It is hard to believe it has been nearly a decade since Mel Gibson last directed a film. Hacksaw Ridge remains one of my favorite war films made in the 21st century, and I thought for sure it signaled the return for Gibson, since he’s been in Hollywood jail since 2006. He’s managed to get some work in some bad direct-to-streaming films, though I feel the last great film we’ve gotten to see him on screen was 2018’s Dragged Across Concrete, which didn’t exactly set the box office ablaze. I’m bummed by this, because really he’s one of the few surviving icons from the 80s and 90s that I believe still has some talent and could give cinema a few more great films, that is if Hollywood could just give him that chance. He’s been attached for years to doing another Lethal Weapon, but I have a hard time believing that will happen, and then he’s been working on his sequel to The Passion of Christ, which in theory could give his career the boost he needs to go on to some bigger and better projects, bur unfortunately I’m just not too optimistic about that. This year Mel Gibson stepped back behind the camera to direct the new thriller Flight Risk, which opened to little fanfare, but is it any good? Well, fasten your seatbelts; we’re about to get into it.
Madolyn (Michelle Dockery) is a US marshall who has travelled to the Alaskan wilderness to track down Winston (Topher Grace), a weaselly fugitive they’d like to use to testify against a mob boss. They charter a plane to escort Winston to bring him in so he can testify, but unfortunately the pilot (Mark Wahlberg) isn’t who he claims to be. It turns out the pilot is an assassin hired to take out Madolyn and her escort, and this turns to a claustrophobic showdown 3000 feet in the air. Even when the US marshal is able to subdue the assassin, she still has to contend with the problem of flying the plane and not knowing how to fly or even where they are located.
I’m a sucker for single-location films, and considering the premise, this really felt like it would be a gripping thrill ride for 90 minutes, Sadly, there are some decisions made in this film that prevent it from sticking the landing. One of those decisions is having Wahlberg play this character with a ridiculous southern accent and have a silly-looking bald cap. This is one where they should have just let him stick with being himself and let him be charming and then give us the swerve that he’s one of the bad guys. As members of the audience, we know immediately something is up with this character the moment he opens his mouth, and frankly that just ruins any chance for tension in this film. Then having his character spouting random sexual things at the characters to taunt them just to make his character “creepy” just backfired for me. It just had me thinking the guy was a random pervert rather than some vicious killer.
I like the film’s premise, but what hurts the film the most is the dialog. Writer Jared Rosenberg pieces together a decent story, but I feel this film needed another draft to polish the dialog, or if someone could have been brought in to punch up some of these scenes. I mean, there really are no twists in this film. The audience can pretty much tell where the story is going to go, and the characters are just so flat that their character arcs just don’t feel earned. Story-wise, if I was going to nitpick, I wish the film just removed the opening sequence where we see Winston getting arrested. It just offers nothing to the story, and instead I would have preferred we saw the incident where Madolyn discusses what happened to the last person who was in her custody. It’s tragic and sets a better tone for the film, since after all the film is supposed to be about Madolyn redeeming herself.
Still, despite my gripes toward the film, Mel Gibson does manage to salvage what he can with what he’s been given. This is definitely his weakest film, but there are still some moments where the film manages to shine. He manages to utilize the tight confines of the plane and deliver a couple good action sequences, and the third act is pretty good, though I still can’t help but wonder what it was about this project where Gibson decided this was going to be his next project to direct. At the end of the day this isn’t something I’d recommend people run out and try to see, but now that it is on HBO, it’s something worth checking out if you are looking for something to watch late at night. Hopefully the next time Gibson steps behind the camera, it is to do something better. It’s hard to imagine the man who gave us Braveheart is stuck doing films like this.
