A One Mann’s Movies review of “Extraction” (2020).
Ahead of watching the sequel, “Extraction 2”, I watched the original Chris Hemsworth film on Netflix that I missed when it first came out. It seemed a tad of a spoiler that there is a sequel… with Chris Hemsworth… but, hey, perhaps it is a prequel huh?
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), the son of India’s leading drugs baron Ovi Mahajan Sr (Pankaj Tripathi) is kidnapped by his arch-rival in Bangladesh Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). Ovi Snr (perhaps we should call him ‘Ovi One’?) ‘requests’ his right-hand-man Saju (Randeep Hooda) to extract him. That job ends up with tough mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth).
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Violence, injury detail, language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, David Harbour, Priyanshu Painyuli, Neha Mahajan.
Directed by: Sam Hargrave.
Written by: Joe Russo (from a story by Ande Parks, Joe Russo & Anthony Russo).
Twitter Handle: #ExtractionMovie.
Rake (Chris Hemsworth) getting handsy with Saju (Randeep Hooda) on the rough streets of Dhaka. (Source: Netflix).
“Extraction” Review:
Positives:
- Top praise in this movie goes to one bloke – – Newton Thomas Sigel, the cinematographer. There are some highly atmospheric shots of both a smoggy Mumbai and Dhaka. But in addition, there are action sequences in this movie – notably a car chase about 35 minutes in – that are simply breathtaking. Done with a “continuous shot” approach, the camera is outside the car, then its inside the car, then its outside and zooming along behind the car. At one point, it goes through the broken back window of the car and keeps up with the action! It would have made a seamless and thrilling end-to-end action sequence if I hadn’t kept having to say “HANG ON!! What did the camera just do then??” and rewind the film 10 seconds to rewatch it! It’s a dizzy combination of hand-held and drone usage that’s just superb, all held together by clever editing – by Ruthie Aslan and Peter B. Ellis – that is extremely sharp and well done. All in all, I’m surprised this movie didn’t get more recognised for its technical film-making precocity, since I really think it’s something special.
- Chris Hemsworth dumps his Hammer for guns, knives, fists and – messily – a garden rake and makes for a memorable action hero. He’s done it before in other films, but he does a really good ‘dazed and confused’ act: as here when he falls out of an upstairs window and lands with a thud on the pavement.
- Rudhraksh Jaiswal and David Harbour (ahead of his Santa Claus gig!) turn in good supporting roles.
- There are some good and clever comic lines in the script (but they are few and far between). When the chicken-loving Rake is asked by his ‘agent’ Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani) why he wants to take such a dangerous job, he replies “Chickens ain’t cheap”. I also liked the way that the script humanised one of the ‘baddies’ by showing his family life and his rationale for being ‘bad’. Following on from the old Austin Powers gag about “will nobody think of the henchmen’s families'”…. this film actually does!
Negatives:
- The plot is a fairly lame riff off any number of hostage/shoot-em-up movies in the style of “Taken”, here with a soupçon of “Death Wish”.
- We are in “John Wick 4” territory again here in the probability of several dozen armed (and clearly expendable) Bangladeshi’s not being able to get one of their rounds to land when Rake (and Saju) need just a single bullet per adversary. It’s all a bit laughable at times.
- In general, the film at two hours long could have lost a few of those pitched battle scenes in favour of a slightly shorter and tighter running time (imho).
- The final shot of the film is, of course, ludicrous!
Summary Thoughts on “Extraction”
As action movies go, this is a good one. Tense and exciting with some truly remarkable cinematography, editing and stuntwork. I was bordering on a 4* rating for this one, with only the vanilla plot really holding me back. But it is worth a watch with a bucket of popcorn, for sure. Looking forward to watching the sequel now.
[fblike]
Trailer for “Extraction”
The trailer is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6P3nI6VnlY .
