Without question, Chris Hemsworth is one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars. Playing Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will do that for you. Beyond being the God of Thunder in the MCU, Hemsworth has displayed some underrated comedic chops, but in the new Netflix action flick Extraction, he’s given a largely humorless role. His killing machine main character is a throwback to the types of roles that action heroes a generation ago would have coveted, but the overall final product is uneven. For every step forward the film takes with intensity or a creatively staged action set piece, there’s at least one step back (if not more), in terms of senseless violence, narrative muddling, and some questionable racial elements. It all adds up to something that’s decent enough for a boring afternoon on Netflix, but not quite as good as it could have been. An old fashioned action movie, it follows a man on, you guessed it, a mission. The mission? To rescue the kidnapped son of an international crime lord currently behind bars. Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) is a kid caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, destined to be used as a pawn in a war between his father and another crime lord in Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). That is, unless Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) can save the day. Given the assignment by his handler Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani), the job initially seems clear cut. Then, almost immediately, things begin going wrong, with people on all sides dying indiscriminately. Tyler acquires Ovi, but getting him out of the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka will prove to be nearly impossible, with the corrupt military, Ovi’s father’s right hand man Saju (Randeep Hooda), and a rival gangster’s minions all hot on his tail. Tons of murder ensues. Sam Hargrave directs a screenplay by Joe Russo, with the cast also including David Harbour, Pankaj Tripathi, and others. Alex Belcher and Henry Jackman composed the score, the while the cinematography is by Newton Thomas Sigel. Chris Hemsworth is effective here, though his character is largely a blank slate. There are hints dropped about his past, but Tyler Rake is not what you would call a three dimensional creation. Hemsworth leans into his brutality, dialing back any charm, though his own screen presence is still undeniable. The script from Joe Russo (yes, one half of the Russo Brothers who directed him in a […]