Fight or Flight

Directed by James Madigan, Fight or Flight follows grizzled mercenary Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) as he agrees to find and protect a notorious figure aboard an international flight – with complications ensuing after it becomes clear that said flight is full of assassins. It’s a fun, larger-than-life premise that’s employed to mostly watchable yet distressingly erratic effect by Madigan, as the filmmaker, armed with a script by Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona, delivers a hit-and-miss actioner that’s been suffused with eye-rollingly broad attributes and elements – with the aggressively irreverent atmosphere, more often than not, lending the proceedings a palpably grating feel. There’s little doubt, then, that Fight or Flight benefits substantially from Hartnett’s fully committed and completely entertaining turn as the seemingly invincible central character, and it’s clear, too, that the proliferation of exciting, brutal action sequences goes a long way towards smoothing over the picture’s various bumps and lulls – which does, in the end, confirm the movie’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that’s perhaps just a little too lighthearted for its own good.

**1/2 out of ****