Mel Gibson directs Mark Wahlberg in ‘Flight Risk,’ a ludicrous thriller that can’t help but crash and burn

Gibson, at his best working with big canvases, is evidently clueless at fashioning a more intimate drama set in a confined space.

Mel Gibson’s risible new movie, “Flight Risk,” takes off with a splash of toilet humour before nosediving into the realm of the ridiculous.

The film’s trajectory defies the laws of both physics and good taste, managing to plummet while ostensibly soaring over Alaska’s Wrangell Mountains — a feat achieved not through the marvels of aviation, but via the less-than-majestic heights of a Las Vegas sound stage, where most of the film was shot using a modified Cessna as its chariot of alleged adventure.

“Flight Risk” is being sold as a suspense thriller but the suspense is completely lacking and the thrills are minimal — everything looks and sounds fake. The film runs just 91 minutes yet it feels much longer.

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We know from the bizarrely revealing trailer that Mark Wahlberg’s gum-chewing pilot character is a mob hit man (using the alias Daryl Booth). He’s been summoned to ingloriously terminate a fearful (and crooked) accountant named Winston (Topher Grace) before he can testify in court against his crime boss.

Winston is in the custody of dour U.S. Deputy Marshal Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey”), whose job is to accompany the handcuffed Winston on the flight to Anchorage, where the squealing process will commence, while keeping him alive en route. Easier said than done when there’s a killer flying the plane and complications on the ground.

This is eye-rolling stuff of the kind a streaming service algorithm might belch out in the early hours of a lost weekend and it’s quite the comedown for Gibson.

The Oscar-winning director returns behind the camera for the first time since the 2016 Second World War drama “Hacksaw Ridge.”

Gibson is at his best directing big-canvas statements — he also has “Braveheart,” “Apocalypto” and “The Passion of the Christ” to his credit — but he’s evidently clueless at fashioning a more intimate drama set in a confined space. He would have been wise to study Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat,” Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” and J.C. Chandor’s “All Is Lost” to see how it’s done.

The casting of Wahlberg as the hit man is the film’s biggest misstep, considering the head-scratching decision to reveal him as such in the trailer. Wahlberg rarely plays the bad guy — this is his first villainous lead since 1996’s “Fear” — and it would have benefited the story and ratcheted up the suspense to withhold his character’s true intentions until later in the film.

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And while he’s clearly enjoying himself, alternating between threats and taunts, Wahlberg lacks the sinister verve of actors better suited for the elevated dark side, such as Gary Oldman in “Air Force One” or Alan Rickman in “Die Hard.”

Wahlberg chews through so much metaphoric shrubbery in “Flight Risk,” it’s a good thing he’s not actually on a plane flying over alpine trees or he might stick his head out the window to bite off the tops. Dockery and Grace are reduced to mainly reacting to Wahlberg’s overacting.

But not much could have been done to save the terrible script by rookie Jared Rosenberg, which is shot through with absurd plot contrivances and ludicrous dialogue and characters. The latter includes a sexist airman, heard over the Cessna radio, who makes highly unprofessional comments to Harris.

There’s just one real mystery in “Flight Risk.” It’s why Wahlberg thought it necessary to go full Method and shave the hair off the top his head in the style of the Three Stooges’ Larry Fine.

Perhaps he’s visually acknowledging the film’s astounding stupidity?

Whatever the reason, be warned that watching “Flight Risk” might leave you feeling light-headed, due to the onscreen combination of altitude and ineptitude.