Flight Risk

One takeaway from Flight Risk: It’s surprisingly easy for a novice to fly a cargo plane while simultaneously fending off a homicidal maniac and deciphering a government conspiracy.

Of course, this ludicrous airborne thriller is only tolerable if you leave your brain on the tarmac. Even then, it never really gets off the ground since it refuses to fully embrace its campy silliness.

It seems Mark Wahlberg and director Mel Gibson are just trolling by lending their considerable talents to a transparent time-waster unworthy of their attention — just as a goof.

At any rate, it opens with Madolyn (Michelle Dockery), a deputy U.S. Marshal, apprehending Winston (Topher Grace), a white-collar fugitive hiding out in rural Alaska.

Winston agrees to testify as an informant in exchange for immunity, but first he must be transferred back to civilization via a private aircraft. At first, the carefree pilot (Wahlberg) seems like an innocuous motormouth before Madolyn suspects he might have sinister intentions and violent tendencies. With fuel running low and the aircraft headed toward an unknown destination, time is ticking to discover the truth.

Motives, loyalties, back stories, and true identities are all gradually revealed during the ensuing midair battle royale. Let’s just say the shackles make the rounds. However, the film struggles to ratchet up the tension between them as they sort through who they can and cannot trust, both on the plane and on the ground.

The result might be unsettling for queasy flyers as it unleashes plenty of paranoid triggers, from the claustrophobic cockpit to sociopathic travelers to becoming lost in the wilderness with little hope for outside communication or rescue.

The prolific Wahlberg refuses to take this mess seriously with his backwoods accent and artificially receded hairline. Gibson keeps the pace lively and the visuals stylish. But neither of them can break through the narrative turbulence.

Rookie screenwriter Jared Rosenberg generates a few laughs and some scattered thrills, although any underlying suspense in his script is kept to an unintentional minimum. After all, none of the three characters is the least bit sympathetic because they’re either corrupt, reckless, or just plain obnoxious. And it helps that they conveniently lack common sense, too.

Flight Risk won’t show up on your in-flight entertainment menu anytime soon. Consider that an amenity.

Rated R, 91 minutes.