What’s It About
A mercenary takes on the job of tracking a high-value asset known only as “The Ghost” on an international flight. Realizing the plane is filled with assassins assigned to kill them both, the pair must work together in a fight for their lives.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Josh Hartnett has never not been a comedic actor. Even when Hollywood was trying to turn him into a superstar, he could deliver a good joke. Check out “40 Days and 40 Nights” or “Lucky Number Slevin” if you need proof. More recently, he’s shown his grittier side in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap,” but that’s nothing compared to the wild, over-the-top action-comedy “Fight or Flight,” where he chainsaws his way through things. Hartnett has been keeping busy lately with various roles—he’s worked well in Guy Ritchie movies, his supporting turn in the Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer,” and he played the villain in “Trap.” In “Fight or Flight,” he gets to have some fun in a straightforward action comedy on an airplane. Amidst all the mayhem, Hartnett grins like he can’t believe he gets to act so crazily. He comes across as giving us the slightest of winks throughout. The thing that sets “Fight or Flight” apart is its own absurdity. Director James Madigan and writers Brooks McLaren and DJ Cotrona provide action non-stop from beginning to end, with Hartnett selling both the drama and the humor. The storyline is so simple: it’s an action movie on a plane. But it’s not so much “Con Air” or “Air Force One” as it is “Bullet Train” at 30,000 feet, and that’s what makes it such a blast. Hartnett plays Lucas Reyes, a fatigued mercenary drinking too much in Bangkok. His fortune changes when his former girlfriend and black ops boss, Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff), compels him to accept an assignment: get on a Bangkok-to-San Francisco flight to find and capture “Ghost,” a terrorist who possesses a lethal weapon. The twist: the plane is full of other mercenaries looking for Ghost and Lucas for the reward money. Hartnett has beach-blond hair, so he’s a surfer-killer kind of dude. He’s an armed mercenary who’s stuck in Bangkok because he got put on the No Fly List. The film is very scattered, and comparisons to “Bullet Train” are warranted—Hartnett has the same laid-back attitude that Brad Pitt had in that movie. There are elements of “Snakes on a Plane” because of all the mayhem that takes place in a small space. The movie completely ignores airplane reality, which honestly makes it more fun. Fight scenes aboard an airplane somehow do not bother the coach class passengers. After a shootout that leaves walls covered with blood and body parts, flight attendants just go back to serving drinks like nothing whatsoever happened. There is a brutal fight in a first-class bathroom so spacious you would think it was a luxury hotel room suite. Reyes isn’t your average lazy hero–he is completely disorganized, and at times, he has intense and violent fantasies. Fortunately, he is also able to fight hard and tough it out. He is stabbed, drugged, and shot by both the coach and the first-class travelers. And indeed, there’s a chainsaw on board the plane. What can Hartnett do with this chainsaw inside such a tight space? You have got to be kidding. Seriously, pity those poor guys in aisle seats. Obviously, we are not supposed to take any of this seriously. The film is intended to entertain every moment, and it succeeds. Mercenaries burst in out of nowhere, each with his or her own bizarre trick. At one point, Asian assassins burst in wearing full martial arts attire—just because! When one of the highlights involves chopping up enemies like in “Evil Dead II,” you know exactly what type of film this is. Yes, there are efforts to expose more of the characters. Lucas only takes the job to earn his freedom and return home. We meet flight attendant Isha (Charithra Chandran), whose role of helping others seems important. But these characters do not get beyond the surface level, with barely a glimpse of drama. It’s a big film for director Madigan, and I want to see what he can do with a bigger budget. The action sequences carry that slick 87North style found in “John Wick” and “Nobody”—extended takes with multiple players involved in ridiculous, over-the-top violence. The killers use objects such as flares, champagne glasses, and airplane seatbelts. My only complaint? We don’t see nearly enough of the great martial artist Marko Zaror, who appears for a minute or two in a largely comic relief role. Despite all the mayhem—Lucas is frequently drunk, drugged, or both—the action nonetheless appears realistic. The stunts, Matt Flannery’s cinematography, Ben Mills’ editing, and the special effects all deliver coherent and thrilling action. Hartnett is not as adept at fighting as Keanu Reeves, but he gets the job done. People die in very inventive ways, such as being used as a fire water spout or making a seatbelt into a lethal weapon. Strangely, the movie ignores the mechanics of planes, and this helps. The action sequences feel larger and more outrageous because they are not limited to real airplane areas. What the pilots do to continue flying so smoothly throughout all this is a mystery. “Fight or Flight” works because it does not take itself seriously. It might just catch on with fans of the genre and lead to additional films. Hartnett seems to have found a new genre, and I am eager to see him in another crazy flight in the near future. The movie moves very quickly, which is mostly good but also tiring. For one extended sequence, drugged Lucas experiences a strange animation. It’s funny, especially when those Asian assassins show up in his dream, but it doesn’t move the story forward one bit. We don’t need to witness the hallucination on Lucas’s face. The hallucination is incredibly strange, even for a movie that contains quite a lot of strange things. In the end, “Fight or Flight” provides exactly what you’d anticipate—a goofy, comedic action flick. It doesn’t try to redefine anything or be anything amazing, but it gets the job done with what it does. The movie is loud, crazy, and fun, and Hartnett’s acting is well-matched to that level of energy. I had a great time, and if you can embrace the zaniness, you will likely enjoy it too.
OUR RATING – A WILD 8