Staring Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, David Harbour
Written by Joe Russo, Directed by Sam Hargrave
Run Time 1h 56min
A few years ago while watching one of those Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg collaborations, I had a moment of clarity. I became bothered by the editing which was overtaking the action which took me out of the action itself. By using quick edits you never really see things happen, just things breaking and stuff. Asian action films let it all happen in front of you, and thanks to films like John Wick, we are getting back to the type of action we deserve. Enter Extraction which stars Chris Hemsworth and takes the Wick route in this highly entertaining action flick.
Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is a guy with a particular set of skills and he is called into action to use them. See his specialty is extraction and when a drug dealer’s son named Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) is kidnapped, Tyler and his crew are hired to get him back. Everything starts off as planned, with Tyler taking out some bad guys and getting the kid to the next point to get them both out. Things then get complicated and Tyler is now fighting on multiple fronts. The thing is Tyler is good at his job and also quite good at killing the people who are after him. After what seems like cross after cross, Tyler who has only one goal, to get the boy home safe, makes a deal that improves those chances. What follows is a firefight on a bridge, with a lot of bad guys between him and completing the mission he was hired for.
Hemsworth pretty much kicks ass and takes zero names on screen, but he opened my eyes to a future when he is done playing Thor. Hemsworth has already showed his humorous side, though not with this. I have seen the future of action movies, and let me tell you it looks pretty bright. This is not all Hemsworth’s doing, no what makes this movie what it is, is who is behind the camera and who wrote the script. Sam Hargrave, who has worked with the stunt team on the Marvel movies shows where he has made his bones. The action is top notch and at times feels like movies like The Raid with is action set pieces. Things get broken, household items are used to end peoples life, and there is just a lot of ass kicking going on. Add Joe Russo’s screenwriting in and you have what turns out to be a pretty good trio. The first hour grabs a hold of you and does not let go, while it gives you a little breather the battle on the bridge puts you right back in action heaven. Extraction is how these kinds of films should be done, my only complaint is I wish I could have seen this in a theater, because this film screams big and loud and a whole lot of damn fun. So you’ll just have to settle with queuing up your Netflix and turning up the volume. All the way up.
