Movie Review: Fight or Flight

 

C-grade action flicks are a timeless staple of the film industry. In today's landscape, often times what happens is that some producers will enlist a mercenary director (Simon West, Renny Harlin, Jesse V. Johnson) and fading familiar Hollywood face (Aaron Eckhart, Thomas Jane, Stephen Dorff) to make something with a premise that can be explained in one sentence ("Ex-Green Beret must stop terrorist plot". "Hitman gets double crossed by his employers and must fight for survival", etc.) that can make a quick buck or two on the VOD/international sales market before swiftly reinvesting the profits and starting the cycle all over again. Fight or Flight shows that there's a different path forward for this ultraspecific subgenre. 

First time director James Madigan-whose been a VFX supervisor and second unit director for 20+ years-and star Josh Hartnett-who adds another notch to the zany character actor belt he's been carrying around since Guy Ritchie brought him back to Hollywood's big leagues in 2021's Wrath of Man with a hoot of a performance as a disgraced Secret Service Agent who has his extended exile in Thailand interrupted when his former flame (Katee Sackhoff) enlists him to track down an elusive cyber terrorist known only as "Ghost" on board a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco that just so happens to also have dozens of assassins from all over the world on board looking to kill "Ghost" before the plane lands-overcomes the burden of making a dumb, microbudget action flick designed to be half watched on a Roku through sheer gonzo energy. The fights being confined to a plane in mid-flight turns them into frantic, cartoonish mad dashes with choreography that is unrefined yet very creative and easy to follow, Madigan shows a pretty strong understanding of when to deploy an explicit joke and when to just let the ludicrousness of the plot speak for itself and Hartnett is having the time of his life playing around in the role of a perpetual fuckup trying to stay alive for long enough to potentially earn a chance at redemption (or at least not die on a plane doing his ex-girlfriend's dirty work). While the Bullet Train comparisons are inevitable given the "a bunch of trained killers let loose on a mode of transportation" plot, it's honestly more like a slightly less over-the-top version of something like Shoot' Em Up or Crank. Making an action movie with personality, fun fights and a real sense of madness in its DNA is a surefire way to make an impression and best of all, you can do that on any sized budget if the creative team is spirited and malleable enough. My hope is that the right people see Fight or Flight and get inspired to make action movies that use outside-the-box creative flourishes to jazz up well-worn premises. It's high time that VOD actioners stepped their shit up and Fight or Flight provides a blueprint for how that's possible without sacrificing the charm of this crucial ecosystem's shoddy production value and inherent grime.                 

Grade: B