Josh Hartnett continues his comeback tour with Fight or Flight, a straightforward, violent, and zany action film that will appeal to those looking for straightforward, violent, and zany action films.
Fight or Flight feels like the latest in a series of brutal, close combat productions inspired by the success of John Wick and the likes. Hartnett spends much of the movie’s 100-minute runtime punching, stabbing, and ending various bad guys in close quarters—in this case, an airplane. Your enthusiasm will depend on how much semi-clever or messed up kills satiate your hunger for in-flight entertainment.
My appetite for such material varies week to week, with appreciation for ridiculous violence balanced by other factors including characters and screenplay. I’m a big fan of the John Wick movies, and there is no denying that Fight or Flight lands on a similar runway from time to time.
But overall this movie feels like “just another one” that struggles to truly take flight. Hartnett is fun to watch and when the movie is fixated on him it works well enough; when Fight or Flight attempts to expand its scope to involve a real plot and other characters observing from afar, things get much more turbulent (poor Katee Sackhoff is relegated to the sidelines, forced to spout random dialogue that rarely helps progress the story). The plot is about at generic as it gets, with characters aligned to said generecism.
Still, for those looking for balls-to-the-airplane-walls action and bloody deaths, Fight or Flight is sure to offer enough thrust.
Review by Erik Samdahl.