Delayed Reaction: Extraction

Premise: Man on Fire, but, India...India on Fire? Man in India?

Could you imagine what kind of movie star Chris Hemsworth would've been in 1990? He's built like Schwarzenegger, with the same love of comedy, but without the thick accent to overcome. He's got the Tom Cruise handsomeness and screen presence but in a bigger package. He is as charismatic as they come. Imagine if he was Crocodile Dundee. They'd still be making those movies.

Sure, he's a movie star today too. "God Damn Movie Stars" don't really exist anymore though. The only people who can open movies on their name alone are leftovers from an earlier era. It might only be Denzel on a tier by himself at this point. Take Chris Hemsworth's career without the Marvel movies. A cameo as Kirk's dad in Star Trek. An ensemble role in a cult horror movie (The Cabin in the Woods). In the Huntsman movies, he was overshadowed by costars like Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart. Neither movie was all that successful anyway. His attempts with awards-bait directors (Rush, Blackhat, In the Heart of the Sea) were pretty much ignored by everyone, even though he is pretty good in them. Most of the rest of the time, he's doing bit comedy parts. It's odd. The words "why does Chris Hemsworth have to be in this?" have never been uttered by anyone. On paper, he's about as sure a thing to be a "God Damn Movie Star" as you're ever going to find, but he's in the wrong era for that.

So, Extraction is worth a try. If he can't go back to 1995, he can just pretend that it's 1995. Because, you've seen this movie before. It's a "Dumb Action Movie". And that's a genre classification, not a dismissal of it. Hemsworth is a highly skilled maverick gun-for-hire with a strict moral code and a military background. His character is never in doubt. There's a kid around to humanize him. Hemsworth pretty much takes down an army of men through the course of the movie. I couldn't tell you a single detail from the movie even though I watched it just a couple days ago. The movie is a little more restrained than a Michael Bay movie and doesn't try to be as high-minded as even Triple Frontier. It's happy to sort of just exist. And Hemsworth shines in that model. I saw someone describe this as him making a Jason Statham movie. Yeah, that sounds about right, but with less winking at the camera.

I like the Indian setting. The international box office is so concerned with appeasing China that India is overlooked as a filming destination. They have a vibrant movie industry though and no shortage of interesting locations. It gave this movie a different flavor without doing anything special in the script.

While I appreciate how the very end toys with the audience, I don't see the point of it. Is that a play for a sequel? No offense, but, while Hemsworth works well in this role, he hasn't really crafted a unique character. There are dozens of screenplays that have already been written that could be repurposed as a sequel to this because it's that generic. Even the title, Extraction, is almost intentionally generic. This could be the biggest movie on Netflix for a month, and if they come out with an Extraction 2, people will ask "Which one was Extraction? Is it the Ben Affleck one or the Ryan Reynolds one?"

*The answer: Neither. You are thinking of Triple Frontier and 6 Underground.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend