into major set pieces. The first is a frightening flash flood and the second is Aron's video, a moment that begins darkly humorous and turns deeply poignant.

Of course, the major set piece of 127 Hours is Aron finally making the move to cut off his arm between the wrist and the elbow. It begins just after the one hour mark with a single thrust of his dull multi-tool jabbed right to the bone. The visual of the tip of the blade resting against the bone, inside Aron's arm is striking not just in it's surreality but in the sheer force it carries, the way Aron's real pain becomes psychic pain for the audience.

Once the actual cutting begins, the bones broken, the tendons torn, 127 Hours screams with life towards a cathartic, emotional finish that even knowing the outcome cannot diminish. Danny Boyle's direction is so expert and James Franco's performance so winning and Aron's story is so life affirming that nothing can stop 127 Hours from getting under your skin.

127 Hours is the best movie of 2010, a richly emotional masterpiece. When I talk about why I love movies I will talk about the final moments of 127 Hours and the deep, convulsive gulps as I tried and failed to hold back tears of joy and the lurch of honest to goodness, physical exhaustion that is accompanied by A.R Rahman’s joyous, pulsing score. What a marvelous film.

Movie Review Sunshine

Sunshine (2007)

Directed by Danny Boyle

Written by Alex Garland 

Starring Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity. Michelle Yeoh

Release Date July 20th, 2007

Published July 19th, 2007

Director Danny Boyle hasn't always been my favorite director. I am one of the rare critics who found Trainspotting tedious. 28 Days Later was an undeniably impressive move into the horror genre. But with the release of his minimalist family drama Millions, I joined the Danny Boyle fan club. That was such a wonderfully small film with such grand ambitions that it burst from the screen.

Now, with his latest film Sunshine, Boyle once again shows that there is no genre limitation to his work. Sunshine is an intellectual dissection of morals, instincts and the basics of human nature all couched in a sci fi landscape with a dash of old fashioned horror movie tossed in for good measure. It's great idea that unfortunately gets lost in space.

Sunshine stars Cillian Murphy as science officer named Capa. A keep his own council type, Capa is the outcast of an international space flight crew that includes Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada), Life support officer Corazon (Michelle Yeoh), Navigator Trey (Benedict Wong), chief mechanic Mace (Chris Evans), medical officer Searle (Cliff Curtis) and pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne.

This is the crew of Icarus 2, a crew charged with the modest task of saving the world. It's 2057 and the sun is dying. Soon the earth will be pitched into a permanent, lightless winter and all life will quickly die. The Icarus 2 project's goal is to kickstart the sun by precisely dropping a nuclear weapon, the size of Manhattan, into the center of the sun.

This is the earth's last best hope after the first Icarus project failed and was never heard from again. That is until Icarus 1 is heard from by Icarus 2. As the crew moved out of range of earth communications they found another signal in the middle of space. It's a several years old distress call from Icarus 1. Now the crew must decide whether to continue the mission as planned or to rendezvous with Icarus 1 to check for survivors.

The side trip would be beneficial to Icarus 2 which could take on a second nuclear payload and thus two chances to save the world. Also, Icarus 2 has suffered some damage on the way, so scavenging what they can from Icarus 1 could be a big help if the crew somehow manages a return flight home.

That is the surface area of Sunshine, a deep and disturbing idea from the fluid minds of the 28 Days Later team of director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland. Beneath the surface of this homage to Kubrick's 2001, is a terrific study in character and the effects of isolation on the brain. With a large and capable ensemble we witness unique human dynamics emerge and an intriguing study of people in confined spaces under intense pressure.

Interesting idea, but where do does the movie go from there? For Boyle and Garland the exercise in human endurance unfortunately devolves into a slasher plot involving the survivors of the original mission. Up until that plot emerges, and in minor moments thereafter, there are a number of really interesting and abstract  ideas in Sunshine.

Danny Boyle is a director highly skilled in crafting tense, character testing situations and filming them with precision. In Sunshine his skills take aim at a terrific ensemble cast and put them through a series of trials and tribulations that are eye catching and intense. Cliff Curtis is a standout as the medical officer who is drawn to the ship's observation deck for searing stares at the surface of the sun.

We don't truly understand his motivations but Searle's odd musings and matter of fact approach to his insane and painful sunlight obsession are quite intriguing. Also good is Michele Yeoh as the life support officer Corazon. In charge of the ship's oxygen garden, Corazon's cabin fever has bonded her to her plants as if they are her children. When an accident destroys most of the garden, it pushes Corazon to unexpected lengths. Her character is unexplored by the end of the second act but there is nevertheless some very fine work from the underrated Ms. Yeoh.

Sadly Rose Byrne, Troy Garrity and Chris Evans are, for the most part, cyphers. Portrayed as delicate, ignorant and determined in that order, each takes that one character trait and is able only to work that. Whether there wasn't enough screen time for each to go deeper in their character or if they just weren't that interesting and thus left on the cutting room floor, is undetermined. My guess would be the latter.

As for star Cillian Murphy, this is another strong performance from this peculiar performer. Murphy's odd physicality and palpable vulnerability give an interesting twist to his characters. These traits work especially well for Murphy when doing genre work as he did as the villain in the thriller Red Eye and as he does here in Sunshine. His uniqueness gives a different context to typical characters in typical movie situations.

Sunshine is an ambitious sci-fi epic that comes up just short of greatness. Bowing to commercial concerns, director Danny Boyle succumbs to the money men and abandons the idea driven elements of Sunshine in favor of 28 Days Later in space. This approach is no doubt more marketable but it's far less satisfying.

That said, there is enough good work, from the cinematography of Alwin Kuchler, to the terrific, for the most part, ensemble cast, to Boyle and Garland's many unfinished ideas, that I can give a partial recommendation to Sunshine.

Movie Review Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire (2009) 

Directed by Danny Boyle 

Written by Simon Beaufoy

Starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Irrfan Khan

Release Date December 25th, 2008 

Published December 24th, 2008 

Danny Boyle has never appealed to me as a director. His Trainspotting and 28 Days Later are such bleak and ugly examinations of humanity that each made me want to vomit. To date, Boyle's work has been little more than flashy, overwrought ugliness set to electronica and punk soundtracks intended to pound you into submission.

Then there was Millions, one of the oddest and most delightful little movies of the last decade. A sweet, sorrowful, hopeful little movie where director Boyle abandoned most of his worst habits in favor of telling a loving compelling story populated by wonderful characters. That film should have gotten the attention that is now being heaped upon Boyle's latest effort Slumdog Millionaire. In essence, Slumdog is the marriage of the sad, ugly kinetic-ism of Boyle's early work and the sweet, smart, thoughtful Millions. The combination yields mixed results.

Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of Jamal who is being assaulted by the police when we meet him. Jamal is accused of cheating on the TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire where he is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. His status as a so-called Slumdog, a boy from the slums of Mumbai, has the host of the show and the police wondering if he is cheating.

He isn't. What is happening for Jamal is that the questions somehow all seem to relate back to memories from his life growing up. Whether it's stumbling on a Hindu god after watching his mother brutally murdered or knowing the inventor of the revolver because his brother began carrying one for their protection, each question leads Jamal on a journey through his past, a journey he takes his interrogators on in order to convince them he is legit.

Jamal's motivation for going on the show, surviving the cops, and winning the money, is a girl named Latika (Freida Pinto). He and his older brother Samir took Latika in when they were young orphans. They were separated several times but Jamal would always find her. He found her again just before going on the show and hopes she will be watching and finally come find him.

That is the story of Slumdog Millionaire and it is compelling and romantic. Unfortunately, director Danny Boyle's over-caffeinated, highly stylized handheld camera and propulsive score distract and keep the story at an untenable emotional distance. The images whir by at such a frenetic pace that you are at once bedazzled and bewildered.

It's a neat trick to make a movie with such an astonishing pace. Sadly, the sacrifice is the emotional connection between the audience and these characters. While I was dazzled and propelled and moved to the edge of my seat by the intensity of Slumdog Millionaire, I couldn't find the time to really connect with the characters emotionally.

The style and even the flashback heavy structure of Slumdog Millionaire prevent the characters from standing out amongst the flurry. Things happen so fast that scenes fail to have the impact that I am certain they were intended to have. When the film does slow down for a moment at the end; I was too exhausted to be invested in the moment.

Slumdog Millionaire is a furiously paced, artfully crafted movie that well displays the talents of director Danny Boyle behind the camera. Sadly, those gifts give short shrift to what should be an emotional as well as visceral connection. That means that Slumdog Millionaire is a good movie that should've been, could've been a great movie.

Movie Review Millions

Millions (2004) 

Directed by Danny Boyle

Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce 

Starring Alex Etel, Lewis Owen McGibbon, James Nesbitt 

Release Date September 14th, 2004 

Published December 18th, 2004 

After films like Trainspotting and 28 Days Later the last thing you would expect from director Danny Boyle would be a heartfelt family movie. That is, however, exactly what Mr. Boyle delivers with Millions, a wonderfully imaginative and elegant family film about a good-hearted kid and the circumstances, both good and bad, that accompany trying to do what you feel is right.

Damian (Alex Etel) is not your average 8 year-old. Sure, most kids develop imaginary friends, but I'm sure that for most kids those imaginary friends aren't Saints, literally Catholic saints. Damian has spent much of his life, since the death of his mother, memorizing the miracles of the saints as well as their dates of birth and death.

Naturally Damian's unique hobby is not a boon to his social life in his new neighborhood and school where he has moved with his brother Anthony (Lewis McGibbon) and his father Ronnie (James Nesbitt). Thus Damian spends much of his free time in his ramshackle cardboard fort that he built himself behind his home, just a few feet from the railroad tracks.

While playing in his new fort one day a giant bag filled to overflow with cash crushes the fort. Damian, being as devout as he is, believes the money is a gift from God and intends to give as much of it away as possible to whomever needs it the most. Damian's brother Anthony, who's help Damian in distributing his newfound wealth, has more practical ideas for how to use the money.

Both boys deal with the loss of their mother in their own ways and that is a storyline that comes into sharper focus when Damian meets Dorothy (Daisy Donovan), who is organizing a fundraiser in his school to fight drought in Africa. Damian gives her a thousand British pounds which, not surprisingly, leads to the headmaster calling his father. Ronnie and Dorothy meet and strike up a relationship that tests both brothers' ability to deal with their mother's death. Not to mention how dad deals with his sons' new found wealth.

About ten years ago there was an American movie quite similar to Millions called Disney's Blank Check in which a kid came into a million dollars and used the money in typically American fashion to buy video games, high end electronics and to outwit a bad guy who had stolen the money. Millions, in its more generous fashion, seems uniquely British in its approach to Damian.  It is a more high-minded, innocent approach that is far more appealing than the puerile approach of Blank Check.

There is a bad guy in Millions played by Christopher Fulford who had stolen the money in the first place and he is quite menacing in his attempts to retrieve it. However, Millions never stoops to the kind of American style, cartoon violence of the Home Alone variety. Director Danny Boyle and Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce take an approach that many writers and directors could learn from.  Their method of developing their plot is steady, stylized, intelligent but sweet-natured and it is satisfying in its simplicity.

Millions is the kind of family movie Hollywood cannot or will not make. Minimal special effects, no talking pets or unnecessary violence. Millions is a smart, imaginative character piece with a terrific heart. Hollywood can make this movie in animated form but without talking animals delivering the smart, heartfelt dialogue, audiences just do not seem interested.

It's a shame because not only is Millions a very good family film, it's also quite funny. A scene near the end of the film when Damian steals away with his millions in his knapsack, still dressed in a school pageant costume with cardboard donkey in tow is tense because Damian is unknowingly being chased by the bad guy, but is also wonderfully absurd in the classically British sense.

There are a number of wonderfully humorous scenes in Millions, many coming from the innocent verbal interplay of the two young brothers. Both Alex Etel and Lewis McGibbon deliver witty and wonderful performances notable for their lack of terminal cuteness. These are a pair of terrific young actors with bright futures ahead of them should they continue acting.

The film even manages a wondrous bit of romance in the much smaller subplot involving James Nesbitt as the dad and Daisy Donovan's Dorothy. The two are required by the plot to fall for each other rather quickly but the romance never feels rushed because it is well written and because both Nesbitt and Donovan are tremendously likable actors.

Millions began its slow rollout across America around the same time as the Vin Diesel "Family Movie" The Pacifier, and while it was no contest at the box office, given the sheer volume of screens for The Pacifier, that movie provides the perfect counterpoint to Millions. The Pacifier is a big, dumb, loud family movie dumbed down for mass consumption, built to sell popcorn and soft drinks. Millions is smart and sweet and was created to tell a particular story in a way that is both entertaining and enlightening.

Which do you prefer? I'll go with Millions every time.

Movie Review Milk

Milk (2008) 

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Written by Dustin Lance Black 

Starring Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, Diego Luna

Release Date November 26th, 2008 

Published November 25th, 2008 

The life of Harvey Milk is an inspiration. The first openly gay elected official in the country was a bold, brave and brilliant man. He was a fighter and a politician and a flawed soul. A movie about his life needs to capture these aspects of Harvey Milk and the Gus Van Sant movie Milk comes up just short. It's not that Milk is poorly made or even that it fails to honor the man. It's just that such an atypical hero deserves something far more than a very typical biopic.

Sean Penn takes on the role of Harvey Milk picking up his life story in the early 1970's when a fully closeted Harvey cruised a young gay man in a New York subway. That young man was Scott Smith (James Franco) and he drew Harvey out of the closet and into the life he had always longed for. The two moved to San Francisco and opened a camera shop in the Castro District. That area of San Francisco is now a famously gay enclave but when Harvey and Scott arrived that wasn't the case. Milk slowly but surely ingratiated himself in the community, he drew people to him and eventually as the community changed with him, he became its leader.

His rise from community organizer to politician was filled with potholes and roadblocks but eventually Harvey was elected to the City Board of Supervisors where an alliance with Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber) would make history and repeated run-ins with fellow supervisor Dan White (Brolin) would lead to tragedy. To tell the story of Harvey Milk's life Gus Van Sant has Harvey narrate his own story in flashback. As he sits at a table alone in his apartment Sean Penn as Harvey recalls the incidents of his life into a tape recorder. The device frames the film but it's one of many signs of just how typical the movie is.

The flashbacks unfold in predictable fashion recalling all of the well known moments of Harvey's life that shine a positive light on him. Leaving out a few of the less flattering moments, generally celebrating the things that Harvey Milk accomplished in the all too short time he was in public service. There is nothing terribly devastatingly wrong with Milk. It just shouldn't be so typical. This is the same biographical formula applied to every life from Ray Charles to Johnny Cash to any famous person you can think of whose life has been brought to film in the last decade.

The movie suffers from what I like to call Van Sant-itis. This is a malady that affects movies directed by but not written by Gus Van Sant. Movies like Finding Forrester, Good Will Hunting and To Die For are all enjoyable movies but each lacks the director's full engagement. Watch Elephant, Gerry, Last Days or Paranoid Park and you can see a fiercely committed director dedicated to bringing his vision to the screen. There is an almost visceral difference in the directors engagement with his filmmaking in these films, especially when compared to the often soft focused laziness of his non-writing credited films.

Milk is as close as Van Sant has come to committing to another writer's vision, he seems to really care about Dustin Lance Black's work, but as the film goes along you sense the drift in Van Sant's attention. As the movie goes on, after brief early love scenes, the film drifts into conventional biopic mode and rolls to its tragic finish on a wave of typicality. The only truly outstanding thing about Milk is Sean Penn. He embodies Harvey Milk mind, body and soul and his commitment almost overcomes the strict adherence to biographical formula. Penn's performance is as brave and bold as the man he plays but he is hemmed in by the numbers biopic recipe.

Milk is a disappointment only because I was expecting something more from it. The film suffers from building expectations. It suffers from our expectation of something better than your average Hollywood biopic.

Movie Review Mile 22

Mile 22 (2018) 

Directed by Peter Berg 

Written by Lea Carpenter 

Starring Mark Wahlberg. Iko Uwais, Ronda Rousey, John Malkovich

Release Date August 17th, 2018 

Published August 16th, 2018 

Mile 22 is some hot, flaming, garbage as a movie. I’m shocked that such a mess could feature the talent of Peter Berg behind the camera and Mark Wahlberg in front of it. Not that they are no stranger to nonsense, they did make Lone Survivor together, a film that amounted to the Black Knight from Monty Python written as a soldier in Afghanistan, but that film is Die Hard compared to the ludicrous, chaotic, rubbish that is Mile 22.

Mark Wahlberg, sort of stars in Mile 22 as James Silva, a CIA operative. I say 'sort of' because the performance is so unhinged and disconnected that it is hard to say if he is fully aware of what is happening in the movie. Wahlberg seems far more invested in the idea that his character is a troubled super-genius than in the plot which has him leading a team that broke up a Russian spy ring in an American suburb and is now in some foreign locale following up on what they found.

The plot kicks in when Li Noor (Iko Uwais from The Raid franchise), drives right up to the American Embassy and presents evidence that could lead to the discovery of a cache of some deadly poison. However, he won’t give up the evidence, one of those Hollywood encrypted computer disks that even the world’s great hackers can’t hack, (Gah!), until Wahlberg agrees to take him to America and away from the people trying to kill him.

Uwais is a tremendous physical performer and he gets one truly spectacular fight scene that demonstrates that but his casting appears to be little more than a marketing attempt to evoke the worldwide success of The Raid and The Raid 2. Uwais is supposed to be desperate yet duplicitous and yet his blank-eyed stare only ever looks tired when he’s supposed to seem menacing or slightly untrustworthy. He’s checked out in only a slightly different way than Wahlberg it would appear.

Poor Ronda Rousey makes her film debut in Mile 22 and it’s rather embarrassing. Rousey plays Sam, one of Wahlberg’s lieutenants, and while she’s believably a badass, she is cringe inducing when attempting dialogue. Saddled with an expository scene with co-star Lauren Cohan, Rousey mumbles her way through a wince inducing exchange where she seemed about as natural as a mixed martial artist in a mud wrestling competition.

Mile 22 appears to have been edited with an eye toward satisfying absolutely no one. The film is hard to watch at times as Berg and his team slash cut from perspective shots to security camera footage in the most jarring fashion possible. Berg favors odd angles as well and thus the editing combined with the cantilevered angles and too loud soundtrack obscure the action and assault the senses all at once.

I have always disliked Berg’s fantasy approach to supposedly realistic action. His Lone Survivor with Wahlberg a few years ago had a real life story to tell but the violence was so cartoonish it obliterated the real life story. The stars of Lone Survivor may have been real life heroes but Berg’s cartoonish exploitation of their real life struggle rendered those men like animated caricatures, bulletproof and apparently made of rubber and steel rather than flesh and bone.

That same cartoonish violence and amping of the stakes beyond the point of believability is present in Mile 22 as well. Each character in Mile 22 suffers through a scene where they are injured to a degree that would be unsurvivable by an actual human being. And then, when they aren’t defying the ability of the human body, the odds are so heavily stacked against the survival  of our heroes that that we can’t help but laugh and wonder just how dumb or bad at their job the bad guys must be for the heroes to survive.

I don't understand how Mile 22 came to be. Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg are a good team of director and actor. The last two Berg-Wahlberg movies, Patriot's Day and Deepwater Horizon, are legitimately good movies. Patriot's Day was one of the better movies of 2016, a legitimately emotionally involving action movie about the real life Boston Marathon bombing that felt visceral and alive. Here however, both director and leading man appear to be paycheck players who do not care a lick about the movie they're making or how remarkably bad that movie is. 

So, why is this movie called Mile 22? I am legitimately wondering why this movie is called Mile 22? I watched all of Mile 22, or what my mind could take before I had to look away to shake off the latest assault on my senses, and I still have no idea what the title is about. Perhaps it was a production title and they simply didn’t bother to change it? That would fit with how little anyone appears to care about the quality of Mile 22, one of the worst movies of 2018.