Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace, and Michelle Dockery
Directed by Mel Gibson
Rated R
Streaming on Starz, and available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video

First Impression: “Flight Risk” is an edge-of-your-seat action adventure movie that is intense and suspenseful and sometimes so over the top it comes across as unintentionally funny. It’s not going to be the best action adventure movie you’ve ever seen, but it’s not bad, and worth watching with fellow action film lovers.

But first, let me step back here to examine the action adventure genre as regards the movie “Flight Risk.” As I’ve stated before, when it comes to discussing action adventure movies, they are usually the genre that gets the least amount of respect. They often get overlooked at awards events. Even at the box office when it comes to revenue, these films can be easily forgotten and skipped over by the general film audience.

But I have good news here, because “Flight Risk” just happens to be one of those action adventure films that should not be overlooked, nor forgotten. “Flight Risk” reminds me of an underrated 2005 action thriller, “Red Eye,” starring Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy where Murphy was blackmailing McAdams and threatening to kill her father if she didn’t change hotel room reservations for a U.S. senator, so his hit-man associates could get a clean view to assassinate him. That movie is unique because most of it took place on a commercial flight: the cramped limited space on the plane led to very tense and exciting action and you weren’t quite sure how the movie was going to play out. “Flight Risk” is very much in the same vein as “Red Eye” in that most of the movie takes place on a small commuter plane where we see FBI agent (Dockery) arrest a nerdy accountant who’s been moving money for the mob (Grace) and she needs to take him to Anchorage to get him to testify against the evil mob boss. This is where things get interesting, as the plane’s pilot (Wahlberg) is in fact a mob enforcer sent to kill the nerdy accountant and FBI agent. I don’t want to give away any more of this plot because it’s so fun and exciting to watch it unfold.

“Flight Risk” isn’t going to be the best movie made this year but it’s a very fun and intense summer popcorn movie that can even be a little cheesy, mostly from the over-the-top performance by Mark Wahlberg as the main villain. Oh, and one spoiler I can give you is that his character is wearing a very bad toupee… later in the film Wahlberg loses that toupee and is seen in a very bad bald-skin cap that looks even faker than the toupee in the first place! It made me laugh quite a bit and root even more for the character’s demise.

Final Verdict 3 out of 5 stars