Flight Risk Movie Review

Flight Risk (2025)

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Written by: Jared Rosenberg
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Starring: Michelle Dockery, Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace, Leah Remini, Paul Ben-Victor
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A pilot transports an Air Marshal accompanying a fugitive to trial. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions soar and trust is tested, as not everyone on board is who they seem.

Verdict
This is a formulaic action movie that offers little in terms of plot, characters, and action. This gets repetitive quickly. There might be a good thirty minutes in this, but unfortunately it's a long ninety. It runs out of steam early as there just isn't much to this. This takes a generic action movie and confines it to the cockpit of a plane. Wahlberg is the most interesting character, which isn't saying much, and he's frequently incapacitated. 
Skip it.

Review
The opening is rather banal. Marshal Harris (Michelle Dockery) flies a witness out of Alaska with local pilot Darryl (Mark Wahlberg), who's a bit of a character. Wahlberg really chews the scenery, and that's the high point of the movie. Topher grace plays the witness, Winston, his typical sarcastic character. There's a lot of Harris telling Winston to shut up, but Winston figures out that Darryl isn't who he claims to be. While he wants to alert Harris, she ignores him.

Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace, Mark Wahlberg play Harris, Winston, Darryl

Harris begins doubting Darryl too. The problem is that they're all in a plane that's already taken off. Harris and Winston must team up to get out of the situation after detaining the pilot. The plot is too formulaic, and the story and characters can't carry the setting. In a typical movie, Harris and Winston would be chasing Darryl across a city. This puts them all in cramped quarters which robs the movie of tension. When Darryl is incapacitated, which is frequent, we lose the most interesting character in this movie.

Mark Wahlberg plays Darryl

Relegating this to a plane cabin without any other tension or drama restricts this movie. It runs out of steam the first time they knock Darryl out, not that this had picked up much speed to begin with. Darryl is the constant threat even when he is tied up. He escapes yet again. They just can't stop him. Harris tries to land the plane, and I expected she'd have a better landing. I guess the movie wanted at least one big action scene.

With such a tight focus, this needs to provide something intriguing. It doesn't. The plot and characters are recycled. Harris is given the most backstory, but even that is generic. Darryl provides mild amusement at best.