'Mile 22' Review

Mile 22 travels alongside James Silva, a CIA operative leading a classified tactical command unit. Aided by his team, Silva must retrieve and transport an asset in possession of sensitive information from an American embassy in Southeast Asia to an airfield twenty-two miles away for extraction. Silva and his squad soon find themselves in a race against time as the city's military, police, and street gangs close in to reclaim the asset.  

Mile 22 stars Mark Wahlberg and is directed by Peter Berg, marking the fourth time the actor and director have worked together (previous collaborations include Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and Patriots Day). I've jokingly referred to this team-up as "Berg & 'Berg" in the past, but a consistent quality can be gleaned from all three of their projects. I've liked some more than others, but Berg & 'Berg had yet to let me down... Till Thursday evening, Augst 16, 2018 that is... I didn't even know Mile 22 existed till about two weeks ago because I hadn't seen a single trailer for it. As someone who regularly keeps up with entertainment news, I found it fairly troubling that Mile 22 had flown almost completely under my radar. That should have probably been my first sign that Mile 22 would be the first Berg & 'Berg misfire...

The only cinematic situation more disappointing than a bad movie is a bad movie involving talent you trust. Peter Berg may not quite be one of my favorite directors working today, but he's certainly a skilled filmmaker whose work I eagerly anticipate to see. Sure, Berg may have directed Battleship in 2012, but he had a hot streak of releases soon after. Alas, the short-lived excellence of Berg & 'Berg had to sink eventually. Of the productions Berg & 'Berg have worked on together, this is the only one not to be based on true events. Maybe that was the lynchpin to their success or perhaps Mile 22 was merely an exemplary concept botched in execution. Whatever the case may be, Lea Carpenter and Graham Roland are credited with developing the story and Carpenter has the sole screenplay credit. 

A sloppy story foundation lies as the root of most of Mile 22's problems. After the opening scene, the subsequent thirty minutes or so are incredibly difficult to follow because hardly any noteworthy information is conveyed to the audience visually or through exposition. Viewers are thrust into a situation without an explanation of what's going on exactly. The audience is certainly shown a lot through jarring, excessive jump-cuts, but none of these images can be used to piece together a cohesive plot. The most you'll be able to gather is that you're watching a spec-ops team in some facility following a failed mission some years after the opening mission. The specifics are irritatingly vague, but things eventually fall into place and the story gets going. It just takes awhile and the path taken certainly isn't advisable. 

Compounding this confusion are several sequences of incomprehensible action. The actual combat itself could be quite thrilling, but the world and I will never know on account of the obnoxious shaky-cam and incoherent editing. You can hardly ever tell what's going on due to the sheer magnitude of rapid-fire cuts. Even the simple dialogue exchanges are snipped to shreds. Coupled with muted color grading, this made Mile 22 a tiresome experience when it could have easily been explosive and exciting. What makes this infinitely more annoying is the inclusion of renowned martial artist Iko Uwais as an actor and fight choreographer. If you've seen The Raid, you know Uwais is adept in this arena. There's absolutely no need to cut around this actor as though he were Liam Neeson, yet the editor persisted when the fights could have been shown in more drawn-out wide shots to be infinitely more effective. Additionally, there were some outlandish stunts which really felt out of place considering the film first established itself as a grounded action thriller.

Character-wise, everyone's flimsily written without an arc and the performances aren't much better. I don't think Mark Wahlberg's ever been worse, and I've seen him in two Michael Bay Transformers movies for crying out loud... Here, he spews a hundred words a minute in trademark Marky-Mark fashion and it didn't help that his character was especially unlikable either. As I've previously mentioned, Mile 22 squanders the abilities of Iko Uwais by over-editing his fight sequences and the actor isn't compensated with any worthwhile material. Otherwise, Ronda Rousey, Laura Cohan, and John Malkovich are alright, but hardly have anything to do and the remaining actors are even worse off in that regard. 

When writing negative reviews, I always make an intentional effort to desperately search the film I'm reviewing for any elements that could be considered redeeming qualities before bestowing a letter grade. I've now scanned a feature which runs ninety-five minutes long and plots itself out twenty-two miles wide, and there's nothing salvageable about any of it. Frankly, Mile 22 isn't even worth the walking distance to watch on your own couch whenever the film makes its way to home media, your favorite streaming service, or the desolate landscape of early morning cable. 

Film Assessment: F

'All the Money in the World' Review

Nominated For: Best Supporting Actor; Christopher Plummer.

All the Money in the World briefs audiences on the kidnapping of sixteen year old John Paul Getty III in July 1973 and his distraught mother's desperate attempt to convince the boy's wealthy grandfather J. Paul Getty to pay the ransom. Getty refuses and enlists former federal agent Fletcher Chase to find out what's happened to his grandson, so Chase and Gail Harris wind up in an unexpected alliance as they strive to rescue the boy by any means necessary. 

You may or may not have heard about all of All the Money in the World's behind the scenes drama, but after sexual harassment allegations arose surrounding Kevin Spacey, the decision was made to remove Spacey from the film, reshoot all his scenes with Christopher Plummer replacing him as Getty, and release the film as scheduled. While I'm not sure the decision to remove Spacey affected the finished product all too much, it paid off thanks to the wonderful work from director Ridley Scott and actor Christopher Plummer. By the way, it's not like Scott and his crew just reshot a couple scenes considering Getty is in a substantial amount of the film... The fact they did it all in two weeks AND managed to release the films a few weeks later is absolutely astounding to me.

However, I must be completely honest in saying that otherwise I wasn't very impressed. There are a few exceptions to that statement of course, but don't be fooled into thinking All the Money in the World is truly one of the year's best films simply because they seamlessly subbed out Spacey... Ridley Scott is a director whom I especially admire for creating such fantastic films as Alien, Blade Runner, and The Martian, but All the Money in the World lacks the director's unique style to differentiate it from any other bio-pic out there. Scott utilizes a desaturated color scheme that was terribly tiring to look at, and I'm honestly surprised it didn't put me to sleep when contemplating the film is also built around a dialogue-heavy screenplay. On the whole, the film's competently made, but it's a little long so the pacing drags and you start to realize this story may not have been meant for the film medium.

David Scarpa adapts John Pearson's book and still comes out short-changed after dramatizing things. What confounds me most though is how fascinating the story seems, yet how underwhelming Scarpa's script managed to be. The film's quite dialogue heavy, which is fine if the things said come across as interesting in execution, but there are large stretches that are boring or commonplace. There's unique elements in the kidnapping, but viewers are mostly left watching Harris wait for clues to find her son or beg Getty to pay the ransom, and that gets quite taxing after awhile. 

On the flip side of that coin, All the Money in the World features some fine performances. Michelle Williams brings both strength and vulnerability to the role of Gail Harris, shining as a determined mother against adversity. She's worried, but never frantic. Committed, but never unwavering. Williams discovers an effective balance between the extremes and ensures all her moments count so her acting prowess doesn't go unnoticed. Charlie Plummer (who is not related to Christopher Plummer) does well playing John Paul Getty III as a disparaged captive, while French actor Romain Duris imbues an unexpected humanity and warmth as the kid's captor, Cinquanta.

Elsewhere, Mark Wahlberg just kind of acts as an extension of himself and Christopher Plummer takes charge as J. Paul Getty. I never really saw much of Spacey from the trailers, but I think Plummer's the better casting choice. For one, it's age-appropriate casting (a rarity these days) and I didn't have to watch Kevin Spacey act with a peculiar facial prosthesis. Secondly, Plummer is commanding in the role. Plummer plays the cold, distanced, stingy old man perfectly. I'm not entirely sure how Spacey would have performed, but I'm kind of glad that the decision to remove him was made. I can only imagine how the scandal would have loomed over the film...

While I'm impressed by the peak performances and Ridley Scott's ability to reshoot a substantial amount of the film in about two weeks, All the Money in the World didn't have much else going for it to earn my interest. If you want my two cents, All the Money in the World isn't worth all the attention in the world. 

Film Assessment: C+

'Transformers: The Last Knight' Review

Transformers: The Last Knight is set an undisclosed amount of time after Age of Extinction with the Autobot/Decepticon war at an all time high, despite the fact all Transformers are being hunted down by an international government force known as the TRF (Transformers Reaction Force). Optimus Prime has left Earth in search of his creators so eager inventor Cade Yeager, an apprehensive Oxford professor Vivian Wembley, crazed British Lord Sir Edmund Burton, and the enduring Autobots are tasked with exploring the hidden history of Transformers in search of an ancient object to save the world once more. 

The Last Knight is the fifth franchise entry directed by Michael Bay and will supposedly be his final foray but that's doubtful considering he's said that around the release of nearly every Transformers movie. I've now reviewed all live action Transformers flicks and spoke time and time again of Bay's strengths and weaknesses as a big budget director but I'll go ahead and mention it again in case you missed out on any of those. Bay is especially adept at delivering smashing spectacle but often falls short in telling a worthwhile story due to his insistence of prioritizing style over substance. 

Well, that's once again the case as the visual plane of these blockbusters continues to flourish thanks to commendable cinematography and astounding effects while the sound design exploded onto the scene. Bay and his crew rarely fall short in those departments and they didn't slouch in orchestrating elaborate action sequences this time around either. In fact, the action was much more bearable because I was able to better distinguish the Transformers from one another when the robo-rumbles ensued. 

Now if you thought those compliments were reassuring remarks that solidify The Last Knight as a sudden change of direction for the franchise, then you would be sadly mistaken because The Last Knight is exactly what you should expect if you're familiar with Michael Bay as a filmmaker. There's lots of explosions, slo-motion, racial stereotyped robots, cringey comedy, and overt product placement But hey, at least this time he toned down the over sexualized depiction of women a tad as there's no gratuitous shots nearly on the level of those found in Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen, or Dark of the Moon.

The Last Knight's screenplay was penned by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Ken Nolan who all had a hand in story development alongside Akiva Goldsman. I can confidently say that I feel this script may be the worst of the franchise as sparse moments are shoestrung into a "plot" in hopes of setting up a sequel and Bumblebee spinoff. In hindsight, almost nothing is actually accomplished in regards to character growth or story progression throughout the entire film. There's even a scene where Megatron negotiates with lawyers for the release of some of his Deception cronies that plays out similarly to the character introductions in Suicide Squad. You'd think the leader of the Decepticons would be a bit more brash and take matters into his own hands but Bay shows us otherwise.

The trailers will lead you to believe the plot centers on Optimus Prime's turn to the nefarious Nemesis Prime ala The Fate of the Furious but that couldn't be further from the truth. If you've seen the trailers then you've seen nearly every second of Optimus Prime's screen-time and the remaining moments are composed of his conventional monologues. Everything else that happens is centered around human characters you'll either be unfamiliar with or won't care about and there's simply too much going on and it would be futile for me to pick it apart as it would make this review as bloated and unnecessary as The Last Knight itself. 

Even though it may sound like I walked into this film with the intention to berate it afterwards, I was actually holding out hope I would have a good time. Since I actually enjoy the odd numbered installments in this franchise, I was hopeful The Last Knight would carry on that trend despite the fact the marketing material did virtually nothing to excite me. However, that doesn't mean I left the theater without finding some silver linings. So I've challenged myself to break my traditional review format and share five unmentioned ones. 

Silver lining No. 1) Sqweeks is an adorable BB-8 ripoff. In all seriousness, this little robot was quite endearing in spite of his scarce screen time so that in-of-itself is admirable.

Silver lining No. 2) The Transformer Knights were able to combine into a three headed dragon Transformer. If you can't agree that that's pretty awesome then there's something wrong with you. 

Silver lining No. 3) I liked the inclusion of Josh Duhamel and a few other familiar faces to tie things back into the core Transformers trilogy and I felt Duhamel and the other returning cast members met the requirements of the script adequately. 

Silver lining No. 4) Laura Haddock, who you may recognize as Peter Quill's mother in both Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, proved to not just be another pretty face for Bay to exploit, but wound up being the best female lead showcased in a Transformers movie yet. Haddock is of course relegated to the confines of a scrappy script, but she imbues enough personality into Vivian Wembley to standout among the ensemble.

Silver lining No. 5) It is nearly impossible to describe the insane shenanigans Sir Anthony Hopkins partakes in as Sir Edmund Burton, but it's apparent he's having the time of his life descending into madness. It was especially amusing to watch a classically trained actor take on such a strange role with as much commitment as Hopkins.

Otherwise, any actors I failed to mention are pretty much acceptable within the parameters of the material. Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager is just as grading as he was the last time you heard him tell you he's an inventor, Jerrod Carmichael probably delivers the few funny lines of dialogue as Jimmy, and the various voice actors Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Erik Aadahl, John Goodman, Ken Watanabe, Jim Carter, Steve Buscemi, Omar Sy, and Reno Wilson all perform admirably in bringing the appropriate personalities to their respective revving robots.

Deserving of her own segment however is Isabela Moner, who offers an okay performance considering she was just playing a feisty girl determined to join the fight. What's interesting however is that if you remove her character from the movie it doesn't change a single thing and you will begin to realize you would have much rather seen her incorporated into the plot somehow or left out altogether. This is actually the case with many characters who come and go from the screen like flies.

Transformers: The Last Knight is obviously flawed but is certainly not the worst Transformers movie, actually falling in the middle of the pack when you consider how terrible Revenge of the Fallen and Age of Extinction were. In all honesty, I'm especially thankful that The Last Knight has the shortest running time in the franchise since the first and that the filmmakers were gracious enough to position their "post credits scene" at the opening of the credits. I'm crossing my fingers Paramount hires someone else to helm the inevitable Transformers 6 and that Travis Knight can shepherd the Bumblebee spinoff into less turbulent waters. 

Film Assessment: D

Throwback Thursday Review: 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'

Sorry for a late review but this week I'm rolling out the last of my Transformers reviews with a Throwback Thursday Review over Transformers: Age of Extinction and new Transformers: The Last Knight review in the coming days. Other reviews you can expect this week week include a Throwback Thursday Review over Despicable Me 2 and both Baby Driver and Despicable Me 3. The first few weeks of July will incorporate Throwback Thursday Reviews of The Amazing Spider-Man, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Inception, Recollection Reflection Reviews of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and reviews of new releases Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, Dunkirk, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

'Transformers: Age of Extinction' Review

Transformers: Age of Extinction takes place five years after Dark of the Moon's Battle of Chicago. The US government has turned against the Autobots, hunting them alongside intergalactic bounty hunter bot Lockdown. Ambitious inventor and overprotective father Cade Yeagar discovers a trashed truck inside an abandoned cinema and brings it home in hopes of repairing the vehicle or scrapping it for parts, only to learn the truck is actually Autobot leader Optimus Prime. Yeagar is then tasked to help Prime reunite the remaining Autobots to protect mankind once more.

Age of Extinction is the fourth film in the franchise to be helmed by Michael Bay yet it feels more or less the same as his previous entries, only this time the Bay-isms have worn thin. The visual noise is dialed up to the max volume with no worthwhile story to tell underneath it. While I don't watch the Transformers movies with the expectation of seeing the greatest blockbuster of all time, I think it's sufficient to expect to an adequate story with reasonably entertaining action pulling things together. This is where Age of Extinction whimpers out because everything about Age of Extinction is overcrowded and unnecessary.

Bay allows similar problems to plague this project as incomprehensible action sequences come by the viewer one after the other, sprinkled in the midst of a human storyline you won't be invested in. Watching the Transformers fight one another is cool enough on its own so you don't need to obscure the action with egregious editing and frenetic shaky cam or even draw it out with superfluous slow-motion. For that matter, the Transformers need to be the shining stars of their own franchise. I understand that the effects are expensive but these things are practically guaranteed to be a hit oversees so you may as well pump a little more financial fuel into this gas tank. 

Are the effects incredible? Of course, the superb deafening sound design and vibrant visual effects are practically the only redeeming elements of the franchise at this point but none of that really matters if you can't draw audience interest into the onscreen insanity. While I understand the financial motive to extend the Transformers franchise with Age of Extinction, there really isn't a new story to be told with these characters. The end result is that Ehren Kruger's script is a repackaged version of the last three movies (Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen, and Dark of the Moon).

I could go on and on about the story semantics but the film really fails engaging me as a viewer. I consider myself a fairly avid Transformers fan so it shouldn't be that difficult to maintain interest when you have remarkably realized robots fighting one another but this installment nearly bored me to sleep both times I've seen it (when I first caught it on Netflix a year and a half ago and my second viewing for the purposes of this review). Instead, Bay decided that it'd be more worth the audiences' time and money to see Yeagar chastise his underage daughter over her awkward, inappropriate relationship with a twenty year old racer. 

Meanwhile, the performances don't offer much to elevate the entertainment. Mark Wahlberg phones it in as Cade Yeagar, providing little personality beyond his thinly sketched characterization of being an overprotective father and the writer's insistence to constantly remind you he's an inventor. Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor play Tessa Yeagar and Shane Dyson with their bland romance serving as an obnoxious plot thread. Neither actor really shines as a charismatic force to brighten things or draw attention to the monotonous action. 

Elsewhere, T.J. Miller, Stanley Tucci, and Bingbing Li playfully factor into the proceedings in varying capacities. Miller's a funny surfer bro, Tucci screams quite a bit as a tech company executive, and Li fights off some henchman with proficiency. They don't do nearly enough to save the movie but provide momentary blips of something off-kilter. 

Peter Cullen, John Goodman, Ken Watanabe, Robert Foxworth, John DiMaggio, and Reno Wilson all provide sufficient voice work as Optimus Prime, Hound, Drift, Ratchet, Crosshairs, and Brains but none of these actors are really challenging themselves in any way, shape, or form considering they mostly deliver expositional dialogue. For the most part they're voicing caricatures with little personality beyond basic stereotypes. 

Frank Welker, Mark Ryan, and Kelsey Grammer fill the antagonistic camp as gruesome Galvatron, the unyielding Lockdown, and wicked government agent Harold Attinger. They make the most of the material provided but are restrained by a paper thin script. 

Transformers: Age of Extinction is indicative of everything currently destroying Hollywood, it's essentially a visual effects reel devoid of any sense of purpose other than to make money. Bay or Kruger must know this is true to some extent because there's even a line in the movie about sequels and remakes being prevalent among Hollywood these days. In summary, Age of Extinction is easily the worst Transformers movie I've seen to date simply because it's maddening to even attempt making it through the two hour forty five minute runtime without losing focus. After watching this movie, I knew one simple fact. My mind had been transformed (and not for the better). 

Film Assessment: D-

'Patriots Day' Review

Patriots Day depicts the events of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013 and the subsequent manhunt for those responsible. Patriots Day is the third collaboration between director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg, following up Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor, to depict a recent true story in typical bio-pic fashion, they should totally get a production company up and going called Berg & 'Berg (Just a thought). 

Patriots Day is very unique in the regard it walks the fine line between being a reenactment, a documentary, and an overdramatized depiction of the events. The film could have easily fallen off the tightrope into one of the aforementioned categories in less capable hands but Berg delivers one of the most authentic cinematic experiences imaginable. One aspect I really liked was how Berg and editors Gabriel Fleming and Colby Parker Jr. were able to incorporate actual security camera footage and news reports without compromising the film overall. I'm not sure exactly how accurate the story is but everything that happened certainly felt real, and that's the highest praise I can give Patriots Day, and seemed like a fairly reasonable approximation of the events based on the news reports I remember. 

Every line of dialogue and even the most basic character interactions felt incredibly authentic and that can all be credited to the writers behind Patriots Day's story and screenplay; Eric Johnson, Paul Tamasy, Joshua Zetumer, Matt Cook, and Berg himself. Patriots Day chronicles the events through multiple perspectives, maximizing the emotional connection to these characters, and there will be times while you're watching it where you will wonder how this character could possibly factor into the story but I guarantee every scene thought to be a wasted moment has its payoff down the line. 

The only real shortcomings from the script is that due to the multitude of viewpoints explored many characters feel a tad underdeveloped and Mark Wahlberg's fictional police officer Tommy Saunders feels like a convenient connective tissue tying everything together. In other departments, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' chilling compositions provide an ideal ambiance and Patriots Day's cast is the cream of the crop, with big names aplenty in key supporting roles and relative unknowns filling in the gaps. 

Even though Mark Wahlberg plays a fictional character, he delivers what I'd consider one of his career best performances. Wahlberg has one scene in particular after the bombing that's absolutely phenomenal exploring the PTSD angle to law enforcement, similar to a scene in Deepwater Horizon although under completely different context. 

Sprinkled throughout the supporting cast, Jimmy O. Yang's Dun Meng is one of the film's everyday heroes who will leave a lasting impression, Themo Melikidze and Alex Wolff successfully humanize the bomber brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, while Melissa Benoist is haunting in an interrogation scene as the Tamerlan s wife, surprising because she's typically a bright rosey face as Supergirl. John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, and Michelle Monaghan each deliver admirable supporting roles but as I mentioned earlier are scarcely underdeveloped. 

In summary, Patriots Day could have easily become a propaganda piece but Berg paid the upmost respect to those affected by the bombing and appropriately honored those who shone in Boston's darkest moments. 

Film Assessment: B+

'Deepwater Horizon' Review

Nominated For: Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing.

Deepwater Horizon offers personal insight into the true events of the April 2010 oil rig explosion that caused the largest oil spill in history by showing the horrific disaster through the eyes of the workers onboard. 

Peter Berg directs the disaster flick as his followup to Lone Survivor and Berg expertly captures the chaotic nature of the explosions onboard the Deepwater Horizon in the more action packed moments. However, the framework established in the screenplay penned by Matthew Michael Canahan and Matthew Sand doesn't quite set the stage properly. I found the first half to be rather mundane and generic and wished the characters had been further explored. I found it difficult to care for the supporting characters given how little character development and meaningful screen time they had received but I guess that's the nature of things when you have to dedicate a large portion of the film's running time to the catastrophe at hand. 

Deepwater Horizon does however succeed in effectively simplifying the concepts behind the disaster in addition to making the oil rig a tense environment from the get-go. I also feel it's worth commending all the effects, albeit practical or computer generated, that went into simulating the tragedy on film as the explosions weren't overdone and felt authentic. The performances on display for the most part were serviceable considering that the actors were essentially portraying ordinary oil workers and aren't exactly provided with plenty of depth or range to explore. 

Of the bunch, Mark Wahlberg demonstrates incredible display of acting ability with one of the film's closing scenes that seemingly shows the PTSD Mike Williams is suffering from as a result of these events. Wahlberg injects his typical charm into the role and makes Williams both a likable and relatable protagonist fulfilling the needs of the role. Kate Hudson impressed me, making for an interesting ancillary character in the role of Felicia Williams and sharing great chemistry opposite Wahlberg. 

In regards to the other supporting players, Kurt Russell musters up some Southern drawl in Jimmy Harrell, Dylan O'Brien sadly has little to do as Caleb Holloway but is great in his supporting capacity, Gina Rodriguez's Andrea Fleets barely registered to me when onscreen, and John Malkovich is about as slimy as it gets as the greedy corporate businessman Vidrine. 

In conclusion, Peter Berg manages to craft an intense disaster thriller that seeps into the viewers' mind and leaves a lasting impression thanks to some sufficient performances and appropriately terrifying sequences of destruction.

Film Assessment: C+