Mel Gibson's new movie is more of a head-scratcher than a nail-biter. The big question is why did Mel make this movie? Was he so desperate to direct that he took anything he could get funded? Nearly every project he's been rumored to direct in the last decade or so, from his proposed WILD BUNCH remake to his Viking movie to even his fifth installment in the LETHAL WEAPON franchise, was more interesting than FLIGHT RISK.
From the opening frame, I couldn't understand Mel's reasons or methods. Why use a CGI establishing shot of a motel when you could easily pay for 2nd unit to grab a quick wide shot at a real location? The question persists when he cuts to a wide shot of an airfield with CGI characters approaching the plane. Why oh why? How difficult would it have been to find some air strip wherever they filmed the rest of the movie and just put CGI mountains in the background? These decisions set the movie on an incredibly bad start and it sadly doesn't get much better.
Topher Grace's performance is annoying, not funny. Worse, Michelle Dockery can't carry the picture. She never succeeds in involving the audience on her journey. I never cared enough about her and part of that blame goes to the script's flaws but her weak performance is partially responsible. Only Mark Wahlberg, as over-the-top as he plays it, does good work here. At least he's fun to watch as the sicko assassin, chewing every moment his character is conscious like a bad guy from a cheap 90s action movie. And that's sort of what FLIGHT RISK is, except I'd rather watch one of those movies instead.
It's difficult to understand why Mel made this movie and it's also difficult to understand how he made it. How could the director of BRAVEHEART and APOCALYPTO have delivered this crap? How could he have overlooked or accepted some of these awful production mistakes like how bad Marky Mark's bald makeup looks? How could he have stomached this script without throwing up? If he resurrects his directing career with PASSION 2 or another passion project, FLIGHT RISK will look like a weird blunder in his otherwise impressive filmography. Let's just hope this isn't a sign of his next phase as a filmmaker.
Watched at Yakima 10
These reviews were on my letterboxd account and will eventually be published on my Travis Mills filmmaker Facebook page