A Turbulent ride
Summary
Flight Risk is your typical January movie that won’t make much of an impact on the box office but it’s a welcome distraction from the cold weather and Mark Wahlberg is hugely entertaining as the film’s antagonist. You can wait for streaming though as there isn’t much in the way of spectacle to justify seeing it on the big screen.
Plot: A U.S. marshal boards a small plane to transfer a government witness to New York. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions start to rise as not everyone on the flight is who they appear to be.
Review: The trailers for Flight Risk refused to say the director’s name (Mel Gibson) as if it was helmed by Voldemort or something (He who shall not be named). “From the director of Braveheart… hey look, clouds!”
Anyway, this is more of a thriller than an action movie but it is pleasingly short clocking in at around 90 minutes and as you could tell from the trailers Mark Wahlberg steals the show in one of his most unhinged roles to date. Downtown Abbey’s Michelle Dockery plays Marshall Madolyn who is transporting a witness (Topher Grace) to Anchorage so he can testify against a dangerous mobster. The pilot (Wahlberg) seems friendly enough at first, but it doesn’t take long for Madolyn to realise things aren’t right and that they just got on the wrong plane.
Flight Risk is exactly what you’d expect from the trailers with Wahlberg on scene chewing form clearly relishing playing such a despicable character; it has some gruesome moments and even some fights with Madolyn quite capable of taking care of herself while trying to protect her witness.
Where the film falls down is the tone; there are some really bizarre choices of humour which take away a lot of the tension. I also found for the first half Topher Grace’s character Winston was whiny and annoying but that’s how the character was meant to be; I ended up liking him more as the story went on. The script wasn’t the greatest either with some clunky dialogue and moments which were meant to be comedic but didn’t work. You could also tell that there was greenscreen for the most part and they were never on a real plane; it was also a very quiet aircraft rarely making any sound whatsoever, which was odd. I was surprised by how amateurish it felt at times considering Gibson’s previous track record.
Still, it has a satisfying conclusion and it’s well paced; it was refreshing to see a 90 minute movie again on the big screen and hopefully we can get more of these in the future. Flight Risk feels like the kind movies we got in the 90’s and is a fun Saturday night flick that you’ll quickly forget, but still enjoy the ride.
Overall, Flight Risk may not be packed with action and has some odd choices of humour, but Mark Wahlberg is endlessly entertaining and his unsettling villain steals the show. The script could have been sharper and there isn’t too much that will stick with you by the end, but it’s still a fun time.