An action thriller powered by brute force rather than ideas or style, “Extraction” stars Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, a mercenary dispatched to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to retrieve the kidnapped son of a crime lord (the Bollywood stalwart Pankaj Tripathi) from a competing gang. After a perfunctory setup — the criminals are all in cahoots with the cops, and the kingpin is up to his own manipulative tricks — the film gets right down to business, serving up a relentless barrage of blood, bullets and blown-up cars.
“Extraction” (streaming on Netflix) is the debut feature by Sam Hargrave, who’s worked as a stunt coordinator on several Marvel movies. Although not a superhero film, it shares the genre’s familiar muddled morality: Tyler is painted as a stereotypical good bad guy, tortured by personal tragedy and redeemed by his mission, even as he kills and maims some teenage minions in the process. Randeep Hooda plays his foil, a kingpin deputy whose ruthlessly efficient violence is inflected by its own, corny undercurrent of paternal pathos. David Harbour also appears briefly, adding to the film’s lineup of tortured machos.
The fight scenes are plastic and glossy. Hargrave mistakes gore for cool and technical prowess for choreography, deploying overlong one-take shots that look like “Call of Duty” outtakes. He does commit to the location, though, creating a properly global thriller with a fine ensemble cast. Much of the dialogue is in Hindi and Bengali, and the Bollywood actors — particularly Hooda, as well as Priyanshu Painyuli as a swaggering mob boss — lift the dull proceedings, delivering their lines with a hint of melodrama. They’re a tease for how fun this movie could have been if it weren’t so somber.
Extraction
Rated R for gratuitous gore and violence. In English, Hindi and Bengali, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes. Watch on Netflix.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
