Yes, the movie is called Flight Risk. And yes, funnily enough we’re up in the air for most of the screentime. Sure, there’s an opening scene where we’re on the ground and some ending scenes where we’re on the ground, but be real. Viewers don’t go see this movie for the ground antics. The trailer lets you know that all that action’s taking place in the helicopter, and that’s what goes down (or…up?). In The Other Guys, Mark Wahlberg’s comedic magnum opus, he makes it clear to his superiors that he’s a peacock, and they’ve gotta let him fly. He doesn’t fly, but that’s not the point. A flying peacock is seen at the end of that film, but no matter.
And guess what? Wahlberg does fly in this one. But not really fly. He flies a helicopter. But he’s not a peacock. Nor is he a CGI peacock with Mark Wahlberg’s voice. No, as a recent Robbie Williams biopic showed, CGI animals aren’t exactly top box office fare at this particular point in time. But anyway. There’s a woman who has to transfer a witness from one location to another location to testify against a notorious gangster, but Wahlberg’s helicopter pilot turns out to have other plans pretty much straight from the off. That’s not a spoiler, by the way. It’s in the plot. It’s in the darn trailer.
Wahlberg puts in a decent bit of effort as the deranged lead, and his accent goes about as haywire as the helicopter once the good guys try to take it over. Initially he’s got that Cleetus the Slack-Jawed Yokel shtick when the characters get on board the helicopter, but then it reverts back to a New York drawl once his game’s been exposed. He makes for a bit of decent cheesy fun, but weirdly, he’s not actually in the film that much. A lot of the movie’s admittedly short running time is taken up by Michelle Dockery’s Marshal and Topher Grace’s hyperactive accountant. And a lot of the sound stuff doesn’t make sense. The two good people are talking in the front of the helicopter trying to find a way home when Mark Wahlberg’s baddie clearly would be able to hear them, but he doesn’t. Hey, it’s an action film, it doesn’t need to make sense. Some emotional heft is injected here and there with lame twists and some weak emotional backstory, but nothing really sticks. Other films have done the crazy flight guy film much more effectively (see: Red Eye, Con Air). If you need a short distraction from life on the ground, though, this risk-free flight might distract you for a moment or two.