“Mel Gibson?!” is what I said when his directing credit popped at the end of the film. I hadn’t seen the trailer to have his ‘from the director of” credit show (without naming names) so I was surprised.

The flick is about an FBI agent taking a witness from Alaska to the Lower 48 so he can testify against a gangster. She’s Michelle Dockery and he’s Topher “I’m not neurotic, you’re neurotic” Grace. Their pilot of their tiny airplane is a cornfed, down-on-the-farm Mark Wahlberg… so you know he’s up to no good.

My main takeaway is that this is a fun, sometimes campy comedy thriller… leaning a little more on thriller than the comedy. It pretty much stays in the small aircraft the whole time and you could argue they struggle to find enough to do in there. And they do struggle… but there’s enough back and forth between the agent, the goofball, and whatever in hell Marky Mark is doing in any given scene.

Probably Wahlberg is the best and worst part of the film. Worst because you immediately know he’s up to no good and that, yeah, he ain’t ever dead yet (they paid too much for him). Maybe some more neutral casting would have given this thriller a little mystery.

Probably also both Dockery and Grace are the best parts too. He’s genuinely funny in a “will you shut up already!” kind of way. He’s a talker. She’s great at no-nonsense desperation and calculation. I liked her performance so much I’m hoping for a sequel (Flight Risk 2: Cruise Control?).

Probably could have used some minutes shaved off to keep the small location hopping, but generally a fairly good time in a tiny plane. Good actors lead the charge and Mel Gibson might be working below his usual speed, but he’s also still in movie jail so he probably takes what he can get.

Score; 78