Stunt personnel turning to directing didn’t end with the 'John Wick' series because now with Extraction, it was time for Sam Hargrave. With a screenplay penned by Joe Russo, the duo teams up with Chris Hemsworth who plays our main character Tyler Rake (yes, that is in fact his character's name). Extraction delivers exactly what it promises in its title; it is a pedal-to-the-metal action movie that would rather punch its way through a wall than think about the consequences.
For your viewing pleasures there is plenty of best possible stunt choreography and fights you can get right now. All of it is quite great even without it but there’s an 11-minute long action sequence which is nicely cut together to seem like we’re moving in real time. Here both Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda (as Saju) both get to really flex along with their stunt doubles as the fighting is entertaining, gritty and well shot. And yes, don't worry, Tyler Rake kills someone with a rake, if not twice actually. In between all the shooting, there’s a welcomed stint by David Harbour (Gaspar) which really is a fresh break from the bleakness of it all and Harbour succeeds in those scenes.
It’s a weird decision to tint the picture to this slimy mix of light brown and yellow that both makes the film look ugly and seem boring as it’s really oversaturated. Gorgeous action especially gets shamefully watered down with it since you can’t pick out anything from more exotic locations than we’re used to seeing in movies lately. Debutant Hargrave was wisely paired up with a more experienced filmmaker in cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel so it’s a bummer that the shots they worked on were reduced to this. There are many things in Extraction that were touched only on surface level, mostly the big bad Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli) who doesn’t get the necessary character depth and actor Rudhraksh Jaiswal, who portrays Ovi, as he gets no proper lines since he’s only told to stay put constantly. This is certainly a fine debut for Hargrave, who hopefully gets more polished scripts to work with moving forward.
Smileys: Stunt choreography, David Harbour
Frowneys: Colouring
As far as Netflix’s action movies go, you could argue that '6 Underground' crawled so Extraction could walk.
