Mark Wahlberg may be an Academy Award nominated actor and producer, former rapper, underrated comedian, restaurateur and regularly finds himself named as one of the highest-paid talents in Hollywood, but over the last two decades you’re a whole lot more likely to see him starring in a run of the mill action thriller than a prestige drama, comedy or family film.
The 49 year-old has built a decent career out of headlining mid-budget genre movies that do solid if unspectacular business at the box office and are the subjects of middling but hardly scathing reviews. If you were looking for one of Wahlberg’s efforts that saw him playing a character with a military or law enforcement background that wields a gun on the poster, there are hardly a shortage of options to choose from.
The Corruptor, Four Brothers, Shooter, Max Payne, Contraband, Broken City, 2 Guns, Patriots Day and Spenser Confidential all hit that particular remit, but one of his more forgotten recent titles has proven to be quite popular on Netflix after cracking the streaming service’s Top 10 most-watched list today at #9 despite only being added to the library on Sunday.
Mile 22 is by far Wahlberg’s most overlooked collaboration with director Peter Berg, and sank without a trace at the box office back in the summer of 2018 after just about clawing back the $60 million budget. The plot follows an elite special ops team trying to escort a valuable asset to an airfield for extraction, but they encounter plenty of resistance along the way.
It isn’t a great movie by any means, but Mile 22 delivers instant gratification for fans of explosive thrillers that want nothing more than to kick back and enjoy a couple of hours’ worth of running and gunning.
