Fight or Flight

Wow what to say about fight or flight? Well for starters it's absolutely bonkers! The action certainly never lets up a la crank. Unfortunately Josh hartnett is no Jason Statham but does a adequate job as the rogue FBI agent sent on one last job to redeem himself from the worldiness. Katie sackhoff play's his straight laced permanently scowling boss. The action mostly takes place aboard a aircraft en route to San Francisco full of assassins baying for hartnetts blood and one Very demure air hostess who isn't all she appears to be. The action set pieces are excellently choreographed especially the absolutely bonkers chainsaw sequence at the end I kid you not! But it's all in good fun and played out purely tongue in cheek! Leave your brain at the door, Go and enjoy!!

This film was better than I expected. Is it a masterpiece, definitely not, is it the worst thing I've ever seen definitely not.

It's very 90s esq cheesy action film based around a group of assasins trying to kill someone on a plane while a drunk former secret service operative tries to save her. Do not watch this film expecting to see an Oscar worthy great.

However, Josh Hartnett is really good and carries the film well. It's the first thing I've seen Charithra Chandran in and thought she was really good to. The action is over the top and stupid but at the same time entertaining.

The worst thing about the movie is the ending where the film is left unfinished and set up for a sequel, which is a huge pet hate of mine.

I always used to have some soft corner for Josh Hartnett and was sad that over the years he didn't get a proper script to showcase his skills. The last good movie of his that I watched was Lucky Number Slevin and may be you can count 30 Days of Night too and since then I was expecting something good but didn't get any. Thanks to Guy Ritchie for bringing him back in Wrath of Man which somehow brought him into the limelight and he got to work with good directors from there on (sort of like KEANU REEVES who by the way is one of my favourites).

Fight or Flight is simply John wick on a plane but added a bit of humour to it so that the audiences won't find it to be boring and repetitive and added to that the surprise ending by the director made it more interesting. I never knew Josh could perform such slick moves and I hope he had fun filming them. Just for Josh and his never before stunts you could give this a try.

Fight or Flight is an unashamed genre mash-up that doesn't so much blend action and comedy as throw them into the overhead lockers and take off at full speed. Josh Hartnett leans into the absurdity with the same gusto Bruce Campbell brought to Evil Dead. All flailing limbs, deadpan one-liners, and a face that says, "I did not sign up for this." The film knows exactly what it is and, more importantly, what it isn't. It's not trying to be clever. It's trying to be fun, and it is.

There's a clear nod to Campbell's Ash in the way Hartnett navigates chaos. He somehow manages to be both the straight man and the punchline. At times, the film flirts with the ridiculousness of Snakes on a Plane. Just when you think it can't get more over-the-top, it throws in a set piece straight out of the John Wick playbook; if Wick were running on fumes and duct tape.

The violence is cartoonish. The humour lands more often than not. The pacing is tight enough to keep you buckled in. It's the kind of film that winks at the audience without smugness and invites you to enjoy the ride. You will.

It's a solid 7.5 out of 10. Not because it redefines the genre, but because it remembers what so many films forget. If you're going to be ridiculous, be really good at it.

I was really impressed with Josh's Peter Lorresque turn in last year's underrated Trap. However after a long lay-off to raise a family his choices have been kind of sketchy, and something about his essential midwestern idealism doesn't read as a jaded former operative called out of his drunken stupor in Thailand to find a spy on a transcontinental flight back to the states. There's kind of an interesting Agatha Christie quality to his queries of whom on the flight it could be between the usual "when are they adding stunt work as an Oscars category?" over-choreographed fight scenes, but the film of course feels cobbled together from familiar sources (the expletive-filled lazy dialogue in the agency with a strangely Jessica Chastainesque Katee Sackoff made one miss the subtleties of Black Book). The film offered intriguing questions ("Is there really a full shower offered in Malaysian Business Class?"), but it'd be neat if say the BBC did a series about the flight crew of one of these snazzy flights alone rather than having Liam, Brad or Josh beating up people around them; they seem like an interesting, fun bunch. Oh well, caught my favorite two minutes of Pugh and Harbour in Thunderbolts again and Gene Hackman marathon on TCM tonight. Good enough for me. Cheers!