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.

Mel Gibson’s latest movie, ‘Flight Risk’, is a pulpy thriller set almost entirely on a small private aircraft, as a U.S. Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) attempts to escort a mob accountant (Topher Grace) turned informant across the Alaskan wilderness to testify against an infamous mafia crime family. Little do they know that the pilot of the small plane is not who he says he is, and is in fact a criminal who has been hired to ensure that the accountant never makes it to court. He is played by Mark Wahlberg, who has put on weight and shaved his head in a weird way to appear as a schlubby balding villain, in a performance that you can’t fault for commitment (if nothing else).

The script for ‘Flight Risk’ appeared on the Black List of the most popular unproduced screenplays a few years ago, and I can only assume it was a fallow year as this is an incredibly ropy script that doesn’t live up remotely to a broadly intriguing premise. You can see the thinking here as plenty of movies have made a claustrophobic and limited setting a strength, and at 90 minutes long, it’s unlikely to overstay its welcome. It also has Mel Gibson as director, who whatever you think of him in other senses, is an Oscar winning director who has previous for making good action cinema. The problem with ‘Flight Risk’ is it doesn’t make its stupidity a charm, its ‘twists’ are obvious, and the dialogue is so cheesy that it makes ‘Commando’ look positively refined. Alongside Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery has a thankless task, not helped by the material, or by Topher Grace who is pretty annoying as the third of the central trio.

‘Flight Risk’ is turn your brain off cinema, but it’s not even good turn your brain off cinema and I’d expect better from Wahlberg and Gibson, who have both made solid action movies in the past. ‘Flight Risk’ is not one off them.

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: Mel Gibson

Starring: Michelle Dockery, Mark Wahlberg and Topher Grace

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10078772/