Flight Risk

Flight Risk is an intense, 90-minute, check rational at the door, fun ride at the theater. Part drama and part action comedy, it will elicit a few eye rolls but also keeps you on the edge of your seat.


Synopsis: A pilot (Mark Wahlberg) transports an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) accompanying a fugitive (Topher Grace) to trial. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions soar and trust is tested, as not everyone on board is who they seem.


There is nothing new about any of this, yet when done close to right it can still be entertaining. Three people on a small plane flying over the wilderness. Mix in federal agents, moles, crime bosses, and material witnesses it opens all sorts of possibilities. Filmmakers take a chance when they put all the story on the shoulders of three people. Do you believe them in their roles here? Not all the time. The script tries to give us lots of reasons to buy in or not. After a while you just want to see how it all plays out. But at the same time there are plenty of moments to enjoy.

Other than Mark Wahlberg’s bald cap, most of the humor comes from Topher Grace. Once again he plays the same character we are used to. If we had been told that Eric Forman was now a fugitive in this movie we would believe it. He is basically the same sarcastic, phobic person. It is welcome here though as it breaks the tension and distracts you from the before mentioned bald cap of Mark.

Wahlberg too runs his mouth a lot in this one as the pilot Daryl. You feel for Air Marshall Madolyn as she has to hear both of them constantly talking about nothing. At some point she probably wants to jump out of the plane herself just to escape it. There is not a lot of thought into the dialogue. Most is made up of cliche things that you would expect the characters to say. The twists and turns are there; some predictable, some not as much.

The film takes place in a small propeller cargo plane as it flies over the Alaskan tundra toward Anchorage. This gives the film that isolated and at times claustrophobic feel. As the tension mounts and the action escalates the cramped quarters become necessary to help us focus. There is nowhere to go for the viewer or the characters.

Many will find fault with Marshall Madolyn, but that is not the fault of Dockery. More than once you will wonder how she got to be a Marshall at all. She might have skipped survival and restraining fugitives day at school. Obviously we need her bad decisions to catapult the film. Otherwise it would be just another land without a pilot” movies.

The film is 90-minutes long which is just about what the flight should be. It could be in real time but doesn’t matter either way. Like most flights this film has some bumpy moments as well as smooth. It is rated R for violence and language. People tend to cuss a lot in death defining moments. Throw in a little hand to hand combat and you get what you pay for. This is not a film to rush out to the theater to see, but it should do well in the Top 10 streaming world, wherever it finally lands.

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