3 out of 5

Directed by: James Madigan

Of the various waves of cinematic action that have emerged since the 00s, the confluence of single-shot (or less erratically edited) / well-blocked sequences and “actor does his own stunts” flicks has provided for quite an impressive stream of better-than-average movies. Plotwise, they’re very samey; cinematically, they can be hit or miss, but are at least often experimental for the sake of getting us ever closer to the action; blow-by-blow, though, we’re getting a wild amount of fun fisticuffs per film, with the added quirk of seeing so-and-so ramp themselves up for genres which may not’ve previously been their fortes.

The so-and-so in Fight or Flight is Josh Hartnett, one of the off-brand Brad Pitts from back in the day who survived to establish his own brand by making interesting movie selections, leading to a fairly sparse appearance rate until the 2020s seem to bring him back in full. Hartnett has definitely played the badass before, but his ex-CIA operative in Flight, Lucas, is of a particularly disheveled mode – a very capable John McClane – that’s lately reserved for actors only once they’re in their 40s, and frankly looks perfect on Hartnett at this point in his career. It’s not for nothing that FoF has been compared to other very similar movies (particularly Bullet Train), but just as the actor made his mark amidst a pool of similar-seeming heartthrobs, his presentation here absolutely sticks out in a positive way: Hartnett gives the movie its swagger, where it might otherwise by trying a bit too hard.

Also on board is first time director James Madigan, whose experience with VFX on prior films helps keep Fight or Flight – no pun intended – grounded, as the action frenzy, wild choreography aside, requires a keen mind to keep it uncluttered and flowing, and that’s definitely one of the films best traits: it ebbs and flows from dialogue to intensities with precision, and doesn’t really break its vibe during its 97-minute run. Massively assisting with that – or at least I have to assume, based on some of the visual quirks – is DP Matt Flannery. Matt, having worked on every Gareth Evans film to date, seems to have brought along Evans’ penchant for letting the camera swoop and swerve along with the action, tilting on axes to make punches and throws really land. FoF gets a ton of mileage by ramping “simple” (and short) fights into little blips of insanity.

Madigan’s control of the actors and tone is less clear at this point. Brooks McLaren and D. J. Cotrona’s script is wildly dumb, tossing logic out the window in a Crank-like fashion or willfully dipping into cookie-cutter dialogue as needed, but there is a pretty brilliant reveal of the agency running the show that suggests a kind of meta dumbness at play. Still, there’s a sense that people are just kind of hurrying through scenes, requiring our leads to carry the show. Hartnett, as alluded to, absolutely kills it; co-lead Charithra Chandran is a great foil, but that’s where the script comes into question as there’s ambiguity with her personality that Chandran doesn’t necessarily sell. To be clear, I have no doubt she can / could’ve, but for whatever reason, she wasn’t urged to do so. Similarly, Katee Sackhoff, Lucas’ boss, wants, desperately, to chew scenery – and we know she can – and her part never quite gets to be as funny or menacing as it could be, as she’s paired with Julian Kostov in her scenes, and his qualifications aside, as we go further down the cast list, the less and less “defined” their portrayals feel.

But we’re here for the action, really, and the movie does not disappoint in that regard. It is also one of the funniest of these calamity-type actioners I’ve seen – think Kingsman, with John Wick stunts and Raid 2 cinematography – with both visual and dialogue gags landing, whether through on-screen execution or due to savvy editing. And yes, Hartnett is the person on screen the whole while, and though the ramping / dropping of frames is a little annoying, it’s at least consistent, and I don’t think was done to “sell” Josh’s abilities – he looks like he’s getting his butt kicked and kicking back, and getting properly gassed throughout. …Although I cannot stand sequences where drugs are used and the visuals get trippy. It results in one great joke here, admittedly, but it’s otherwise such a lazy shtick.

Fight or Flight concerns ex-CIA guy Lucas Reyes getting called back into service by his former boss, Katherine (Sackhoff), as the only / best option for capturing an asset who’s hopped onto a commercial flight. No one knows what the asset looks like, but once he’s on the flight, Reyes finds out he’s not the only one with that objective…

Yeah, it’s bloody as heck (though comedically so), overuses F-bombs, and makes very little sense. It’s also wholly entertaining.