TV Dad Guest Take: Flight Risk (2025) Movie Review

This passionate movie review is from my wife, Lily. She watched Flight Risk so you don’t have to.

When I first saw the trailer for the American action thriller Flight Risk back in January, I thought wait a minute, this movie is going to solely take place in a small plane? I instantly knew I would not be watching this in theaters because I felt that this was a movie that I could wait to watch at home. Of course, my instincts were right. Directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg as Daryl, the movie is about a female U.S. Marshal that is tasked with transporting a government witness to trial on a small plane from Alaska all the way to New York. The action starts to pick up once the passengers board the plane and they meet their pilot because at this point the viewers are able to see that one of them is not who they seem to be.

I knew I would watch this film despite the 5.3/10 rating from IMDb. I mean, did you guys not see Mark Wahlberg in the 1996 American psychological thriller movie, Fear? If Mark is going to be cast in a movie, it is a given that I will be watching it. This girl is a fan. However, this movie was not my cup of tea. As of right now you can watch this film on STARZ or you can pay to rent/buy it on Prime. Viewer beware!

First and foremost, I could not get past the acting. Topher Grace in my opinion did a better job as David Duke in BlacKkKlansman. His role as Winston in this movie, or Winnie, as Wahlberg liked to call him was very dull for me. Winston did not look like a kidnapped government witness who almost lost his life throughout this film. I mean they even said that his mother could be in harms way and that didn’t spark a real worried reaction from him either. I would rewatch BlacKkKlansman right now if it meant that I could erase what I saw in Flight Risk.

Furthermore, Madolyn (Michelle Dockery) should have never been cast as a U.S. Marshal. She was not professional in her role as a marshal and when she realized that her mission was compromised, she completely forgot that she was carrying a satellite phone with her. I was at a loss for words here. To make matters worse, when she was able to reach her office for help, she was practically flirting with the pilot they connected her with to help her fly the plane. You’re flying 3,000 feet above land and although you were almost murdered and could still potentially get murdered again, you are giggling on the phone with the pilot who is supposed to help you land the plane? What’s more, throughout the film she is not looking forward through the windshield to see where the plane is traveling and if they’re going to hit a mountain or something. Definitely not believable.

Before we learned that Wahlberg was tasked with eliminating Winston, I was not able to take him seriously with the weird accent he carried and all of the terrible gum chewing that he was doing.  Also, his verbiage was atrocious. Wahlberg said things like chuckles, ruff ruff, and hot damn. Even his jokes throughout the film were a joke. The dialogue seemed forced. It almost seemed as though Wahlberg really believed that he was an animal more so than a human with the constant snarling that he was doing and the fact that he didn’t care if the plane hit a mountain.

Let’s not forget the part where his cap got yanked off during a struggle and the viewers learned that he’s practically bald. I have to admit, I shut down. I have never seen Wahlberg as a bald actor. I almost turned off the movie, but I continued to watch it because I wanted to know if the plane was going to find a ground to land on or if it would crash. Having said that, I will not spoil the ending. It’s up to you if you want to see this for yourself.

Let’s just say that If people still bought DVDs, I think that this movie would have only released that way. Even Mel Gibson was surprised when this became his shortest-directed film. If I am being honest, I think this should have been a hint not to release it in theaters.

-Lily N.

[as posted to TV Dad Takes]