MOVIE REVIEW: It's Hard To Believe Mel Gibson Directed 'Flight Risk'

A pilot transports an Air Marshal accompanying a fugitive to trial. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions soar and trust is tested, as not everyone on board is who they seem.

There are a couple things that excited me about this movie.

1. Mark Wahlberg playing a villain again. Like Tom Cruise, Wahlbeg is very good at playing bad guys and just refuses to do it (I'm sure at the bidding of his agent/religion or whatever). It has sucked having to watch him play a never ending stream of generic action heroes interrupted by the occasional break in a charming role like in 'Instant Family' and 'Daddy's Home' or comedic break in 'The Other Guys'. This guy can cut a rug if you give him the right character! Just look at his early career if you think I'm wrong. 

2. Mel Gibson is a GOOD director. 'Braveheart', 'The Passion of the Christ', 'Apocalypto', 'Hacksaw Ridge'. This guy is capable of making some really good movies behind the camera. 

After watching the movie, I can confidently say that Mark lived up to his end of the bargain. Mel Gibson did not. As always, here is the pro and con list.

PROS:

- Mark Wahlberg is a great villain. Sinister and also funny in a scary way.

- The humor moments are really funny in SOME moments. 

CONS:

- Like I mentioned, Wahlberg was great. The movie also needed about 200% more of him and way less Topher Grace/Michelle Dockery. There would be a great scene with him that lasted a couple minutes which would be immediately broken up by him getting KO'd so we could get some introspective monologue from the other two. 

- The editing on this movie is atrocious. The biggest issue was the lack of continuity. There would be a shot of a character talking with their hand up looking in one direction, followed by a cut to another angle where they were doing something completely different. 

- On top of editing, the general post production CGI stuff was not great. There would be scenes where the plane is diving into the mountains where you can physically see the plane like, 50 feet from impact through the windshield. Cut to a struggle, then back to the windshield where you are somehow further away from impact. 

- There was just too much shit going on. This movie could have been as simple as "we are stuck on an airplane with a murderer". Instead, there needs to be like 5 sub plots going on at the same time. 

Overall, this is not a good movie. It's hard to believe Mel Gibson directed it unless he only shot it(22 days of total photography) then handed off the rest to his minions. I will say that, regardless of it being bad, it was fun to watch with the boys. Klemmer, Owen and I were hootin and hollering the whole way. We practically got up and saluted when Marky hit the 'Y'ALL NEED A PILOT' line.