Flight Risk

"Y'all need a pilot?" Not if it involves a clean-shaven, overacting Mark Wahlberg in the silliest thriller of the year so far. No, then I can do quite well without one, but thanks for asking. I'll try not to sound grumpy in this review and instead try to laugh through the misery, but it's not easy. For as skilful as Mel Gibson is in directing the eternally brilliant {Apocalypto}, he's just as woefully bad behind the camera here, and it's hard to believe at times that it's actually the same filmmaker in the director's seat. Or "incomprehensible" might be a better word. It is an incomprehensible difference.

The Downton Abbey star is as good here at playing stressed and scared as Wahlberg is at playing menacing. Nothing works. Nothing.

Alaskan sheriff Madolyn has managed to snag one of the mob's accountants. In order to transport this extremely valuable key witness to Anchorage without hindrance and/or risk, she hires a private pilot named Daryl to fly the two of them in a small propeller plane through the snowy Alaskan wilderness in what is described in advance as an uneventful and quiet journey. However, Daryl is not who he says he is and there are underlying interests and motivations in this plot and the witness himself (portrayed by the always equally mediocre Topher Grace) is suddenly in trouble, 1000 metres above the ground.

There is nothing wrong with the premise itself. Three people with different motives are crowded into a small aeroplane far above the clouds, and the set-up for a tense game of cat and mouse is ever present. {Flight Risk} is, at the idea stage, a mix between {Passenger 57} and {Calm Waters}, and I think it could have been done really well, with the right actors and the right director. Those are not Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace, or Mel Gibson. None of them offer anything of substance here. None of them should have been involved in this production, nor does Michelle Dockery ({Downton Abbey}) have any business in a thriller of this kind. She lacks intensity and presence, can't portray panic or fear at all, while Grace feels like a bad parody of his {That 70's Show} character Eric. The worst, however, is Marky-Mark, whose "psychotic" murderer is so utterly ridiculous that you can't help but laugh through several key scenes. Wahlberg's performance is some kind of mix between his {Max Payne} and {Boogie Nights} efforts and it's so clear that he is basically not much better at acting than a regular joe off the streets...

Under the brown cap hides a memorable haircut. The film's only redeeming feature.

{Flight Risk} is not exciting, there is no nerve, no build-up that means anything, and it lacks a single emotional expression that feels credible. The first act is miserable, the second act is ridiculous, and the resolution is consistently poor too, which makes this one of the worst films of the year so far.