Flight Risk 2025 Movie Review
When I was much younger, one of the things I would do after school was go to the nearest malls and go catch a movie. It’s not like I had a plan to watch a particular film or anything like that. I would just go, check out the posters and see if anything grabbed my fancy. This is why I got to see movies such as Crying Freeman, Robot Jox, Bloodsport and many more. These were movies that didn’t have huge budgets but they were fun to see as, well, I didn’t have high expectations from them as I knew nothing about them. I do think that’s kind of a lost art in today’s filmmaking nowadays as everything has to be bigger but not necessarily better.
Why am I waxing nostalgia about those good old days? Well, I kind of had the same experience today as I just came out of a showing of Flight Risk. Like during my formative years, I was just so happened to out at the mall and I saw the theatrical poster for Flight Risk. I saw it had Mark Wahlberg and Topher Grace in the cast, two actors that I like know. And I did have some time to waste so I decided to buy a ticket and go see it. The question now becomes if I had a good time like I did with those other movies from the past.
As Flight Risk isn’t really out yet in a lot of territories, I will be making this a SPOILER FREE review. It only seems fair… even if the trailer does seem to be okay with revealing a little too much, in retrospect. Even though Lionsgate themselves, the movie’s distributors, is okay with dropping a few too many details of the film, I’m not.
The basic plot revolves around three people in a small plane. One of them is a former mob accountant who gets caught by the police and agrees to become the star witness against his former boss. The other is the US Marshall assigned to transport and guard him. The final is the pilot who actually is a hitman assigned by the mob boss to take out the accountant. After the Marshall manages to subdue the pilot/hitman, she and the witness have to find a way to fly the plane sans pilot and figure out how the hitman found them.
Flight Risk does seem like a low-budget film as, for most of the movie’s brisk 91-minute runtime, takes place in that small prop plane’s interior with only these three actors. So, the performances have to really be good to hold your interest. Thankfully, the trio succeed for the most part. Topher Grace plays the witness and, well, his performance is what you would think of when you say Topher Grace is playing a part. He does play the smart mouth nervous wimp well so it would dumb for me to complain as he did deliver on his part. On the other side of the spectrum, Mark Wahlberg isn’t playing the hero. Rather, he’s the pilot/hitman and his take on the role is pretty cartoony but in a very menacing kind of way. He’s more demented than calculating and Wahlberg chose to ham it up whenever he speaks. It’s still good but there were times when he was just a little too over-the-top for my liking.
The real star of Flight Risk is the US Marshall, played by Michelle Dockery. I’m not familiar with Michelle Dockery’s body of work as, looking at her acting history, I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything she’s been in. So, I am glad to say she did make a good, albeit not incredibly memorable, first impression on me with Flight Risk. While her performance is good and she does have to show much more emotional range than the other characters, the character herself never gets to stand out as she’s the “normal” one when compared to the nervous nancy and the homicidal killer.
The script itself is kind of a mixed bag as the story’s broad strokes are actually pretty good. It’s more of the little details and specifics with the plot and the characters that are a little messed up. As this is a SPOILER FREE review, I can’t really reveal specific points which did irk me. I can give a pretty vague example pointing at a couple of character’s monologues where they reveal a bit about themselves. These moments are supposed to be dramatic and show the viewer a moment in their past. But they do feel forced. It’s kind of like that scene in Gremlins when Phoebe Cates‘ character tells the story of why she hates Christmas. The actors are trying to make the monologue work but it doesn’t tug at the heartstrings.
I will say the special effects were pretty good, especially for something as low-budget as this. Then again, they don’t really have to do a lot of CGI shots as it’s mostly the three actors in a fake plane in a giant soundstage. I didn’t really notice the CGI all that much as I was honestly focused on the story. So, if there was some bad special effects shots, I didn’t pay attention to it.
Overall, I did like Flight Risk and it does harken back to those times when I was a kid going to the movies after school. Then again, a lot of it does have to deal with me having no expectations. Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace and Michelle Dockery’s performances were good enough to keep me invested in the characters. The story, as a whole, did keep my focus throughout the movie’s runtime. However, I’m of two minds when it comes to giving this a definite recommendation as those who want a more bombastic action thriller would probably get bored. On the other hand, if you’re like me and you want something a little more low key that calls back to a time when going to the movies doesn’t have to be a big event, Flight Risk may be something you’d want to check out.
