Flight Risk (15)

US Marshal Madolyn Harris tracks down mob boss Moretti's fugitive accountant Winston to the Igloo Motel in Alaska and places him in protective custody in exchange for explosive testimony against his former employer. She charters a plane to Anchorage to personally escort Winston to an impending trial in New York. Once the pair are airborne, Winston notices the photograph on Daryl Booth's pilot's licence doesn't match the man sitting behind the controls.

LondonNet Film Review

Flight Risk (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Statistically, planes are one of the safest forms of transportation. That’s certainly not the case in the propulsive action thriller Flight Risk, which welcomes back Mel Gibson to the director’s chair for the first time in almost a decade. Predominantly set inside the claustrophobic interior of a Cessna Grand Caravan cruising at 3,000 feet, this high-stakes game of airborne cat and mice invites Mark Wahlberg to gleefully take the hinges off his heroic screen persona and embrace the extravagant flourishes of a psychopath who delights in tearing victims limb from limb and gouging out their eyeballs. “I’m going to enjoy this!” he snarls directly into camera, getting his blood pumping for the next round of wanton carnage…

Audiences can set their brains to autopilot for extended periods of Gibson’s picture, which lingers on props that play a pivotal role in the battle for survival, telegraphing twists and turns in Jared Rosenberg’s script. Turbulence promised by Wahlberg’s villain manifests largely in real-time and a flirtation between Michelle Dockery’s embattled heroine and a pilot (voiced by Maaz Ali) on the ground provides welcome comic relief in addition to a droll stream of consciousness that pours from Topher Grace’s loose-lipped government witness. We can relate to the mob wanting to permanently silence his chatterbox.

The introduction of digitally rendered Alaskan wildlife for a mild jump scare is shocking for its lack of realism and the joins between practical and computer-generated effects in a climactic stunt sequence are jarringly visible too. Thankfully, Gibson focuses on three solid central performances and bruising mid-air fisticuffs.

US Marshal Madolyn Harris (Dockery) tracks down mob boss Moretti’s fugitive accountant Winston (Grace) to the Igloo Motel in Alaska and places him in protective custody in exchange for explosive testimony against his former employer. She charters a plane to Anchorage to personally escort Winston to an impending trial in New York. Her shackled prisoner is unimpressed by his private transport. “This is a kite with seatbelts,” he scoffs.

The flight over treacherous, snow-capped wilderness should take “90 minutes or so”, according to friendly pilot Daryl Booth (Wahlberg). Once the trio are airborne, Winston notices the photograph on Booth’s pilot’s licence doesn’t match the man sitting behind the controls. It transpires that this Daryl is a sadistic hit man hired by the mob to take exquisite pleasure in torturing the snitch until he is incapable of testifying in court.

Flight Risk is a lean, muscular three-hander bolted together with explosions of wince-inducing violence that raise the stakes sufficiently for us to be invested in characters’ fates. Dockery, Grace and Wahlberg comfortably inhabit their archetypes, the latter relishing a fake accent that he drizzles like honey over playful taunts such as, “Quite the pickle, ain’t it?” A pleasantly brisk flying time of just over 90 minutes is extremely welcome.

– Sarah Lee