There have been a pleasing number of films lately that feel like a showcase for member of the stunt team community, and Fight Or Flight is another one. It's all about a mercenary (Lucas Reyes, played by Josh Hartnett) who is assigned to track down a terrorist target on a plane. Nobody knows what the target looks like, although people are working on it, but the plane is full of other people also looking to catch them. There's a big bounty on their head. There's also a big bounty put on the head of Lucas. And everyone knows what he looks like.
Director James Madigan and writers Brooks McLaren and D. J. Cotrona may be relative newcomers to their roles, but you wouldn't know that from the final result onscreen. Fight Or Flight is a hugely entertaining way to spend 101 minutes, making the most of a simple premise to deliver fights and bloodshed that will amuse, entertain, and make you wince in equal measure. This is not for the faint-hearted, particularly in a third act that brilliantly escalates both the comedy and the kills.
While the film feels as if it has been string together between a number of inventive fight sequences (which, for all I know, is how it was constructed), it's worth noting that McLaren and Cotrona still do plenty to make you root for our desperate "hero". He has some past error or transgression that has to be fixed, and that also gives us an idea of his moral compass, and the style of the comedy mixes some great dialogue with physical gags in a way that works much better than us just being alongside someone ready with a quip after every kill. The script and direction also have enough style and energy to distract you from the factors used to work within what I imagine was a relatively modest budget.
It helps enormously that Hartnett brings his not-insubstantial charisma to the main role. He's having a lot of fun once again (as he did in the otherwise-disappointing Trap), and he feels very capable when it comes to the fight moves. Katee Sackhoff is the one delivering the mission parameters and instructions via telephone, and she's enjoyably ruthless, while other notable people on the plane are played by Charithra Chandran, Hughie O'Donnell, JuJu Chan Szeto, and Sanjeev Kohli. Julian Kostov is also very good, stuck alongside Sackhoff for most of the runtime, trying to manipulate the whole situation towards the most favourable outcome, which doesn't necessarily mean any good for the survival of our lead, and the majority of other performers look very ready to deal or receive some fatal battery.
There are times when you may want to catch up on all of the movies nominated for the Oscars, there are times when you just want something simple that aims to entertain. I've done the former already this year (well . . . almost). Then I was ready to watch Josh Hartnett punch a lot of people in the face. If only they'd managed some kind of crossover promotional campaign during the long and self-serving speech that Adrien Brody gave when he won the Best Actor award this year then it could have been a glorious blend of both worlds.
8/10
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