Movie Reviews

For their latest collaboration, director Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg put aside the true all-American hero stories and went for a purely fictional action movie. It leads them to the Southeast Asia country of Indocarr where a police officer (The Raid’s Iko Uwais) holds the key to sensitive terrorist intel. It’s up to elite paramilitary agent James Silva (Wahlberg) and his team to get him to safety. To do so they will have to get him across town which covers a distance of... you got it, 22 miles.

During a short introduction during the credits, we find out that Silva is an experienced soldier who likes blank jigsaw puzzles and who always wears an elastic band around his wrist that he snaps when his mind starts racing. Which is apparently all the time. And which becomes incredibly annoying about 30 minutes into the movie. Wahlberg also brings his trademark intensity to the role, which basically consists of being constantly angry at everyone and anything and comes with a lot of really bad dialogue. It’s kinda like listening to Wahlberg in TED without Seth MacFarlane’s jokes. Basically, the guy you have to root for is a bit of an asshole.

Other than the bad dialogue, there is a lot of action going on. And while there are some tense, muscular scenes like the pre-credits raid on a safe house, it’s mostly a lot of shooting that is only interesting until it isn’t anymore. Which kinda goes for the entire movie as well.