A mercenary takes on the job of tracking down a target on a plane but must protect her when they’re surrounded by people trying to kill both of them.
Chuck says:
“’Bullet Train’ on a plane…with a lotta blood.”
I have a feeling that was the elevator pitch for James Madigan’s “Fight or Flight,” a derivative, gratuitously violent film that caters to those who find graphic chainsaw violence and frequent neck-snapping entertaining. Though it contains occasional flashes of wit, those fleeting moments are drowned out by the cacophony of violence that ensues. As is de rigueur in modern action movies, the chopping, shooting, punching and gouging becomes so frequent, thrills give way to tedium, which segues to a feeling of numbness that proves dispiriting.
Josh Hartnett, who has done little to capitalize on his “Oppenheimer” comeback by starring in this and the M. Night Shyamalan turkey “Trap,” is Lucas Reyes, an ex-secret service agent who’s intent on pickling his brain and liver in Bangkok. Seems he was once the best of the best, went over the line and blah, blah, blah is in need of redemption. He gets his chance when Director Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff) comes calling with a dire situation that needs handling.
Seems a terrorist, only known as the Ghost, has committed another in a long series of heinous acts and is heading to the Bangkok Airport. Not knowing what he looks like, Reyes is told to look for someone with a gunshot wound in the side. His job is to identify and apprehend the villain before the plane they’re on lands in San Francisco.
Worse premises have been made into good movies, but that is not the case here. I’m doing all authors a disservice by calling Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona screenwriters, but that’s who’s listed in the credits, so there you have it. One cliché after another follows as a contract has been put out on the Ghost and, wouldn’t you know it, the plane is filled with hitmen looking to collect. Not to be outdone by this stroke of brilliance, McLaren and Cotrona include a scene that finds Reyes high, seeing things in a distorted, psychedelic manner before plucking the army of assassins from Central Casting. Oh, and when they find themselves stuck in their vain efforts to write pithy dialogue, they throw in the “F-Bomb” here and there. You’re more likely to stumble across a gorilla in the lobby of the Ritz, than find any wit in this movie.
To Madigan’s credit, he does keep this mess moving yet, in the end, he’s to blame for how the film’s violence is depicted. While some directors rely on characters’ reactions to impart the severity of the mayhem in their movies, Madigan belongs to the legions of unimaginative filmmakers who mistakenly think showing someone being impaled or having a chainsaw thrust through them is effective and entertaining. Instead of being cartoonish and intended as parody, “Flight” wallows in its sophomoric approach, gleefully portraying one graphic killing after the next as a stylish act to be marveled at and cackled over. As such, this is a movie pitched at teens, the ones who get their kicks pulling wings off flies.
I suppose I’ve seen too many movies, and little will seem fresh or inventive to me and I’m aware that, as I age, my crotchety side is growing. I’m quite sure I’ll be yelling at the neighborhood kids about their presence on my lawn soon enough. Yet, when I see something like “Flight,” I can’t help but be disgusted by the laziness and lack of imagination playing out before me. How something like this could be entertaining or who would find it as such boggles my mind. Obviously, my becoming an anachronism snuck up on me.
1/2 Star
