Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk,” his first film as a director since the 2016 Oscar-nominated “Hacksaw Ridge,” was supposed to come out this October, but has now been delayed to January 24, 2025. No reason was given for the delay.
What I know about “Flight Risk,” based on a test screening that occurred a few months ago, is that it’s violent and very entertaining. I wouldn’t expect anything else from Mad Mel.
A trailer was released in June, and it featured a balding Mark Wahlberg who plays the film’s psychopathic villain. For obvious reasons, Gibson’s name wasn’t mentioned in the trailer, instead we got a “From the Academy-Award Winning Director of Braveheart.”
Lionsgate, the studio behind ‘Hacksaw,’ is backing “Flight Risk” which has Wahlberg’s mob hitman tricking a federal agent into allowing him to pilot a plane carrying an FBI informant (Topher Grace) out of a remote area.
Gibson, as a director, has never been one to shy away from gore: “The Passion of the Christ” “Braveheart,” “Hacksaw Ridge” and, his best work, “Apocalypto,” are four extremely violent films. Like him or not, Gibson has proven himself to be a very good filmmaker these last three decades. He even won a Best Director Oscar for 1995’s “Braveheart.”
“Flight Risk,” which is rated R, could have been nice counterprogramming this fall, where it would have been released the same day as Paramount’s “Smile 2.” Instead, we’ll have to wait until early next year to see it.