The Incredible Shrinking Movie!

Is it just me, or are theatrical feature films getting shorter out there?

I regret to inform you that, cultural baggage notwithstanding, the Mel Gibson-directed and Jared Rosenberg-penned Flight Risk is pretty damn good. The Lionsgate programmer – about a U.S. Marshal (Michelle Dockery) trapped on a small plane with a hit man hired to murder her prisoner (Topher Grace) before he testifies against the mob – is a neat little meat-and-potatoes thriller. Mark Wahlberg delights as the fly in the ointment, and the picture plays fair regarding its premise and in sustaining its limited story amid a single cramped plane interior with three characters vying for control. It’s exactly the kind of fun, high-concept *movie* that became a lost art as marquee characters and established IP eclipsed the movie star as a prime asses-in-seats theatrical motivator. It also barely lasts 85 minutes before the credits roll. It’s just one of a slew of recent theatrical releases that are, or at least seem to be, shorter than what we’ve come to expect.