By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
It should come as no surprise that this is a poor-quality film with very little entertainment value. “Fight or Flight” is a one-person-army action flick, while also trying unsuccessfully to be humorous, featuring Josh Hartnett. The story is weakly constructed, designed to simply unleash a plethora of assassins aboard the tight confines of a jetliner and create chaotic carnage.
Former special agent Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) is hiding out in the slums of Thailand attempting to drink his life away until he receives an unexpected call from his ex-girlfriend and former boss, Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff), who now oversees a secret government agency. Even though their relationship ended poorly with Lucas holding a two-year grudge, Katherine desperately needs his services to board a flight bound for San Francisco and locate a secret target known only as the Ghost.
Lucas has his work cut out for him, because not only does he not know what this individual looks like, he is also unknowingly surrounded by cutthroat assassins looking to kill the same shadowy figure. When the plane full of murderers receive Lucas’ picture as another target, all hell breaks loose aboard the passenger jet. Lucas must fight his way through the gaggle of mercenaries to keep himself and the target alive.
Once again, this is another directorial debut gone awry, with James Madigan getting his first chance in the director’s chair and falling victim to numerous rookie mistakes. It starts with lazy writing at its worst. There is zero character development, absolutely no backstories, and the dialogue is cliched to the point of eye rolling tedium. So, Madigan simply forces scenes for the sole purpose of setting up an action romp aboard the airplane, regardless of how silly and unbelievable the premise may be. The concept is an obvious rip-off of “Bullet Train” minus the screen presence and charm of Brad Pitt, not to mention storytelling.
Relying solely on action sequences to generate some entertainment value, Madigan succeeds to a certain extent. The fight choreography is actually very well done with solid cinematography to capture all the action. Most of the film’s creativity is invested in these scenes with unique kill moments involving all manner of items aboard the plane. Madigan tarnishes these scenes with unnecessary, excessive gore and all kinds of ridiculous items that somehow find their way on the plane like a chainsaw. Then there are his attempts at humor which fall pitifully flat, leaving the audience groaning from the unwelcome assault on their ears.
While Josh Hartnett has demonstrated capable talent, he doesn’t always choose good roles as evidenced by this film and last year’s “Trap.” He does a fairly decent job in “Fight or Flight,” overcoming poorly written dialogue with believable line delivery, facial reactions, and excellent choreography execution. Towards the end of the film, he slips by infusing his character with a manic hysteria that becomes off-putting for viewers.
The rest of the cast is underwhelming with B- to-D level actors, none of whom deliver a decent performance worth mentioning. In fact, their characters are all props with no depth, simply lining up to fulfill their only purpose which is to get killed by the main character. Without any meaningful impact, they are all just fodder unworthy of audience attention.
As one-man army movies go, this is nearly as bad as “Love Hurts” earlier this year with a paper-thin story riddled with holes saved only by the exciting fight scenes. “Fight or Flight” is utterly brainless and should have remained grounded. Those who enjoy mindless action with over-the-top scenarios may get some satisfaction from this film, but you would be better off watching action classics from the 1980’s like “Commando.” At least with those, there is actually an attempt at storytelling.
This movie earns:
