Extraction (2020)
Directed by Sam Hargrave
A hardened gun-for-hire's latest mission becomes a soul-searching race to survive when he's sent into Bangladesh to rescue a drug lord's kidnapped son.
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What critics say influenced Extraction
One might even compare it to Tony Scott’s brilliant Man On Fire, another film that saw a broken man succumb to violence in order to protect a young child.
Hargrave also manages some moments of, if not actual emotional poignancy, certainly the aesthetic kind, bringing to mind the hazy poetry of the late, great Tony Scott’s similarly themed Man on Fire , in which Denzel Washington rained havoc down on Mexico City on a determined course to protect Dakota Fanning.
But there's also a lot of his backstory and motive that reminds me of Denzel Washington's John Creasy in the late Scott's "Man on Fire."
Starting on a bridge that could pass for a “Call of Duty” map, with abandoned cars meticulously scattered across, all similarities to Tony Scott’s “Man on Fire,” another save-the-kidnapped-kid-in-foreign-territory adventure, are thrown out the window.
Denzel Washington’s John Creasy in the very good Man on Fire is a first-class grumparoo, and Keanu Reeves’ John Wick would be a gigantic bummer to be stuck with at a party.
On its own merits, Chris Hemsworth's "Extraction" is an above-average action flick with kickass stunts, but a story that feels cliche in the wake of "Man on Fire" (2004) and "Taken" (2008).
None have perhaps matched the franchise success of Chad Stahelski and David Leitch with their John Wick series (the latter migrating into more lavish climes, from the formidable Atomic Blonde to braindead studio dreck like Hobbs & Shaw ).
Extraction traffics in nearly every known action trope, from the old and regrettable (Rake is the white savior in a sweaty foreign land, à la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ) to the new and bracing (he kills, according to one invaluable tally, 183 men in one bravura, John Wick -style scene).
The ensemble is so delightful, it recalls the 1930s heyday of Hollywood women's pictures, when the contributions of actresses were genuinely prized and such movies as "The Women" and "Stage Door" crowded their casts with Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, Katharine Hepburn and other remarkable female performers.
Chris Hemsworth goes full Mel Gibson mode à la Martin Riggs — particularly the first Lethal Weapon movie — in Netflix’s Extraction.
Beyond that, "Extraction" is a pretty numbing affair, reminiscent of early Arnold Schwarzenegger movies ("Commando" comes to mind), with a pinch of "Man on Fire."
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At times, his Extraction showstopper recalls the less elaborate (and less artificial) long takes in Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men , another movie about an ethically compromised man trying to ferry a valuable person through dangerous territory.
Taking a page from Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian thriller Children of Men and recent fight movies like 2017's Atomic Blonde , Hargrave shoots a long section of the film in "one take," attempting to wow viewers with an ingrained contempt for cutting and other basic aspects of film grammar.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The good Bourne s, John Wick , the last four Mission: Impossible s.
Extraction ‘s settings are as exotic and far-flung for an American action movie as what you might see in Mission Impossible or the Bourne series, only with fewer frenetic jumps and more time to enjoy them.
I love a great action flick, and Extraction certainly reaches the high bar I’ve come to expect from the genre in the wake of John Wick and the recent batch of Mission: Impossible flicks.
It all builds to a sacrificial finale that rips off “Man on Fire” with its bridge heroics and “The Bourne Identity” with an underwater plunge, only without the Moby soundtrack.
Tony Scott’s Man on Fire and James Mangold’s Logan both explore these same themes to greater effect.
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“Extraction” is a “Proof of Life” thriller about a soldier-turned-mercenary/”rescue-for-hire” Aussie named Tyler Rake.
The Russo’ deep dive into old-fashioned action spectaculars is not unlike Pierce Brosnan’s career, where he left the James Bond franchise and spent years playing evil spies and realistic intelligence operatives in the likes of The Tailor of Panama and The November Man.