Flight Risk – REVIEW

Mark Wahlberg in Flight Risk


Guys, what are we doing here? At this point, you probably know who Mel Gibson is. Actor, director, a man of many controversies. That’s not what I’m here for, though. I’m not here for the controversies. What I’m here for is the movies. I’ve seen two of Gibson’s past directorial efforts, and both of them are pretty great. It still makes sense why Braveheart, a rousing historical war epic, won five Oscars including Best Picture and Gibson for his direction. The other Gibson film I’ve seen is his most recent, Hacksaw Ridge. Another war epic that followed a WWII Army medic, it also was embraced by the Academy, earning Gibson another Picture and Director nom, alongside Best Actor for Andrew Garfield’s magnificent performance. I know it seems like I’m just rattling off some facts about Gibson, but it really is worth noting that Gibson just gets it. Saying that I “disagree” with what he thinks is an understatement, but there’s a reason why his comeback with Hacksaw Ridge was massive. Gibson still is being taken seriously as a filmmaker, mainly based on the fact that his Passion of the Christ sequel might actually start filming this year. Now, Flight Risk is Gibson’s first in nine years. Surprisingly, it isn’t the biggest gap between films in his career. Maybe it’s because he likes to take his time? If that’s the case with Flight Risk, we may need to contact a professional. Simply put, this is one of the most embarrassing films I’ve seen in a theater in recent memory. Braveheart and Hacksaw Ridge, even with their flaws, have massive ambition to them. They’re big, brash, loud, every synonym you could think of. Based on the trailer for this, though, I was fairly certain that this wouldn’t be like those other films, and it is. It’s basically a chamber film set in this little plane, bookended with a scene outside of the plane. Oh, the premise of the movie is a U.S. Marshal bringing a government witness to testify against a mob boss, but a hitman takes the place of the pilot set to fly them back to assassinate the witness. It’s not exactly ambitious, but it can be very effective if it’s in the right hands. Flight Risk tries really hard to crank up the intensity, with Mark Wahlberg really hamming it up as the hitman with an absolutely grating accent. He might be the movie’s saving grace, even if it’s something to laugh at. Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace, the U.S. Marshal and the witness respectively, are just awful here. Wahlberg at least understands the assignment to be a creep, but that’s all Flight Risk has going for it. Outside of that, it’s like the first draft of a script that somehow got an Oscar-winner on board and made no changes to that script. To end this dumpster fire, I do have to make the obligatory mention of what Mark Wahlberg would do if he were on the plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. What he said was if he was on that plane, it “wouldn’t have gone down like it did” and that there would be “a lot of blood in that first-class cabin.” If Flight Risk tells you anything, it shows that maybe it’s good that he missed that flight.


Ryan’s Grade: D-