Flight Risk
Lionsgate | Release Date: January 24, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
10
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
IndieWireChristian ZilkoJan 23, 2025
But when evaluated as a work of pure craftsmanship, Flight Risk is some of the finest stupidity Hollywood has gifted us in a long time. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 23, 2025
“We should be home in about 90 minutes or so,” Wahlberg chirpily informs his passengers just before take-off. That’s the film’s pledge to its audience too: some ups, some downs, then safely into land. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlan NgJan 24, 2025
Flight Risk is a fun yet simple and straightforward thriller where you have a general sense of where things are headed at first, and then Gibson pulls in a surprise or two or three. Read full review
70
IGNEmma StefanskyJan 23, 2025
Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk manages to entertain despite goofy dialogue and the equally goofy concept of a U.S. Marshal and the prisoner she’s transporting finding themselves onboard a tiny plane with a killer. The character types are familiar and the story is simple, but there’s enough panache to keep it in the air right up until its explosive ending. Read full review
67
Original-CinThom ErnstJan 24, 2025
While there are a few twists in the film, much like the certainty of a flight delay, none arrive unexpectedly. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 27, 2025
Very silly, but pulpy fun. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerJan 24, 2025
It won’t win any awards for originality but Flight Risk is a fun, unpretentious, tight 91 minutes — especially if you’ve always jonesed to see Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary cream someone with a fire extinguisher. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 23, 2025
The film is, of course, very silly, but diverting and ingenious, and contains game performances from Wahlberg, Dockery and Grace. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 24, 2025
At best, Gibson’s direction could be considered pedestrian. He fails to generate much tension prior to the climax and the characters never do enough to engage the viewer. The protagonists are bland and the villain lacks charisma. Read full review
50
SlashfilmWitney SeiboldJan 24, 2025
In execution, it feels like a neophyte director's confident first turn. Perhaps shabby, but well-meaning, and only occasionally straining against its obviously limited means.  Read full review
50
ColliderJeff EwingJan 23, 2025
Some elements and moments are effective, but they're layered with subplot details, character performances, and related choices that don't work as well as intended, firmly grounding an otherwise promising concept. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJan 23, 2025
Flight Risk manages to deliver some high-altitude thrills in its breathlessly paced 91 minutes. But its clunky dialogue, uneven performances and less-than-grade-A special effects ultimately make it the Spirit Airlines of airborne thrillers. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubAndy CrumpJan 23, 2025
Over-writing doesn’t delay Flight Risk’s pace or tension; Wahlberg does. The actor ended up apologizing for his boneheaded 9/11 remarks not long after making them. Maybe one day he’ll apologize for Flight Risk, too. Read full review
50
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerJan 23, 2025
Truly, Flight Risk has its funny moments, though none of them are funnier than when the end credits start and you’re reminded, once again, that this movie was directed by Mel Gibson. Read full review
42
The Film StageChristian GallichioJan 27, 2025
Flight Risk is never as campy as it should be. Read full review
39
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJan 24, 2025
Anyway, it’s also weird to find a mediocre straight-to-DVD action movie inside of a major movie theater, instead of in the bargain bin at a Big Lots in 2010. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comClint WorthingtonJan 24, 2025
As it sits in this passenger’s estimation, “Flight Risk” is a supremely bumpy ride that doesn’t quite justify its logline. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 24, 2025
There’s paranoia and airborne suspense, tension and personal, in-your-face violence. But it’s glib as all get out, dumb when it isn’t being glib and not nearly as much fun as Gibson seems to think he’s made it out to be. Read full review
38
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerJan 23, 2025
Flight Risk feels like a free-floating outlet for a little bit of rage and a little bit of shtick, both Mad Mel standbys that he seems unwilling to really examine, within these confines or elsewhere. Read full review
30
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonJan 23, 2025
Where Flight Risk fails as a film is not really Gibson’s fault. He knows how to shoot action sequences. The screenplay is instead all over the place, in a way that feels tired and halfhearted. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussJan 24, 2025
It’s just not very fun or engaging. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineMark HansonJan 23, 2025
Given that Mel Gibson makes little attempt to instill any sense of physicality to this dispiritingly paint-by-numbers affair, it becomes easy to understand the marketing of the film’s 4DX theatrical option as an act of overcompensation. Read full review
20
We Got This CoveredCharlotte SimmonsJan 27, 2025
From the opening scene, 'Flight Risk's dreary tedium makes a mission out of turning viewers into flight risks in their own right. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJan 23, 2025
It’s a mess of a movie, and no amount of threatening huffing and puffing on Wahlberg’s part can make it worthwhile. Read full review
20
VarietyTodd GilchristJan 23, 2025
A crude, unimaginative, suspenseless adventure whose tension mostly derives from deciding which of its three main characters will prove the most unlikable by the time it ends. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesJan 23, 2025
We live in an age choked with unfunny comedy, from winking advertisements to recycled memes to the limp quips that punctuate most superhero movies, and yet Flight Risk still stands out for the laughless void that opens up beneath its putative comic relief. It’s almost eerie. Read full review
9
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 23, 2025
A C-grade thriller that is further dumbed down to dunce-cap calibre, Flight Risk might have worked as an enjoyably grimy piece of genre trash had Gibson not made every single wrong directorial decision along the way. Read full review
0
The Associated PressMark KennedyJan 23, 2025
But no one emerges unscathed from this funny-when-it-shouldn’t-be mess. The movie’s slogan is the weird “Y’all Need a Pilot?” but it should be “Y’all Need a Filmmaker?” Read full review
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