Montreal Gazette

SOMETHING BORROWED JUST MAKES US BLUE

Nothing original about Extraction’s plot, characters, dialogue — or even its title

- CHRIS KNIGHT cknight@postmedia.com twitter.com/chrisknigh­tfilm

If you’ve ever wondered what the cast and crew of a major production get up to between setups, look no further than Extraction. In spite of its high production values, this generic thriller from a bunch of the people who brought you Avengers: Endgame feels like it was put together during downtime and on weekends while making that major Marvel movie. The plot couldn’t be more bare-bones if it took place in a museum of paleontolo­gy.

Chris Hemsworth stars as Tyler Rake, a name so odd that a couple of the characters actually stop running and shooting for a few minutes just to discuss how unusual it is. He’s a hired gun who gets hired when 14-yearold Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) is kidnapped by a crime lord on the streets of Mumbai, and spirited away to Dhaka in neighbouri­ng Bangladesh.

Ovi’s dad is in prison but still wields a lot of power, so he instructs his chief lieutenant to hire someone to get the kid back. This is where Tyler comes in. He’s one of those broken-down mercenarie­s (think of Thor when he let himself go) who drinks a lot, mumbles about the unfairness of life and has sepia-toned flashback to a child on a beach, which you just know will turn out to be someone from his past that he couldn’t save. Extraction is not a movie with a lot of surprises, unless you’re the type to be bowled over by the ol’ good-guy-we-thought-was-evil-or-viceversa.

In fact, Extraction isn’t a movie with a lot of anything. The string bean of a plot — kid kidnapped; let’s get him back — exists merely to let first-time feature director Sam Hargrave move nimbly from one gun battle or car chase to the next. There’s one scene that looks to be a single take and lasts a solid 10 minutes, but it’s razzle-dazzle without reason, like a waiter lighting a plate of saganaki on fire in an empty Greek restaurant. What’s the point?

Hargrave was second-unit director and stunt co-ordinator on Avengers: Endgame, which makes sense, since Extraction was written by Endgame co-director Joe Russo, and produced by the Russo brothers and Hemsworth, among others. Hargrave doesn’t do a bad job, but he has so little to work with.

Everything about the story feels borrowed or recycled. Even the title is the same as a Bruce Willis thriller from five years ago. Fun fact: Extraction used to be called Out of the Fire, but that’s also the name of a pottery-making doc from 2013. I guess the filmmakers felt if they were going to steal a title it might as well be from the same genre.

You could create a decent

drinking game based on the number of times someone tells young Ovi to “stay here” or “don’t move,” or alternatel­y to “run now,” “keep low” or “keep moving.” I’ve seen workout videos that had more interestin­g dialogue.

And the supporting cast members are barely there. Golshifteh Farahani pops up briefly as Tyler’s comrade-in-arms, presumably written into the script after Russo realized he didn’t have a single woman in the story. She might also be Tyler’s lover; I couldn’t tell and didn’t care. And David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy) has exactly one scene, the one where the hero has a drink with an old friend and reminisces about the old days.

If you’re a Hemsworth completist and have already seen Bad Times at the El Royale, all 192 episodes of him on Home and Away plus that time he was on Neighbours, you might want to catch up with him here to keep your streak going. There isn’t much else to recommend Extraction. It’s less painful than the dental variety, but also about as exciting.

Extraction is available on Netflix.

 ?? NETFLIX ?? Chris Hemsworth, left, and Rudhraksh Jaiswal star in the painful Extraction, a film that opts for razzle-dazzle over reason.
NETFLIX Chris Hemsworth, left, and Rudhraksh Jaiswal star in the painful Extraction, a film that opts for razzle-dazzle over reason.

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