Tuesday, April 28, 2020

(2020) Extraction - A Really Bloody Violent Action Movie

The other day I noticed there was a new movie released in Netflix which starred Chris Hemsworth, so I was obviously intrigued by it. I got the chance to see it on Sunday and wanted to write about this movie right away. So here goes.

Brief Story Line

A young teenager named Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) who happened to be the son of India's drug lord Ovi Mahajan Sr, was kidnapped by his competitor and biggest drug lord from Bangladesh Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). Ovi Sr assigned his right hand man Saju (Randeep Hoda) to do whatever means necessary to get his son back.

Saju sought the help from a team of mercenaries that included Nik (Golshifteh Farahani), Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth - Men in Black: InternationalThe Huntsman: Winter's War etc) and few others. With so many challenges ahead of them including to escape from the pursue of whole city's dirty cops and soldiers in Asif's pocket, Tyler had to find whatever ways necessary to save the kid.


So how would this end for Tyler and Ovi? You could find them all in this bloody violent movie.

End of Brief Story Line

If you read the above story line (or if you read through other synopsis), you would see that the movie plot was indeed that simple. It was a story of extraction mission to save a kid from his kidnappers in a third world country. And for almost the entire movie, we were shown some of the crazy stunt and fight scenes which were brutal, bloody and very violent. This movie seemed to focus on the violence stuff with the killing done mercilessly by shooting at close range through the head and so on.

Now what I do not really understand was how some critics lamented the amount of violence in this movie as I myself did not find it too much if we compare with other R rated movies. OK it might be more violent than some but certainly not the most violent out there. I actually enjoyed watching Chris Hemsworth doing this kind of action which was quite "refreshing" as opposed to his PG-13 action in his role as Thor in Marvel's movies. He showed some nice skills & moves and looked more agile in here (probably because his body weight was reduced significantly?). I think he had put in a lot of effort to ensure he could do all those moves.

Aside from those action sequence, I thought the young Rudhraksh Jaiswal performance was amazing. He was really convincing as this rather awkward and shy teenage boy who happened to be caught up in this drug war between his father and Asif. His chemistry with Chris Hemsworth was also pretty nicely build up. Oh there was a surprise appearance of David Harbour (Hellboy 2019 version, Stranger Things TV series). I also enjoyed Priyanshu Painyuli performance as the ruthless Asif with his sometime extravagant style as biggest drug lord in Bangladesh, as well as Randeep Hoda as the protective Saju. 

Back to the action itself, I really loved the scene starting from the time of the car chase in Dhaka city which looked like it was done in 1 shot (like that movie 1917) and it was shown for quite a long time that made me left breathless and in awe of such amazing sequence. I was also really entertained during the finale battle that was truly worthy of being finale of an action movie. Now again those action parts might be a bit extreme for some but those R-rated-action-film lovers would have loved it. I think Sam Hargrave was outstanding in his directorial debut in term of action (which should not be surprising considering he was stunt coordinator for Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: End Game). Oh btw, this movie was produced by Russo brothers (famous for directing several Marvel movies).

In the end this was just an action movie with simple plot that did not try to be overly smart, filled with those violent killings and definitely not suitable for kids. A film for entertainment purpose with one or two really great action sequence without any real sentimental value. And to be honest, I liked the ending better had it not been for that last scene before the closing credit. There was no mid or post end credit scene at all here. So if you want to give this movie a try, beware of some of those violent attributes in here and you should be fine. And those who love Chris Hemsworth as Thor might be surprised by this totally different character he played in here. Whether you like him here or not, well that would just have to be decided by yourself.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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