Flight Risk (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Mel Gibson

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace

Flight Risk is Mel Gibson's first directorial effort since the excellent Hacksaw Ridge (2016).  Flight Risk is material that doesn't need someone of Gibson's talents to direct it.  It's not a terrible film, but it isn't memorable either.  Its star is Mark Wahlberg, but he spends the bulk of the movie in the back of the plane either tied up, knocked out, or beat up.  It's a shame, because he plays a terrific psycho when he is awake.  

The plot is simple.  The majority of the movie's 90-minute running time takes place aboard a beat-up plane flying a government witness named Winston (Grace) to Anchorage so he could testify against a mob boss in federal court.  U.S. Marshal Madolyn Harris (Dockery), seeking redemption after screwing up a similar assignment years ago, is in charge of the transfer.  The pilot is the talkative, affable Darryl Booth (Wahlberg), who we learn quickly is really an assassin hired by the mob boss.  Darryl (not his real name, but we will use for the purpose of writing this review) reveals his true colors while flying over the Alaskan wilderness.  

His plan was to kill Harris and Winston and...I assume dump their bodies or ditch the plane and parachute out?   I don't think this was well thought out.  Why not just kill them as soon as he boards and don't bother taking off?  I don't know.  Darryl needlessly complicated matters and also suffers a beating at the hands of Harris and Winston.  Once Darryl is incapacitated, Harris (who can't fly a plane), is talked through the flying process by a local air traffic controller who sounds like Apu from The Simpsons.

Dockery is a bit stiff and Topher Grace plays the weaselly Topher Grace role, while Wahlberg tries to have fun with the slightness that is Flight Risk.  Mel Gibson is a long way from Braveheart and Hacksaw Ridge.