FIGHT OR FLIGHT Review

When your favorite movie is from a particular sub-genre, it can mean one of two things. You either grade that sub-genre really kindly because you know you love it, or you grade it harshly because any competition has an uphill battle to measure up.

With me, my favorite movie is somehow NOT from the horror genre, which shocks even me. No, my favorite film of all time is 2007's Hot Fuzz. That means the sub-genre we are judging today is the action-comedy. There is no shortage of these kinds of movies from Hollywood. The 1980's were full of them, especially in the wake of Lethal Weapon. I just don't think the category of cinema was perfected until Edgar Wright got his hands on it.

So how am I when grading these pictures? I probably err on the side of being extra kind to them, if I am being honest. If you can thrill me AND make me laugh... I mean, what am I going to do in the wake of that?

Knowing now that I may be overly gracious to it, today's review is of the new action-comedy entry Fight Or Flight. It stars Josh Hartnett as Lucas, a former government agent who has since been blacklisted and abandoned in the far east. When his former partner, played by Katee Sackhoff, tracks down an international terrorist--known only as The Ghost--in Lucas' part of the world, she has little choice other than to get his credentials back and have him bring The Ghost back to the United States.

The problem that Lucas runs into is that the flight back to San Francisco ends up being full of assassins who are being paid to terminate The Ghost on sight. Can our hero bring the terrorist to justice before they are both put down?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ This is 2025's Bullet Train: a better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be action-comedy about a lone hero fending off a vehicle full of assassins; a movie that is all nutso berserk energy and fun. I went into this with really low hopes--basically expecting a low grade flick that didn't deserve a theatrical run--and I came out having really enjoyed it. The action set pieces are a blast. 

Bullet Train ended up being, if I recall correctly, my third favorite movie of 2022 that year. I thought it was unfairly maligned by many, and it's scores across the various media outlets weren't indicative of how much joy it actually brought to audiences. And Fight Of Flight matches it energy for energy. Do I think it's quite AS polished and perfected on the formula as Bullet Train was? I do not; it's still a blast, though.

+ I am 100% here for the continued Josh Hartnett renaissance. He is full of fury and sound in this one, and he fully commits to all of the bits. There is a particular segment late that has the potential to get TOO off-the-walls, but he sells it so well that you end up laughing instead. He just gets the assignment of Fight Or Flight, and he commits to it. It's a blast to see his ongoing work as he nears 50.

I'll confess to not having hated Trap as much as a lot of folks did, again because he was so damned good in it. Admittedly even the negative critiques of Trap tended toward being kind to Hartnett's performance in it, though. I just thought it was an adequate enough thriller that he carried to heights it would not have met without him. It was great to see him carry that momentum over to this picture.

There's this belief that Hartnett had retired from acting or stopped acting until

Josh Hartnett in Fight or Flight

Oppenheimer brought him back into the spotlight. A look at his filmography shows that that notion isn't entirely true. But either way, he was taking smaller roles that did not get much publicity. Well even with Fight Or Flight's smaller release, that era seems to be behind him. The man is definitely back.

- Hartnett's character gets some assistance mid-movie to help him survive the plane, in the form of some warrior women that The Ghost helped and have since acted as bodyguards for the international terrorist. And they seem like interesting characters I'd like to know more about and see survive. Unfortunately, they prove to be little more than meat shields for Lucas and The Ghost. It's a missed opportunity.

I would like to have seen these character make it a little bit longer, especially when Fight Or Flight has an ending that very much lends itself to a possible sequel. These ladies could definitely have made it to the end so we could have gotten more story on and action from them. What we do end up getting is fun, at least. So I guess there is that.  

- There is a late movie reveal that I think was supposed to mean more than it did. It just kind of landed with a thud by me when I think we were supposed to feel overwhelmed by it. Oh well. There was enough going on in the flick that I didn't need a surprise reveal on a secondary character.

I do think movies tend to underestimate their audiences sometimes, or maybe they feel the need to follow basic storytelling conventions and throw in random heel or babyface turns. I wish they would just allow the story to be the story sometimes. People can hang with that.

In a year that has been solid overall but wildly unspectacular, Fight Or Flight slots in relatively high for me in my Favorites Of 2025. It definitely would not have set the box office on fire, but I would have seen it in theater for sure. And I'd have recommended it to anyone that would have listened. It's great fun!

🍿 SCORE = 81 / 100