I sit in with hosts Jim Richards and Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence” and the sky high “Flight Risk.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence,” the sky high “Flight Risk” and the crusty drama of “Hard Truths.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence” and the sky high “Flight Risk.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I give you the perfect libation to enjoy while watching the Mark Wahlberg actioner “Flight Risk.”
Listen to Booze & Reviews HERE!
Listen to Richard on the best and worst Hollywood has to offer HERE!
SYNOPSIS: A thriller set 3000 feet above the earth’s surface, “Flight Risk” sees a U.S. Marshal, a government witness and a hitman at odds on a small plane flying from Anchorage, Alaska to Seattle, Washington.
CAST: Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace. Michelle Dockery. Directed by Mel Gibson.
REVIEW: “Flight Risk” is the kind of movie Hollywood used to make all the time. Start with a simple premise—US Marshall Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) transporting an important government witness (Topher Grace) from the wilds of Alaska to Seattle—add in an unusual location—a rickety cargo plane—some human drama—Harris has a traumatic past—and a wildcard—the pilot (Mark Wahlberg) isn’t who he seems—and you have a simple, throwback thriller in the vein of “Phone Booth” or “Shut In.”
Essentially a chamber piece in the sky, 99% of the film happens on board the plane chartered to move Winston, an accountant with verbal diarrhea. “This isn’t a private plane,” he says of the rough cargo transport. “This is kite with seatbelts.”
It’s a tight space for the tightly constructed thriller and while it doesn’t exactly offer up much new in the way of plot developments, it makes the most of what its working with.
Basically a three-hander, “Flight Risk” gives “Downton Abbey’s” Lady Mary a chance to kick some as and Grace gets to crack wise. Only Wahlberg, with a Larry the Cable Guy accent, is underused. He isn’t given all that much to do except be bald and bad, both of which he pulls off.
They are all stock characters; there’s the uptight cop haunted by her past, the obnoxious, scared witness and a psychopath who loves his work a little too much. “I do this for free,” he says. “I do it for the fun.” They all behave pretty much the way you expect them to, so there’s not much in the way of surprises from the lead trio.
The movie’s biggest surprise is that it’s directed by Mel Gibson. His name is conspicuously absent from the trailer, although it is trumpeted in the closing credits. Gibson keeps things taut, following Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s rule, “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don’t put it there.” You see the flare gun, so you know later the flare gun will be used. In a stripped-down movie like this, the details matter, and Gibson ensures that nothing is extraneous.
“Flight Risk” is a straightforward, old-fashioned thriller with a little bit of human drama, a conspiracy theory or two, some good versus evil and a whole lotta tension. It doesn’t reinvent the form but is reliable in its ability to move you to the edge of your seat.
