If you’re looking for a movie this January to leave you scratching your head in confusion and disappointment, Flight Risk might be just what you’re after. Combining a U.S. Marshal, a fugitive, and a dangerously unstable pilot in a small plane might sound like the premise for a joke, but it’s the foundation of a thriller-comedy so forgettable, that it could make you wish for a barf bag before the credits roll.
Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, and Topher Grace star in this chaotic ride, which somehow manages to be as nonsensical as it is uncomfortable. The film, which debuts in January, gets a fitting placement among the month’s usual assortment of cinematic disasters. Imagine a slow-motion car crash, but substitute the car with a small plane, and that’s pretty much the essence of Flight Risk.
In what feels like a bargain-bin version of Con Air, Dockery’s federal agent is tasked with transporting Grace’s fugitive-turned-witness to Anchorage. They need to get there fast, so they enlist Wahlberg’s pilot — a man whose “bro’s bro” demeanor soon shows his true colors. But, as expected, nothing is quite what it seems, and Wahlberg’s character turns out to be a psychopath.
The cast, unfortunately, seems to have landed in completely different films. Dockery attempts to channel Lara Croft as a no-nonsense, action-packed problem-solver under extreme pressure. Meanwhile, Grace is caught up in his sitcom, delivering snarky one-liners from the back of the plane. Wahlberg, on the other hand, channels a sinister version of Hannibal Lecter, delivering creepy lines like “We can play hide the hot dog.”
The result? A mess of inconsistent tones that veers from brutal violence to painfully awkward humor. Shootouts and beatdowns clash with terrible puns and an absurd gag about Spirit Airlines. At least Spirit can land something.
Wahlberg’s character is the film’s most fascinating misfire. When we first meet him, he’s enjoying New Order’s Happy Mondays — an odd musical choice that doesn’t fit his sleazebag persona. Later, we discover he’s wearing a wig, but what the filmmakers are trying to convey with these choices is a mystery. Are they suggesting that even balding sociopaths can enjoy 80s British New Wave music? It’s unclear.
Screenwriter Jared Rosenberg seems obsessed with scatological humor, peppering the script with moments of public urination and cringeworthy lines like “I have a Museum of Modern Art in my pants” after a particularly harrowing flying sequence. Flight Risk may just be the first airborne thriller to reference Jackson Pollock.
The film’s premise could have led to high tension. The idea that killing the murderous pilot might doom everyone on board is ripe for suspense, but instead, we’re served up with flabby dialogue. At one point, Wahlberg quips, “You know the last thing that goes through your mind in a crash? Your ass.”
The third act attempts to maintain any semblance of intrigue as Dockery uncovers a government conspiracy using only her cellphone and natural suspicion while piloting a plane she has no idea how to fly 3,000 feet over Alaska’s icy landscape. If that weren’t enough, she starts a flirtatious radio relationship with a fellow pilot tasked with helping them land — yet again, at the controls of a plane she can’t fly in freezing conditions.
Director Mel Gibson, making his return to the director’s chair after nearly a decade, delivers a film that could have been a tense thriller. Unfortunately, his approach is as erratic as the movie itself. The camera shifts between the cramped interior of the plane and the expansive Alaskan wilderness, sometimes too close for comfort, especially when focusing on Dockery’s increasingly bruised face.
At the end of the day, Flight Risk is a disaster of its own making. Despite the strange slogan, “Y’all Need a Pilot?” the more fitting tagline would be “Y’all Need a Filmmaker.”
Flight Risk, a Lionsgate release, opens in theaters this Friday. It’s rated R for violence and language, with a runtime of 91 minutes. Verdict: Zero stars out of four.
