EXTRACTION : Monday 27th April 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'Extraction' which went live on the streaming service on 24th April and which I saw from the comfort of my own home on Monday 27th April.

'EXTRACTION' is Directed, in his first feature film, by Stuntman, Actor, Editor, and Writer Sam Hargrave whose impressive line up of movie stunt work takes in the likes of 'Avengers : Endgame', 'Deadpool 2', 'Avengers : Infinity War', 'Thor : Ragnarok', 'Suicide Squad', 'Captain America : Civil War', and three of the 'Hunger Games' films amongst many others. This film is based on the comic 'Ciudad' by Ande Parks and the story was developed by him and Joe and Anthony Russo, written for the screen by Joe Russo, and Co-Produced by the Russo brothers and Chris Hemsworth. Needless to say Hargarve, Hemsworth and the Russo's have much history together having worked with each other on the final two 'Avengers' offerings. The film was made for US$65M and has garnered largely mixed or average Reviews so far, although as the lead, Chris Hemsworth has been praised for his performance.

The film opens up with young boy Ovi Mahajan Jnr. (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) being kidnapped and held for a hefty ransom by Bangladesh's biggest drug lord Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). Next we see Saju (Randeep Hooda), meeting the young lads father Ovi Mahajan Snr. (Pankaj Tripathi) in prison to tell him that his son has been kidnapped by his arch rival and nemesis Asif. Ovi Snr. is behind bars because he is India's biggest drug lord and kingpin. Saju is a former Para (Special Forces) operative and the right hand man of Ovi Snr. who was under explicit instructions to never let Ovi Jnr. out of his sight and to keep him closely guarded at all times. Major fail here on Saju's part, who is told in no uncertain terms to locate Ovi Jnr. and bring him home safely by any means necessary or suffer the consequences which Ovi Snr. is still able to wield even from inside prison.

We then cut to three likely lads in the Australian Kimberly Ranges, one of whom is a dozing in the shade thirty metres above a natural rock pool, with a beer in his hand - Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth). He comes around having been taunted by his two mates, gets up and nonchalantly walks straight up to the edge and launches himself into the clear waters thirty meters below. He then sits on the bottom on the lake for several minutes, as a memory of footprints on a sandy beach flash in his mind. Returning to his isolated cabin, there is a helicopter in the paddock, and inside the house is his handler and fellow mercenary Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani). It turns out that Tyler Rake is a former Special Air Services Regiment soldier and now a black market mercenary for hire. Khan tells Tyler that his services are required in India to extract a young kidnapped kid and there's a hefty pay day in it for him, to meet up at a pre-determined point in the morning, but only if he's sober.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh Tyler meets with the 'extraction' team, receives his briefing and heads to the city centre awaiting his next move. He takes a call on his mobile phone and walks across the street and is hastily bundled into the back of a van and taken to a house bound and blindfolded. With a room full of goons, Tyler is held at gunpoint and asked to hand over the ransom money. Tyler responds coolly with wanting proof of life first, and after seeing the bound and hooded boy in a neighbouring room is carted off to arrange for the ransom money to be transferred. Needless to say before Tyler has even exited the building three of his captors are dead, and he's back knocking on the door all guns blazing to take out the rest of the goons and rescue the boy. With the young lad in tow, they make a get away in a car and then traipse a couple of kilometres through a forest on foot to make a rendezvous with a boat that will get them outta Dodge.

What they didn't count on was Saju, with his own agenda to rescue young Ovi from Tyler, who is hot on their tail and determined to make life as uncomfortable for Tyler as possible, for fear of Ovi Snr. taking retribution on his own family if he is unsuccessful and because he cannot pay the ransom because all of his money and assets have been frozen. Meanwhile, Asif has ordered a complete lockdown on Dhaka, through the Colonel of the Bangladesh Elite Force (Shataf Figar) who Asif has in his pocket. All the while Tyler is in radio contact with Khan, who advises that the plan has gone south rapidly as more of Asif's henchmen and Elite Force are converging on the boat, and to get the hell outta there.

After various other close run ins with the Police, Elite Force, Saju and Asif's goon squad involving lots of creative gun play, close quarter hand to hand combat, car chases, explosions and an ever rising body count the pair find safe haven for a couple of hours at night in the run down office of some manufacturing plant. However, their R&R is interrupted when they attempt to exit by Farhad (Suraj Rikame) a teenage boy who wishes to prove himself to Asif by killing Tyler, and his merry band of gun totting youngsters. Tyler beats off the boys but spares them their lives. Taking temporary refuge in a rat infested sewer, Tyler contacts Khan and tells her to contact Gaspar, a former team mate, now living in Dhaka, who owes his life to Tyler.

Sometime later and Gaspar (David Harbour) picks the pair up and drives them to his home, where Tyler and Ovi shower, freshen up, Tyler tends to his wounds, Ovi sleeps and the two friends share a whisky and talk about old times, before Gaspar leaves. Tyler takes food upstairs to Ovi, and the pair talk about Tyler's ex-wife whom he hasn't seen in years and his six-year-old son who died of lymphoma. When Gaspar returns, he tries to convince Tyler to give up Ovi for the US$10M bounty on his head which would set them both up for life and reveals to him that Asif is actually his friend whom he cannot cross. He and Tyler get into a fist fight and Ovi finds the two mid-fight. Gaspar starts to explain and approaches Ovi who is holding a pistol. Ovi ends up shooting Gaspar twice in the chest sending him reeling backwards slumping down in an easy chair where he draws his last breaths before dying. Ovi is shaken and collapses on the stairs crying and is comforted by Tyler.

Despite Tyler beating the crap out of Saju in an earlier fist and knife fight and then mowing him down with a truck, he calls Saju and asks for his help, forcing them to team up against the Police and Elite Force in order to escape Dhaka. Tyler creates a diversion away from Saju and Ovi using a rocket launcher, and rapid machine gun fire, as the two attempt to make their way through a bridge checkpoint. The pair are separated when their identities are revealed - with Saju pinning down the advancing Police with gunfire and Ovi taking refuge in an abandoned bus. Tyler makes his way back towards the bridge along with Khan's extraction team of mercenaries in an advancing helicopter as Asif watches from afar.

During the ensuing firefight, Saju is sniped and killed by Asif's Colonel who is then in turn sniped and killed by Khan. Rake continues to cover the extraction now with more Police and Elite Force advancing and is severely wounded in the shootout. He instructs Ovi to run towards the now landed and waiting helicopter and continues firing until the last of the Police and the Elite Force are dispensed with, with the intent to follow. Ovi watches alongside Khan as Tyler makes his way towards the helicopter, only to be shot in the side of the neck by Farhad. Tyler drags himself to the side of the bridge and falls over the barrier backwards into the river below, but not before seeing a clear vision of his son playing by the waters edge on a pristine beach. 

Ovi, Khan and the extraction team escape to Mumbai, as Asif watches the departing helicopter from the distance. Eight months later, and Asif is in a lavish restaurant, and taking a toilet break he is shot clean through the head at point blank range by Khan, who then shoots his lifeless body again in the head for good measure before exiting the mens washroom. Ovi at school again, jumps into his school's swimming pool from a diving platform and submerges himself to the bottom for a prolonged period of time. As he surfaces we see a white man watching over him, that could possibly be Tyler.

With 'Extraction' Stuntman turned Director Sam Hargrave has more than proven his ability behind the  camera as well as in front of it, with this heavily stylised, violent, bloody, take no prisoners approach to the fast paced action genre, just as Chad Stahelski did with the hugely popular and successful 'John Wick' franchise. And much of the fist fights, the gun play, the close quarter combat and the ever mounting body count as seen throughout 'Extraction' come straight out of the 'John Wick' playbook and there is nothing wrong with that, as Oscar Wilde once said 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery . . . '. This film is two hours worth of relentless action that doesn't let up for too long before the next set piece that Hargrave delivers with a keen eye for the detail, the authenticity and for keeping his target audience duly entertained. And Chris Hemsworth as the emotionally drained, world weary, kill or be killed hardened combat soldier gives a convincing performance that gives John Wick a run for his box office money. And with that ending, the Russo's, Hargrave, Hemsworth and Netflix might just have found the next action hero franchise. 

'Extraction' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-