‘Flight Risk’ movie review: Mark Wahlberg cruises along on silly thrills

Mel Gibson has manic fun with the somewhat efficient high-altitude action movie 

The title sounds like a film from the ‘90s and so does the premise. At 91 minutes, Flight Risk is an efficient little campy thriller that mostly delivers what it promises. Even with the short run time, there are moments when one’s attention flags, but then one can jump right back into the movie and none is the wiser.

An accountant, (you know he is an accountant because he wears glasses) Winston (Topher Grace), is hiding out in a sketchy motel in Alaska watching his cup noodles go round and round in the micro, which has to be smacked on the side to get it going. If you do not fully believe it is the Alaskan wilderness, a morose moose with gargantuan antlers peeping through the curtains should convince you. The door slams open, and two hefty officers with a US Marshall, Madelyn (Michelle Dockery), walk in. Winston immediately surrenders saying he is willing to testify against the mob boss he is working for in exchange for total immunity and protection.

That sets the stage for the next act, where Madelyn charters a plane to fly Winston to Anchorage and, further on, to New York and Seattle so he can testify and bring down the wicked mob boss. The little Cessna is contrary to Winston’s dreams of a Lear Jet, as is the gum-chewing, brash pilot, Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg). Once in the air, on the 90-minute flight to Anchorage, truth, lies, deceit and double cross fly thick and fast as everyone is hiding something and definitely are not what they claim to be. Madelyn has a dark secret and the events on the plane suggest a mole in the department.

Flight Risk (English)

Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace
Runtime: 91 minutes
Storyline: A killer, an informant and a US Marshall are on a flight to Anchorage when all hell breaks loose

While other movies set on planes, including Air Force One, are set in big aircraft, the wee plane in Flight Risk works to keep the tension. There are the near misses, looming mountain ranges, loss of radio contact, stabbings, gunplay, foul language, screams and rants as well as disembodied voices from the ATC to move things along.

Wahlberg has the time of his life as the duplicitous pilot while Dockery drops her cut-glass Lady Mary (Downton Abbey) voice to do a fair version of an American accent. Grace does a good impression of fearful, fretful.

Maaz Ali as Hasan, at the ATC, helping Madelyn fly and land the plane, (which seems super easy to do) is warm and witty and when we finally see him, like Madelyn, we greet him as an old friend. There is that little bit of gore as expected from a Mel Gibson movie and other awful things hinted at as having happened off-camera.

Flight Risk does not overstay its welcome — just when one is shifting uncomfortably and thinking of asking Johnny from Airplane! for coffee, the landing lights come on and after one more heart-stopping burst of action, one can put back the tray tables, unbuckle the seatbelt, switch on the mobile phone and head for the food court for more greasy comestibles.

Flight Risk is currently running in theatres

Published - January 24, 2025 05:46 pm IST