'Flight Risk' Review Thread

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.

Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten

Critics Consensus: N/A

Metacritic: 38 (25 Reviews)

Sample Reviews:

Todd Gilchrist, Variety - Director Mel Gibson delivers is a crude, unimaginative, suspenseless adventure whose tension mostly derives from deciding which of its three main characters will prove the most unlikable by the time it ends.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter - You’ll be shaking your head at the sheer ludicrousness of it all. But it’s a pretty good bet that you haven’t once felt the desire to look at your phone.

William Bibbiani, TheWrap - Anyway, it’s also weird to find a mediocre straight-to-DVD action movie inside of a major movie theater, instead of in the bargain bin at a Big Lots in 2010.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press - No one emerges unscathed from this funny-when-it-shouldn’t-be mess. The movie’s slogan is the weird “Y’all Need a Pilot?” but it should be “Y’all Need a Filmmaker?” 0/4

Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times - Where “Flight Risk” fails as a film is not really Gibson’s fault. He knows how to shoot action sequences. The screenplay is instead all over the place, in a way that feels tired and halfhearted.

Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal - To be fair, Jared Rosenberg’s witless screenplay has several stretches that no director could make exciting, or even minimally endurable.

Bob Strauss, San Francisco Chronicle - The equivalent of a suspenseful Spirit Airlines commercial... 2/4

Peter Howell, Toronto Star - Mel Gibson’s risible new movie, “Flight Risk,” takes off with a splash of toilet humour before nosediving into the realm of the ridiculous. 1/4

Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail - A C-grade thriller that is further dumbed down to dunce-cap calibre, Flight Risk might have worked as an enjoyably grimy piece of genre trash had Gibson not made every single wrong directorial decision along the way.

Peter Bradshaw, Guardian - The film is, of course, very silly, but diverting and ingenious, and contains game performances from Wahlberg, Dockery and Grace. 3/5

Jonathan Romney, Financial Times - There are a few mildly ingenious twists and contrivances, but overall, it’s all cynically functional, hair’s-breadth mid-air escapes and all. 2/5

Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK) - To describe the plot as stupid wouldn’t be inaccurate, exactly. But it’s methodically, even artisanally stupid, built in accordance with the classic thriller rules. Every twist plays fair, no matter how outlandish. 4/5

Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture - Flight Risk is a dumb movie, which is not its primary sin. The problem is that it’s not the right kind of dumb -- the kind where everyone involved is committed to the innate silliness of what they’re doing.

Christian Zilko, indieWire - When evaluated as a work of pure craftsmanship, Flight Risk is some of the finest stupidity Hollywood has gifted us in a long time. B+

Andy Crump, AV Club - Over-writing doesn’t delay Flight Risk’s pace or tension; Wahlberg does. The actor ended up apologizing for his boneheaded 9/11 remarks not long after making them. Maybe one day he’ll apologize for Flight Risk, too. C

Mark Hanson, Slant Magazine - Given that Mel Gibson makes little attempt to instill any sense of physicality to this dispiritingly paint-by-numbers affair, it becomes easy to understand the marketing of the film’s 4DX theatrical option as an act of overcompensation. 1/4

Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence - Flight Risk has its funny moments, though none of them are funnier than when the end credits start and you’re reminded, once again, that this movie was directed by Mel Gibson. C

A.A. Dowd, Digital Trends - Gibson botches the assignment at every turn. You needn’t harbor any contempt for the disgraced filmmaker to peg Flight Risk as cheap and choppy heckle fodder. 1.5/5

Clint Worthington, RogerEbert.com - The lean 90-minute runtime is a very tempting sell for a lean chamber piece like this. But what happens in that 90 minutes has to actually entertain, which is where “Flight Risk” runs into some real turbulence. 1.5/4

Nell Minow, Movie Mom - "Flight Risk" has all of the ingredients for a tight little thriller except one. Sloppy direction from Mel Gibson interferes with the best the film has to offer. C

SYNOPSIS:

In this high-stakes suspense thriller, Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg (Actor in a Supporting Role, 2006 – The Departed) plays a pilot transporting 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.

CAST:

• Mark Wahlberg as Daryl Booth
• Michelle Dockery as Madelyn Harris
• Topher Grace as Winston

DIRECTED BY: Mel Gibson

SCREENPLAY BY: Jared Rosenberg

PRODUCED BY: John Davis, John Fox, Bruce Davey, Mel Gibson

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Russell Hollander, Jon Huddle, K. Blaine Johnston, Patrick Josten, Walter Josten, Petr Jákl, Alex Lebovici, Jarrett Mahoney, Ryan Donnell Smith, Christopher Woodrow

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Johnny Derango

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: David Meyer

EDITED BY: Steven Rosenblum

COSTUME DESIGNER: Kristen Kopp

MUSIC BY: Antonio Pinto

CASTING BY: Kathy McKee

RUNTIME: 91 Minutes

RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2025