Mel Gibson | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

One of the first things to recognize about the new Mark Wahlberg movie “Flight Risk” is that on all the movie posters there is a very small mention of director Mel Gibson. The reasons for this are because of Gibson’s drunken rant with police on July 28, 2006, which included anti-Semitic remarks and other offensive comments. Ultimately this incident 18 years ago derailed Gibson’s career in Hollywood. Gibson has had some comebacks over the years, most notably, directing the movie “Hacksaw Ridge”, released in 2016, arguably one of the greatest war movies ever produced. Considering this incident from 2006 and the ones that followed, it is rather remarkable that Gibson continues to work in the film industry.

The other issue I found unusual about this film is that Mark Wahlberg, who plays a small plane pilot who is a murderer working for a mob boss, shaved his head, with the idea that Wahlberg would look more evil if he was bald. Mark Wahlberg can play an evil person without being bald, so risking a shaved head for a movie (what if it does not grow back?) made no sense for this role.

The story of Flight Risk is a simple one. A former accountant for a Mob boss has evidence that can put him in jail. Unfortunately, this accountant, Winston, played very well by Topher Grace has tried to run away to Alaska only to be captured by an FBI agent Madolyn played by Michelle Dockery in a run-down Motel. Typical of Alaska, the only way to transport Winston out of the remote from where he was found to Anchorage is by chartering a small plane. This plane was piloted by a hit man hired by the Mob boss, Daryl, played by Mark Wahlberg. The first flaw here is when the FBI is involved they would hire their own pilot and use their own government plane, never risking what happened in this story. Once again Topher Grace seems to play himself in this story, recognizing him rather than his character, who is a nervous self-deprecating weak man.

After the first 15 minutes of this 87-minute movie is the interaction between the three characters as Madolyn figures out that Daryl is not the real pilot, and fights with him violently several times, eventually using her Tazer to subdue him. What follows is Madolyn figuring out via radio contact with her co-workers at the FBI that there is a mole that created this dire situation on this small plane that almost crashes into the mountains several times as Madolyn desperately tries to land with the help of an air traffic controller in Anchorage.

Overall, I thought this was a solid action movie with a believable plot and action scenes. This film does play like a typical January B movie release, but it will hold your interest throughout the 87 minutes.

I can only guess that the extremely low 21% Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are because of the ongoing hatred of Mel Gibson, with my rating 70% and a moderate recommendation for the acting and believable story and action scenes.

In the world of producers and movie making, its all about buying that hot story before anyone else does, so down the road, if your lucky it might be made into a movie. True stories are always the best when it comes to movies, especially if the story is great and the film is made with quality. The surprising thing about “Father Stu” is that the story, which is good, does not seem strong enough to make a movie about. “A former boxer, down and out on his luck, tries to be an actor in Hollywood, and then a butcher in a Super Market, finds the right woman, only to get into a major Motorcycle accident where he is almost killed. While in a coma he sees a vision and wants to become a priest – only to get a rare muscle disease that robs him of most bodily functions”.

Not to give anything else away, most of this story is engrossing, although boring in too many areas, making what could have been much better just an average movie. The acting is good throughout with Mark Wahlberg as Father Stu, and Mel Gibson (who seems to have survived as an actor) as his father. The most interesting aspect of this production is the extreme weight loss and weight gain Mark Wahlberg had to do within the timeline of this story, that has to be very dangerous to anyone’s health.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Father Stu are an understandable 41% with a much higher audience rating. My rating is a passable 65% with no recommendation to see this film.