Review of Mile 22 (2018) by Gal B — 17 Aug 2018

An impressively bad film from a director/star duo that have proven remarkably consistent and enjoyable up to this point. Mile 22's biggest and most glaring flaw is present from the very first sequence, the editing and camerawork is an utter disaster.

No one likes shaky cam and this movie seems to have been filmed by someone having a seizure. Which is a damn shame because Iko Uwais (of The Raid fame) has some of what I'm sure would be amazing choreographed fight sequences, if the camera would pan out so I could see what the hell was happening.

As for the editing, well, it just quick cuts constantly from one deliberately ugly camera angle to another. I think I understood what they were trying to go for, trying to lend some legitimacy to the sense of combat ops by making the film process messy, many of the camera's used to tell the story are one used by the characters in the film to observe one another and so tend to be small CCTV cameras of poor quality and unflattering angles.

It just sacrifices too much visually to be a worthwhile choice; the movie is just not fun to watch. The film wants to be this gritty smart thriller without giving us enough information to make us give a shit or even follow what it may or may not be being smart about.

It's hard to criticize the acting since there's so little of it on display here, Lauren Cohen's character boils down to angry divorcee and the only real acting Ronda Rousey has to do comes through a mouthful of fake blood, the dialogue is clipped and forgettable expect for Marky Mark's valiant attempts to give the film a little personality.

By the end of the movie they seemingly realized the movie hasn't given anyone enough information to connect the dots, so they have it go ahead and do it for you, the final moments of the movie are them explaining what just happened.

Movies that are like this but a lot better: 16 Blocks, Tear of the Sun, The Raid, Dredd.