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‘Flight Risk’ Review: Mel Gibson’s Latest Directorial Effort Stalls Before It Gets Off the Ground
A marketing campaign that splashes Gibson's earlier acclaimed earlier films — but not his name — holds an unflattering mirror to this uninspiring action thriller.
Working from a Black List darling of a script by up-and-comer Jared Rosenberg, Gibson recruits his “Father Stu” co-star Mark Wahlberg to play the villain in a containment thriller that doesn’t even need Academy Award-winning talent, just basic proficiency and a bit of finesse in order to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. The filmmakers reportedly shot the aerial sequences using The Volume, the state-of-the-art soundstage that produces (supposedly) photorealistic backdrops, but Gibson seems out of his depth with the technology, and the end result is less convincing than one of the painted landscapes that might have been used in his “Air America” days. This “humor pass” to the script ends up making Dockery, Grace and Wahlberg seem like they’re playing at their roles instead of inhabiting them, and as a consequence, the few actual moments of quiet feel uncomfortably stifling — like no one, least of all Gibson, knew what to do to breathe life into them.
Or read this on Variety
