by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Josh Hartnett, Charithra Chandran, Katee Sackhoff
Intro:
… does what B-movie action does best: Uncomplicated but skilful fun.
After a lengthy career in visual effects and later second unit directing, with a resume that stretches from Waterworld to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, James Madigan makes his directorial debut with a high-concept, cheap-and-nasty B-actioner. And no, ‘cheap-and-nasty’ isn’t a pejorative in this case, because this film is all kinds of gnarly fun.
Josh Hartnett is going for broke here. While he’s experienced a resurgence off the back of eclectic script picks over the past couple of years, his performance here as the sad drunk badass Lucas gives off prime Nicolas Cage energy. Whether he’s tripping balls after an unfortunate adrenaline dose, channelling his inner Ash Williams with a chainsaw, or cringing through a fellow passenger’s sudden song-and-dance number, he gives his all in every single moment and just about holds the film’s non-violent passages together.
Most of the supporting cast are trying to kill Lucas on a plane, and while there’s a few ally characters, Hartnett has to do most of the heavy lifting on his own.
Knowing Madigan’s history with visual effects, it’s initially a bit disappointing just how evident the CGI blood is during the action scenes. Granted, such things rarely (if ever) look right, and again, that’s only “initially”, as the film’s absolute chaos is more than a distraction from the finer production details.
Once the fight scenes kick in, they are relentless and not only show solid variety (even without getting into the presence of kung-fu monks in the mix), but the fight choreography is wonderful to watch unfold, and not just because the camera actually lets the audience watch it rather than just rely on camera shakes. The delirious effect of all these hard blows and wince-inducing slices and stabs only increases as more and more combatants get involved. The confined setting may have traces of Bullet Train and even Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s Kill, but the ‘holy shit!’ factor that this film brings is all its own.
Oh yeah, there is apparently a story behind all the fighting. Most of the dialogue is either quips during fights or reactions, but there is actual effort made to flesh things out a bit more. Between Lucas and the mysterious ‘Ghost’ that he’s been assigned to protect mid-air, there’s commentary on the military industrial complex, the technocracy’s complicity in worldwide atrocities, and it even dabbles in grey-ish morality about doing the right thing… even if it means punching your boss’ brother in the face.
But overall, it’s much lighter in tone than all of this might be making it sound. Madigan himself admitted that he didn’t want to just make “John Wick on a plane”, and with the scope of the battles on display, it often feels like a direct parody of how widespread the High Table’s influence is in that franchise. This carries over even into the sequel-bait ending, where that same insistence that the franchise must continue is given a nice cheeky poke in the ribs. Fight Or Flight does what B-movie action does best: Uncomplicated but skilful fun.
Whatever deficiencies exist with the visuals or narrative are easily compensated by the commitment of the cast and stunt team to the fight scenes, while keeping a healthy sense of humour about itself. It’s not likely to set the world on fire, but if you’re the kind of viewer who is still annoyed at the lack of a Stunts category at the Oscars, you’ll be flying pretty with this one. Embrace the turbulence.
