A formulaic actioner that will divert you from obsessing about our real baddie.
Extraction
Grade: C +
Director: Sam Hargrave
Screenplay: Joe Russo (Welcome to Collingwood) from graphic novel Ciudad
Cast: Chris Hemsworth (Men in Black: International), Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson)
Rating: R
Runtime: 1h 56m
By: John DeSando
“Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?” (Steve Rogers, Captain America)
Because you may have nothing serious to do, do stay to enjoy a mindless Netflix thriller where the very bad guys get what they deserve. Don’t lie to me, Extraction is just what you need when the corona is even badder. It is exactly what we all want: robust, handsome Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) to the rescue of the good little son of a bad drug lord.
Almost all of the plot points owe to the action formula with the exception of the Hemsworth charisma, an Aussie super star who brought life to Thor and saves this hot mess from complete extinction. An absurd actioner, it will make you forget our dark enemy out there that scientists less cinematic than Hemsworth will eventually defeat and probably never get a girl as fetching as Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani).
Mercenary Tyler Rake (yes, the name fits, as ridiculous as it is) needs the money, so he agrees to extract a nice young man, Ovi (Rudhrasksh Jaiswal), from the ransoming hands of very bad drug lord, Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). Ovi’s drug lord dad Ovi (Pankaj Tripath) starts the extraction from prison. Naturally the kid and Tyler bond as the formula demands.
Although the body count is unbelievable—Tyler seems more an action figure from a computer game—the scenery from India and Thailand is lovely even in its frequently impoverished locales. Given that the director, Sam Hargrave, is a professional stunt man, Hemsworth’s hand to hand battles are visually impressive.
The only other saving grace of this action by numbers thriller is that at least we can feel there’s a chance bad guys will always lose in the end. Our pandemic bad guy drama has yet to complete its story; maybe Dr. Fauci is our Tyler. Let’s hope his lord doesn’t de-commission him from his important role in extracting all of us.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com.
