Flight Risk (2025) - Turbulent Ride With Low Rate Landing - REVIEW

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It was a busy weekend for me in terms of content to watch although I spend most of my weekend sleeping due to an arm injury and the pills I'm taking for it, still manage to watch the F1 GP and a couple of movies, one of the was Flight Risk (2025) and it feels like a throwback to those contained thrillers from the 90s that Hollywood doesn't make much anymore and most of them are failures since the action, drama and dialogue has to be constant on a very tight space, in this case a small plain. Running at a tight 90 minutes the movie wastes no time getting into the action, throwing us into a situation with three characters trapped in a small plane over Alaska, it manages to be entertaining enough for a casual movie night, even with its obvious flaws, what I constantly refer to a one time watch and forget about it.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10078772/
• Platform: AppleTV+
  

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source U.S. Marshal, a mob informant and a pilot who isn't who he claims to be, all stuck in a tiny aircraft thousands of feet above the ground, a setup for a lot of tension and drama, but the movie struggles to maintain altitude throughout its runtime, that constant dopamine pump. It does has moments of genuine excitement mixed with stretches where it feels like it's running on autopilot, coasting on its concept rather than pushing for something more aggressive that you probably wont forget. I went in with moderate expectations based on the trailers and that's pretty much what I got, there is not much to it, a decent thriller that is not spectacular or terrible just somewhere in the middle.

What surprised me most was how Gibson managed to create a watchable movie despite confining most of the action to a space that smaller than a small size living room, while the execution isn't always smooth, it is always admirable the attempt. Mark Wahlberg clearly had fun playing the villain some what unusual for him, rocking a distracting bad hairline. Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace do their best with what they were given, though the script doesn't always do them any favors besides there is close to no other characters on the movie, that's all we get. Overall, Flight Risk is the kind of movie that's perfectly fine for when you don't want to think too hard, just sit back and watch mayhem unfold.

Source Source Flight Risk follows U.S. Marshal Madolyn Harris played Michelle Dockery as she transports a government witness named Winston; role played by Topher Grace, from a remote Alaskan location to Anchorage, where he will testify against a dangerous mobster that they almost never talk about so there is very little context just that Winston is the numbers guy, the accountant who has turned informant, making him a high value target for his former employer. Their chartered flight is piloted by a man who introduces himself as Daryl Booth, the villain of this three way drama played by Mark Wahlberg, who seems friendly enough at first with his southern accent and oversharing about his personal life, but Madolyn quickly begins to suspect something is off about him, and she was right when they discover that "Daryl" is actually a hitman sent to kill Winston and also murdered the real pilot and stolen his plane.

To be honest the story is full average dialogue and you can tell how they trying to stretch their time but it still worth to the point that keeps you entertain but between this small talk there are times you get desperate for something to happen , it is until Madolyn manages to temporarly put down the assassin but now she and Winston face a new problem where none of them knows how to fly the plane, plus the navigation system sabotaged and the radio communications some what working, they are stuck thousands of feet in the air with a psychopathic killer who is tied up but still dangerous. It is when Madolyn manages to contact her superior using a satellite phone and gets connected with a pilot named Hasan who tries to talk her through flying the plane, she discovers documents on the hitman that contain privileged information about both her and Winston, suggesting there is a mole in the U.S. Marshals office who's been feeding information to the mob, your classic cliche story that makes it predictable and it even feels they didn't want to touch much on that subject to over complicate things and focus on the problem at hand that is to land the plane.

Source Source The rest of the film becomes a battle of wits and survival as the Daryl; the hitman, tries to free himself and finish his job, while Madolyn and Winston work together to keep the plane in the air and figure out who betrayed them, add to that that Winston is loosing blood after a small fight with Daryl, nothing spectacular but he got stabbed. There are close calls with mountains, birds hitting the windshield and plenty of physical confrontations in the tiny cabin. The plot is fairly straightforward, but the confined setting creates increase the pressure where the characters personalities and backstories are a critical role to play, adding some spice to it to what could otherwise be a one note drama / thriller movie, its not boring but not spectacular.

I dont want to go into details of the ending but it doesn't wrap up things completely, this movie is for a lazy weekend when you don't want anything too demanding. It sets out to be a straightforward thriller with a confined setting, and on that basic level it succeeds so keep your expectations low, perfect movie for streaming and not theaters. The film doesn't reinvent the wheel or leave a lasting impression but it provides enough tension and action to keep you watching until the end and at times wanting to know a bit more but disappoints on that field since there is very little backstory. Mark Wahlberg's villain is the highlight, bringing energy but that crazy hairline and his character been basically savage at trying to make others loose control and fall into his trap.

The movie flaws are obvious, the click, inconsistent tone and I would add some special effects that also look basic as the rest of the movie but you just can't ask much from it. The script is very predictable and never really push beyond, its almost like a remake of a movie we have all seen before, it could have been a bit more complicated and interesting if they had added more to the mole and treason part, just like the TV series Hijack (2023) but I guess they wanted to keep it short too.

If you go in with appropriate expectations, Flight Risk delivers exactly what it shows on the trailer, a simple contained thriller with a few decent performances and some tense moments. It's not a complete crash landing, just a moderately entertaining ride with its ups and down along the way. I'd give it a solid 6.5 out of 10, not bad enough to avoid, not good enough to actively seek out, I would not recommend it unless I fully know the other person and had a similar taste on movies, but still this movie is just fine if you happen to come across it when you're browsing through your streaming service library.

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