There are several instances in Sam Hargrave’s ‘Extraction’ that remind you of a Bollywood gangster flick. For one, the backdrop is downright familiar in that it involves the kidnapping of Ovi Mahajan Jr., (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) son of dreaded Indian mafia kingpin Ovi Mahajan Sr. (Pankaj Tripathi) by Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli), Mahajan’s arch rival in Bangladesh.
Chris Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a former SASR operator turned mercenary, who is sent on an extraction mission to Bangaldesh, and the actor is the one major reason why I stuck up with ‘Extraction’ right till the end. He is a true rock star in the action sequences, and the film does have plenty of those hard hitting scenes – never ending chases through the crowded Dhaka streets and loads of fisticuffs and gun shots – that will have any action flick aficionado asking for more.
But it does get cheesy as well, especially when it comes to those scenes that involve Rake and Mahajan Jr., and it’s impossible not to pay attention to how theatrical it gets. Sad that all those crushed nose blades and broken bones do not make up for those almost hollow dialogues that get uttered, and it’s here that ‘Extraction’ ends up a seen and done to death affair, and a lacklustre one at that.
Verdict: Average