Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg have had quite the relationship over the last five years. Their collaborations, Lone Survivor (2013), Deepwater Horizon (2016) and Patriots Day (2017), have collectively earned over 320 million dollars worldwide. With each of their previous works based on true events in recent history, they’ve been able to pull in additional interest from those familiar with current events. For the first time in their professional relationship, this dynamic duo foregoes factual plots and opts for a completely made up story. How does Mile 22 measure up?

James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) leads a team of highly trained, extremely dangerous individuals into situations that call for extreme force and pristine precision. This team is overseen by Bishop (John Malkovich) who pulls the strings from afar. When ordinary measures cannot achieve the task at hand, Silva and his team are sent in to get the job done at all costs. When their search for weapons of mass destruction leads them to a defecting police officer Li Noor (Iko Uwais), keeping him safe and getting him to divulge classified information that could very well stop major terrorist attacks is priority one. Pitted against dangerous threats around just about every turn, it’s going to be a race to the death to get their package out alive.

Peter Berg went full Battleship (2012) on this one. He opts for lots of action and recognizable faces (Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, Ronda Rousey, John Malkovich) to carry his gonzo vision of grandeur and it doesn’t work. None of the main characters are really likable, nor are they really interesting. It is nice to see Iko Uwais, the (super)star of The Raid: Redemption (2011) getting more serious screen time. He has a great on screen presence and could be very marketable given the right roles. Everyone else just went through the motions and took up screen space, this include’s Mile 22’s main draw.

This is one of the few times that I was not enamored by Mark Wahlberg’s choice in roles, nor was his performance up to recent standards. His portrayal of James Silva feels heavy-handed and forced. At Peter Berg’s direction, Wahlberg is all over the place but too much of anything can be a bad thing. And speaking of indulgence, I’m totally fine with violence but Mile 22 takes it over the top for no other purpose than to shock audiences and hope that it takes focus away from, an otherwise, lackluster story filled with fluff. One of my biggest personal pet peeves is when movies are made with the focus not being on the hear and now, but rather what’s being formulated for the future. If you can’t take care of what’s in front of you today, tomorrow may never happen.

Mile 22 contains tons of action, violence and droves of disposable characters. Yet somehow, some way, this movie missed all of the targets that would make this an enjoyable ride. You’ll have fun for a while but then the action becomes repetitive and certain aspects of the film just start wearing on you. Even with the negativity I’ve just mentioned, if STX Entertainment completely ignores critics’ bashing of this movie as well as the (I’m going out on a limb here) dismal domestic box office numbers we’re surely to see, I’d totally be in if a sequel was ordered. This movie isn’t strong enough to stand alone on its own but could prove to be a serviceable springboard project if everything lines up in a certain way. You can see Mark’s misfire in theaters now.