Latest news with #FightOrFlight
Straits Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
At The Movies: Thrills and spills in Fight Or Flight, Another Simple Favor
Josh Hartnett (right) and Charithra Chandran in Fight Or Flight. PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION At The Movies: Thrills and spills in Fight Or Flight, Another Simple Favor Fight Or Flight (M18) 102 minutes, opens on May 15 ★★★☆☆ The story: Disgraced former Secret Service agent Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) has a shot at redemption, when tapped by his ex-boss (Katee Sackhoff) for a mission: He is to track down a mysterious cyber terrorist known as 'The Ghost' on an international flight and take him or her into custody back to the United States. Turns out just about every passenger on-board is a crazed assassin after this high-value asset. Is no transportation safe any longer? Fight Or Flight is Brad Pitt's Bullet Train (2022) at 37,000 feet . The airborne action comedy is absurdly entertaining despite the familiar concept, its violence so nuts, the only response is to laugh. Barely has the seatbelt sign been switched off and a skull is skewered, grey matter splattered across the first-class toilet. And speaking of seatbelt, it is repurposed for strangling. Arms are snapped, ribs are crushed by meal trolleys and an eye speared by a broken champagne flute once the international mercenaries leap from their seats to begin competing for their bounty. This is not the sort of movie to ask how a chainsaw got past airport security. The more immediate concern is Lucas having to keep both himself and his target alive. Director James Madigan, a visual effects artist, innovates with brio the close-quarters skirmishes in the pressurised cabins, and Hartnett has mischievous fun as the bleach-blond wash-up in airline pyjamas still capable of holding his own. He finds a reluctant ally in a feisty air stewardess played by Charithra Chandran (Bridgerton, 2020 to present). A befuddled pair of co-pilots and three Shaolin nuns are also in the teeming ensemble, few among them surviving beyond one scene. Hot take: From the producers of John Wick (2014). Which is to say, it is a bonkers romp. Another Simple Favor (M18) 122 minutes, available on Prime Video ★★★☆☆ Anna Kendrick in Another Simple Favor. PHOTO: PRIME VIDEO The story: Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) reunite on the Italian island of Capri for Emily's destination wedding to a handsome mafia scion (Michele Morrone). Beneath the sun-splashed extravagance lurks danger because the bride is a psychopath, surely again up to no good. In the 2018 American noir caper A Simple Favor, widowed single mum Stephanie investigated the disappearance of glamorous Emily and discovered her new best friend from their sons' elementary school had killed her long-lost twin and staged her own death. Seven years later, in Another Simple Favour, Emily is out of prison and Stephanie is a mummy vlogger amateur sleuth. The latter has written a memoir, although reading it to acquaint oneself with the backstory will not help make sense of the convolutions in this knowingly trashy melodrama dressed up as a luxurious travelogue. Emily's dotty mother (Elizabeth Perkins), a shifty aunt (Allison Janney) and Emily's ex (Henry Golding) are the other guests arrived at the resort. Stephanie soon finds herself framed for multiple murders. Is this why Emily invited her here to be bridesmaid, to take delayed revenge? There are secrets, betrayals, fake identities, a mafia war and one too many incident of sibling incest even for an improviser of farcical vulgarities like Paul Feig. The Hollywood director of Bridesmaids (2011) and the girl-powered Ghostbusters (2016) has returned for another female-centric comedy, and the fabulous frenemies – perky Kendrick versus Lively's slippery, manipulative vamp in runway couture – are perhaps reason enough for a sequel, however wearying the endless plot twists. In their byplay, at once flirtatious and a veiled threat, lies all the intrigue. Hot take: Their barbed banter is a treat as Kendrick and Lively talk themselves out of a nonsense frolic. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
You can be a star without social media. Just ask Josh Hartnett.
Josh Hartnett has been promoting his new movie, Fight or Flight, a lot on social media — just not on his own account. One 4-second TikTok from the film's official page in which he announces that tickets are on sale has a whopping 7.7 million views, but you won't catch him tapping into his newfound viral fame anytime soon. 'I'm more focused on the physical aspects of my life than the virtual,' Hartnett told Yahoo Entertainment. 'I have enough stuff going on in my day-to-day life that I couldn't possibly take an hour or two a day to do social media stuff. I just don't have the time.' While promoting Fight or Flight, his publicist sent him a post that called him 'the reclusive Josh Hartnett.' 'And I was like, 'What?! No! I'm the opposite of that!'' he said. 'I'm engaged entirely in my day-to-day existence, and I feel like sometimes people ... retreat into social media as opposed to spending time with other people. I just really like people! I just like being around them. And for me, it seems like the best way to do that is to cut myself out of that.' Hartnett is still happy to shoot a few videos when promoting a project though. 'I get to learn the new trends, and so I'm educated. Now I know all my Gen Z slang,' he said. Some celebrities have spoken out about the pressure to maintain social media accounts to further their careers. In February, Maya Hawke said on a podcast that producers sometimes make casting decisions based on actors' follower counts. In March, Scarlett Johansson told InStyle she was asked to join Instagram to promote Jurassic World: Rebirth but didn't because she didn't think it would allow her to 'stay true to who I am.' Hartnett's lack of a social media presence hasn't interfered with his resurgence. He starred in Trap in 2024, stole scenes in Oppenheimer in 2023 and will lead the highly anticipated film adaptation of the novel Verity in 2026. Fans and media outlets have declared a 'Hartnett-aissance.' 'I appreciate the fact that people like the work that I'm doing right now — that people are saying that — because it seems like that's obviously a very complimentary, flattering thing! I don't know,' he said. 'For me, I'm just doing the thing that I've always been doing, which is trying to make the most interesting films with the most interesting characters that I can find.' Hartnett said he's been lucky to work with directors with reach that allows films to be seen 'on a larger level recently.' That, in turn, gave him the ability to work with Fight or Flight director James Madigan on his debut feature film and give it a bit of a boost. 'I've been doing this for almost 30 years, and the fact that I'm still able to make, I think, unique films and experiment with unique characters — I feel like I'm just incredibly blessed, you know?' he said. 'Like … I love making films.' In the early 2000s, Hartnett made a name for himself starring in war movies like Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor. He was excited to take his action-scene prowess up a notch with Fight or Flight. He plays a mercenary tasked with locating a high-value asset on a flight, only to be attacked by a series of assassins hell-bent on killing him. He did all of his own stunts. 'I got to do something that I've not been able to do in a long, long time — if ever — and stretch in a way that I haven't been able to stretch in a long time,' he said. 'I couldn't be happier.' is now in theaters.
Digital Trends
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Like Fight or Flight? Stream these 3 Josh Hartnett movies
Table of Contents Table of Contents Lucky Number Slevin (2006) The Black Dahlia (2006) 30 Days of Night (2007) This week, Josh Hartnett is back in theaters with Fight or Flight, an action comedy. Hartnett is playing Lucas Reyes, a man who has been tasked with identifying a notorious hacker on plane before all hell breaks loose. Hartnett has been a leading man in Hollywood for the better part of three decades, but he also has a long list of bad movies to his name. Case in point: Trap, M. Night Shyamalan's thriller that had a terrific premise and terrible execution. Recommended Videos But if you liked Fight or Flight and you want to see its star in better films than Trap, then you should stream these three Josh Hartnett movies. Lucky Number Slevin (2006) Slevin Kelevra (Hartnett) is having a very bad day in Lucky Number Slevin. His roommate, Nick Fisher (Sam Jaeger), is out and Slevin keeps getting kidnapped by criminals who think he's Nick. Two rival crime bosses, The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and The Boss (Morgan Freeman), want Slevin to kill someone on their hit list as an alternative to paying the exorbitant amount of money that Nick owes each of them for his gambling debts. An assassin named Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis) has arranged all of the chaos that has befallen Slevin, and he's also set the two crime lords on a collision course. For now, Slevin is useful to Goodkat, but he might be catching a bullet to the head the second he's no longer necessary for Goodkat's agenda. Watch Lucky Number Slevin on Fubo. The Black Dahlia (2006) The Black Dahlia is based on both James Ellroy's 1987 novel and the shocking murder of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirschner) in 1947. Hartnett plays Detective Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert, the new partner of Detective Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart). Bucky is also fast friends with Lee's girlfriend, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson), and he has trouble making sense of Lee and Kay's dynamic. Somehow they're connected to the arrest of mob boss Bobby DeWitt (Richard Brake) from early in Lee's career. When Short's body is found mutilated, Bucky and Lee are drawn into the case and the former attracts the attention of Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), an acquaintance of the victim who has an uncanny resemblance to Short. Lee's past with DeWitt is revisited in a shocking way that leaved Bucky and Kay bewildered and stunned. But the twists surrounding the case are only beginning to unfold, and this mystery may be the end of them. Rent or buy The Black Dahlia on Prime Video. 30 Days of Night (2007) 30 Days of Night was based on an intriguing comic by Steve Niles and artist Ben Templesmith that explored what would happen if vampires attacked during an extended month without sunshine. For the people of Barrow, Alaska, it's an absolute disaster as vampires led by Marlow (Danny Huston) descend upon the town and turn it into their personal playpen during the sun's absence. Sheriff Eben Oleson (Hartnett) and his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George), are among the few human survivors after the initial attacks. But living through the ordeal only means that the vampires get to play with their food while waiting out their starving prey. If Eben can't figure out a way to stop the vampires, then Barrow's remaining human population isn't going to live to see the next sunrise. And the world may never know what happened to any of them. Watch 30 Days of Night on Pluto TV.
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Fight Or Flight' Reviews: Does Josh Hartnett's Film Fly With Critics?
Josh Hartnett in "Fight or Flight." Fight or Flight — Josh Hartnett's high-flying airplane action thriller — is new in theaters. What do critics think about the film? Rated R, Fight or Flight opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. The official summary for the film reads, 'Exiled American agent Lucas Reyes (Hartnett) is given one last chance to redeem himself - the assignment is to track down and identify a mysterious, international high-value asset known only as The Ghost on a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. 'Complicating matters, the plane is filled with assassins from around the world who are assigned to kill them both. The pair must work together in a fight for their lives. At 37,000 feet, the stakes have never been higher.' Directed by James Madigan, Fight or Flight also stars Katee Sackhoff, Charithra Chandran and Julian Kostov. As of Thursday, Fight or Flight has earned a 79% 'fresh' rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 47 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for Fight or Flight reads, 'Josh Hartnett's go-for-broke performance gives Fight of Flight wings, sustaining this daffy action-comedy at an entertaining cruising altitude that refreshingly doesn't wear out its welcome.' The film's Popcornmeter score on RT is still pending. Nick Schager of The Daily Beast is among the top critics on RT who gives Fight or Flight a 'fresh' rating, writing, 'Amusing, energetic, and just clever enough to sustain its brief runtime, it serves up a boisterous and bruising brand of B-movie bedlam.' Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter also categorizes Fight or Flight as a B-movie, but still gives it a 'fresh' review, writing on RT, '[Josh Hartnett's] charisma and surprising flair for physical comedy elevate this B-movie into something approaching A-level status, even if it's ultimately undercut by its low-budget limitations and awkward tonal shifts.' The B-movie label was also on the mind of John Nugent of Empire Magazine, who pens in his review on RT, 'A solid bit of high-concept B-movie fun, establishing Josh Hartnett as a credible action hero, and James Madigan as a genre director to watch.' On the flip side, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gives Fight or Flight a 'rotten' rating, writing on RT, writing, 'The violence gets cranked up to 11 after about 30 minutes, before we have anything resembling a rooting interest, and the violence stays there for most of the remaining hour. None of it has impact.' Also giving the film a 'rotten' rating on RT is AV Club's Chloe Walker, who notes, 'Fight or Flight has Josh Hartnett and endless splattery fights on an enclosed mode of public transport, but that's all it has.' Justin Clark of Slant Magazine also splats Fight or Flight with a 'rotten' rating on RT, writing, "Dramatic moments create tonal stutters that prevent the film from becoming the unhinged Looney Tune that it wants to be.' Fight or Flight opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Josh Hartnett Talks Career Priorities And New ‘Fight Or Flight' Movie
For decades, actor Josh Hartnett has taken on a variety of characters for the screen that have consistently drawn in audiences of multiple generations. From the 90s teen horror movie The Faculty to Pearl Harbor, followed by the Penny Dreadful series, Oppenheimer and Trap - just to name a few, Hartnett, 46, began his career as a young Hollywood heartthrob and has blossomed into a refreshingly unconventional leading man, who continues to keep us guessing with the roles that he chooses to take on. In his latest movie, the action comedy Fight or Flight, Hartnett plays Lucas Reyes, a former FBI agent that is offered a chance at redemption with one final job, but he is ultimately faced with countless life-or-death obstacles in pursuit of his mission. With Fight or Flight, which premieres only in theaters this weekend, Hartnett chose to do most of his own stunts throughout the movie's many elaborate combat scenes. Sitting down for a conversation with the seasoned actor, I wondered what initially interested him to want to add fight choreography and these other acting responsibilities to his performance. Hartnett said, 'Well, this was like an opportunity that was unique for me because I haven't done anything in this sort of world where I've had to do my own stunts since I was 29. I did a movie called Bunraku when I was 29. I was 45 when we shot this, so you aren't getting a lot of people sending you scripts being like - Here, this is an opportunity for you to do all your own stunts in a movie. That doesn't happen very often. I was very excited to be able to pull that off, to try it - and the fact that we had such an amazing team of stunt guys and women, and they were able to kind of shepherd me through this whole process and nobody really got seriously hurt. It was an amazing experience.' He went on to say that he would love to do a role like this again, but would prefer a little more time, as he shared that they shot Fight or Flight in 'such a short period of time and it felt like every day I was getting hurt. We just have to go back and do it again the next day. A little bit more recovery time would be nice.' Since joining Christopher Nolan's Best Picture winner Oppenheimer and the praise he received in playing an unsuspecting serial killer in M. Night Shyamalan's Trap, a large group of moviegoers have come to call this era of Hartnett's career 'The Hartnett-aissance' - which he playfully says that the fan-driven term 'rolls off the tongue.' So, what is it about his recent movie projects that he is perhaps enjoying more within his acting and character choices lately? Josh Hartnett in the 2024 movie "Trap" Warner Bros. Pictures 'I will say that working with directors that people are very interested in what they're going to do next helps because then you get an audience built in. I've always been trying to play unique characters in unique style films - things that I haven't done recently or that people haven't seen recently. Now, more people are interested in what I'm doing and I think it comes purely down to the people that I'm working with. These characters are each unique from each other. The next couple of films that I've got coming out are also incredibly unique and in different genres. I just feel so lucky to be able to jump from one style film to another and to be able to work with the caliber of people I've been able to work with recently. It's just luck, you know?' Being someone who has been in the public eye now for more than two decades, I asked the well-known actor - Who is Josh Hartnett in 2025? What brings the biggest passion and purpose to your days? Hartnett said, 'Oh, purpose is family. I've got four kids and I have to be dad way more often than I have to be me as a public figure or actor. That doesn't even enter into the equation most of the time and I only shoot one or two films a year. I spend most of my time with my family and am just dad, and for the most part, being beaten up by my kids. It's the thing that drives me but it's also the thing that gives me the most satisfaction. So, when I'm going to work, I want to make sure that it's worth it. I don't choose things, unless I really believe they're going to be awesome or really unique, or really kind of fun for the audience. There's not as much experimentation. I think in the - I'll just take it. I'll just take this job because it's something to do. I definitely don't do that anymore. I did that a little bit when I was younger, just like - It could be great. Who knows? I really want to be a part of something right now. I feel like this need to be creative. I want to be out there with these particular people. I don't want to do that, unless I'm really sure that it's going to have like an impact these days, because I don't want to spend the time away from home, unless I'm doing that. And so, it's made me sort of more clear-headed about what I choose to make.' Being someone who has been a part of Hollywood for many years now and has seen the changes within the business, I was curious what Hartnett is liking about the ways of the entertainment industry today, and what things does he miss from yesteryear that he wishes were still in place. 'Well, I miss being younger, like physically. When we shot [Fight or Flight], I was definitely feeling it. I think things are constantly shifting in our business. There's a tendency to catastrophize the latest changes and to think - Oh, the movie business is never going to be the same again - and yet, it's persevered. I just hope people continue to see films together - that's the biggest thing. I do miss that there was that sort of round the water cooler conversation about the movies that came out the last weekend. Sometimes, that does happen still. When Sinners came out the last couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of conversation about it right after it came out. When Oppenheimer and Barbie came out, the same sort of thing. Every year, there's a few that come out that people are talking about, being a part of the zeitgeist. It used to be that there were more of those. I want that to be a thing that people participate in because I think you get more out of a film, watching it with a big group of people, personally. I love going to watch movies in theaters. I just hope people continue to do it.' Looking ahead, Hartnett will star alongside Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson in Verity, a darker story from It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover. Set for a May 2026 theatrical release, Hartnett plays Jeremy Crawford, the husband of a bestselling author (Hathaway), who hires a ghostwriter (Johnson) when his wife is unable to finish her novels after an accident. Hartnett said of Verity, 'The reason that came about was that I had met Anne a few times. We said we wanted to work together, but you never know - people say those things - but then when she was producing this and they sent me the script, I was like - Oh, she really means it. Michael Showalter is an amazing director. I think he's got a really unique vision. He's been able to do a lot of different genres. He had a take on this that was so gothic and surprising and unlike anything else that I'd heard of from the Colleen Hoover world. Colleen herself was saying this is a unique book in her repertoire because it was the first one - it was nothing like the rest of them. It has a real sort of intensity to it. I don't want to give away anything, but just to be able to work with Anne and Michael was the first reason to come onto it. Dakota, I had never met before but she's an awesome actress and a true professional. We just had a lot of fun on-set making it. I think audiences are going to dig it.' As I concluded the conversation with Hartnett, even after all of the characters that he has already taken on within his celebrated career thus far, I wondered if there are any particular characters or personas that he has in the back of his mind that he would still like to play in the near future. 'Oh, 100%. For me, it's like there are moments I see people engage in just normal life and I'm like - Wow, that was unique. Like, why did they do that? - try to figure out, psychologically, where they were at. Obviously, there's a lot of that in the news, but there's also a lot of that just in day-to-day life. I always kind of work backward from those moments and try to figure out someone's psychology. Then, I think - Oh, that'd be fun to play a character like that. I've got a few that I would like to play. The next one I'm going to do is going to be unique and fun, as well, and unlike anything I've done before. I can't say it yet because they haven't made an announcement on it yet. There are things that come along that are just surprising and they take you for a ride. Like [Fight or Flight]
