Flight Risk review

 

I recently saw “Flight Risk" and here are my thoughts…

 

A US Marshall and a mob snitch must survive in an airplane with an assassin while also trying to fly the plane…

 

Now there are a lot of gorgeous wide landscape shots of Alaskan mountains that go on for miles, which is good to look at, but also it’s there so Mark Wahlberg can eat it all while he’s chewing scenery as the bad guy 😂. Now the pilot is straight-up cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, and it’s all those performances that in a lesser actor could seem way, way too over the top or cartoonish, but Mark Wahlberg is so good at playing intense and charming characters, he actually pulls it off and makes the character very unpredictable and interesting to watch.

 

Now, on the other end of the acting spectrum, you have Michelle Dockery, who is giving a very down-to-earth and earnest emotional performance; she really is the heart of the film. So between her and Mark Wahlberg, they sort of strike this balance of, like, realistic peril with over-the-top action.

 

The special effects are kind of all over the place. Some look like they are straight out of any $200 million summer blockbuster, but there are some shots like this one with an animal that look great… For the 1995 Sega game. And man, one shot when they were getting on the plane, I literally thought… That’s Neil Brain shit right there. It’s obviously a lower-budget movie, so I’m not trying to be mean or anything; they did the best with what they could and, for the most part, did a good job, but just be prepared; there are a couple of shots where you really are going to have to suspend your disbelief.

 

Topher Grace is also good in the movie; at first, his dialogue consists of nothing but witty comebacks and jokes, like he went full Eric Foreman from That 70’s Show at first, which may play different depending on how much you like that kind of thing, but by the end, he has some good character beats and emotional scenes, so he feels like a three-dimensional character.

 

There are some other actors who show up in voice roles; they all do good jobs, but there’s one character who’s like a little out there… I’m not going to spoil anything, but I will say this… I get you’re trying to cut tension, but this might not be the best time for that sort of thing, dude 😂 

 

The whole plot of the movie is seeing the characters trying to survive in an airplane, not knowing how to fly it. It’s very straightforward, but Mel Gibson is a talented enough director that he knows how to rack it up and convey the danger and intention in a way that you keep thinking… Man, how are they going to get out of this one? And that climax… That would’ve been cool to see in D-Box.

I didn’t know where to put this, but in the film, Mark Wahlberg’s character has really bad male pattern balding, like he’s balding in the front and back, and there’s like a little strip of hair covering the top of the head like a strap… It has mixed results, like some scenes definitely make him look crazier, and in other parts he looks kind of ridiculous, almost like a real-life Homer Simpson, but honestly it’s not too bad.

 

So this movie is very much “what you see is what you get,” but what is on the screen is fun. It’s a perfect movie for a lazy Saturday afternoon; did you watch it? Have a good time and move on… I give it a high three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️