Fight or Flight
Review: The newest film in the Josh Hartnett career revival, this 2025 action comedy stars Hartnett as a man hired to find a killer on a plane, but learns the plane is full of other assassins after both the killer & himself. The film also features Katee Sackhoff (known as Starbuck on ‘Battlestar Galactica’ & Bo-Katan in ‘Star Wars’) & Charithra Chandran (known as Edwina Sharma in season 2 of ‘Bridgerton’), with Chandran really standing out to me. The film is fun, has some solid action, and interesting character dynamics. The film gets pretty out there with some of it’s action and is by no means grounded (airplane joke) but doesn’t feel too silly at any point. Hartnett is very solid & I think he’s really been able to show his diversity as an actor between this, 2024’s ‘Trap,’ & 2023’s ‘Oppenheimer.’ I’m very intrigued to see what he does next, which I believe should be 2026’s ‘Verity’ an adaptation of a Colleen Hoover book, which again will be a very different role.
High: The film takes full advantage of it’s airplane setting. It goes all throughout the plan and manages to not feel confined even though the setting literally is confined. And it had a nice sequel set up there at the end!
Low: Honestly, this is one of those films that I have a hard time finding a low for. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, but it does what it needs to do & fits its niche well. So no low here. If you like action comedies this will be a good one for you!
Rating: 7.5/10
Rec: I want to start including recs on my reviews, really to flex my own movie muscles a bit by calling back to other films. For this one there is an obvious rec in ‘John Wick’ which this film takes heavy stylistic influence from. The first film in the series can be streamed free on Philo or rented on digital. I have some other recs as well, depending on what you liked about this film. If you’re looking for the same style of action, but grittier and less comedic, I’d recommend 2024’s ‘Monkey Man’ which can be streamed on Prime. If you want another action comedy from this year, I’d recommend ‘Novocaine’ which can be streamed on Paramount+, but I should warn you is not a good film if you have a sensitive stomach. And if you like plane action, I’ll go with the 2014 Liam Neeson flick, ‘Non-Stop’ which can be streamed on Prime.
