The American-Australian-Irish director Mel Gibson, who had accustomed us to a cinema with messages and great spectacle, signs with High risk flightin theaters Wednesday January 22, a feature film as thrilling as it is hilarious, in a rather successful mix of genres.
The federal agent Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) is tasked with escorting Winston (Topher Grace), a criminal, a key witness in a trial against the mafia, who negotiated his sentence in exchange for information against the criminal organization.
They board a small, rickety plane with Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg), at the controls, a more than shady pilot. The atmosphere in the small cabin of the plane, flying over the snow-covered mountains of Alaska, will quickly take a nasty turn.
The action of High risk flight takes place almost exclusively in the cramped and worrying space of this plane in poor condition, in the company of three protagonists with marked temperaments. Madelyn Dockery is a courageous but sensitive federal agent returning to the field after being confined to an office for serious misconduct in a previous mission. The real heroine is her.
Winston, with his appearance of a retarded teenager, is a real coward. However, he has an excellent sense of repartee. As for Daryl, the pilot, played by the excellent Mark Wahlberg, we don’t really know what he is capable of…
Mel Gibson has just been nominated by Donald Trump with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone “special ambassador to Hollywood”. “These three talented personalities will be my eyes and ears and I will do what they suggest. It will be about rediscovering, as for the United States of America, the golden age of Hollywood!” declared Donald Trump on his Truth Social network on Thursday, returning to the White House on Monday January 20.
-Of Bravehart (1995), at Apocalypto (2006), through You will not kill almost ten years ago, the 69-year-old director willingly officiated in the “militant” film with a conservative tone, some of which, like The Passion of Christ (2004), was accused of anti-Semitism upon his release. With High risk flightMel Gibson signs a feature film which marks a shift towards more lightness in his filmography.
With a screenplay by Jared Rosenberg which appeared on the “Black List” (list of American screenplays that have not yet found a buyer), Mel Gibson is part of the folklore of airplane thrillers, like Wings of Hell, Air Force One or Is there a pilot on the plane?the ambition of the film is limited (and succeeds rather well) to keeping the viewer in suspense, and to making them laugh to relax them between two twists and turns.
Served by an excellent cast, effective direction and often funny dialogues, this new film is high-level entertainment, which we will still find difficult to watch without having in mind the new mission entrusted to the director by Donald Trump.
Genre : Action
Director: Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace
Actors: Mel Gibson
Pays : UNITED STATES
Duration : 1h31
Sortie : January 22 2025
Distributer : Metropolitan FilmExport
Synopsis : US Marshals Madelyn Harris is tasked with escorting Winston, a criminal and informant, who will testify against a mafia boss. During their plane ride, she quickly becomes suspicious of the pilot, Daryl Booth, who does not seem to be the man he claims…
