I had no idea that Flight Risk was even a thing until I saw the big ass poster and it was an actual poster not some kind of screen at my local theatre. This had a lot going for it, it is directed by Mel Gibson who I love as an actor and director and so far, I have really enjoyed all the movies that he has been behind the camera for such films as Braveheart and Hacksaw Ridge.
How to Download Flight Risk
Flight Risk was released on January 24, 2025. You can expect to be able to download or stream the film from Starz or other digital platforms in about two months from that date. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
As well as Mel Gibson being behind the camera, Mark Wahlberg (Max Payne, Ted, Instant Family) and Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3, Predators, Interstellar) star in the movie and I am a huge fan of both guys, I honestly have no idea how Topher Grace is not a bigger star than he is. As well as these two, the other member of our main cast is Michelle Dockery who you might know from Downtown Abbey, The Gentlemen, or Downtown Abbey: A New Era who is also very talented.
A Strong Start That Loses Momentum
My 2025 so far has been pretty great as far as seeing movies in the theatre goes and even though Flight Risk was not exactly getting great reviews, I was still excited to see it. The thing is Flight Risk peaks in the first 30 minutes, and then the rest of the movie kind of just happens and lacks the tension and fear that the opening act has.
The Plot – A High-Stakes Thriller in the Alaskan Wilderness
The plot is a great idea. We have a US Marshal (Michelle Dockery) who tracks down a guy who is cooking the books for a big-time crime family (Topher Grace). She tracks him down in the Alaskan wilderness and flips him, making him an informant who will testify against the crime family.
They hire this guy to fly them out of Alaska but turns out that this psycho (played by Mark Wahlberg) is a hitman who is there to take out this informant before he has a chance to spill his guts. The tension here is awesome at the start of the movie as we know that Mark Wahlberg is the bad guy and as the other two characters on this tiny plane start to figure out that something is not right, the movie does have you on the edge of your seat.
Mark Wahlberg’s Performance – Intense but Overplayed
However, the movie really loses steam the more that it goes on. For example, Mark Wahlberg is a fantastic psycho, and you do feel like this character would say the messed up stuff that he is saying. Yet, it starts to feel forced, we get it, you are a psycho, but sometimes less is more.
Also, there is a really weird scene where our US Marshal calls for help on how to fly and land the plane and the dude on the other end of the phone asks her out on a date! Why was this in the movie? It felt so out of place and so weird, not bad or so weird that it made me laugh at the movie. It lasts around 90 minutes and I think that is ideal as any more and it really would have started to lose steam.
Flight Risk is not a bad movie at all, but it is certainly not a great one. They have a great premise and the actors do a good job with what they have. Yet, while it had me hooked in that first act, it started to lose me the more the movie went on. Not so much that I disliked it, but enough that it made me kind of wish I waited for this one to hit streaming. Still, even though I did not love it, I still think my theatre experiences of 2025 so far have been good as I have seen way, way worse than this.
