Flight Risk
A fugitive and key witness, Winston (Topher Grace), hiding in Alaska runs out of luck when U.S. Marshal, Madolyn (Michelle Dockery), finally catches up to him. Now returning to the lower 48, and flown by pilot Daryl (Mark Wahlberg), all passengers on board face their biggest challenge yet; one of them has ulterior motives. As altitude’s rise, so do the tensions, making it to Anchorage might be a foregone conclusion. Written by Jared Rosenberg and Directed by Mel Gibson this paint by numbers action thriller contains all the necessary beats with all the cliche tropes to make for a ho-hum experience in theatres this weekend; new ground is not broken while re-tread after re-tread of old themes and cinematic rules play out in predictable order. Meanwhile, a dumbed down performance from Grace, over-anxious and bumbling, mixed with an underutilized Wahlberg, never paying off his backstory and motives leaves the audience hamstrung in who to root for. Bummer. It’s an impossibly thickheaded story that never really gets off the ground and in need of more development across the board. Perhaps consider this as background entertainment while you fold laundry, the brisk 91 minutes of runtime won’t overtax your attention, but, maybe your patience. Flight Risk is rated R.