By Mark Kennedy
Tyler Rake was clinically dead when we last saw him at the end of "Extraction," tumbling over a bridge in Bangladesh with a fatal, burbling bullet wound to his neck. But death is no match for Netflix.
Chris Hemsworth returns as the sad-sack, gun-for-hire Rake in "Extraction 2" and you'll thank the giant streamer for such a nifty bit of resurrection because this franchise is pure cinematic adrenalin.
The new movie comes two years after a surprisingly good first installment, which saw Rake intervene in a feud between two rival drug dealers, survive numerous double-crosses, ask things like "How many hostiles onsite?" and lob an inexhaustible number of grenades.
How he survived it all stuns even his friends. Emerging from a coma in "Extraction 2," he is stashed in a remote chalet in Gmunden, Austria, and told to chill out — learn to knit, go on hikes, try to reach mindfulness. "Enjoy retirement," he is told. If he did there would be no "Extraction 2."
Inevitably, a new extraction job comes along, so cue the getting-in-shape montage of Hemsworth doing pushups in the snow, splitting firewood, pushing a sled filled with rocks and some light ax throwing. Somehow, the "Extraction" movies lean into all the cliches but they don't feel old.
Hemsworth is re-joined here by Marvel Comic Universe–screenwriter Joe Russo and stunt-specialist-turned-director Sam Hargrave, but their ace-in-the-hole is their cinematographers, who create impossibly long single takes of complicated fighting or driving scenes that put the viewer directly into the action like few other thrillers.
Last time it was Newton Thomas Sigel. This time, Greg Baldi stages a breathless rescue from inside the winding tunnels of a brutal Georgian prison, complete with a full riot, a flaming police shield used as a weapon, a car chase with motorcycles and rockets, a race through a factory and then onto a train moving 40 mph, where helicopters are shot down and there's more hand-to-hand combat aboard. It's a 20-minute tour-de-force — the kind of sequence that brings you up from your seat to applaud, even if you're on your couch. And there's more than an hour to go.
"Extraction 2" seems to have more money this time around — I'm sure they'd like to apologize for using a lot of it to trash downtown Vienna — but unlike other action franchises, it doesn't waste it on pretty excursions to Paris museums or five-star Tokyo hotels.
The strength of these movies has always been being down in the mud, streets and dirt, with the sound of spent cartridges pinging off concrete. These characters sweat and they bruise, even if many look fabulous in sunglasses.
The baddies here are similar to the first installment — a pair of powerful, scarred brothers who run heroin and guns in Georgia and are quiet-talking psychopaths, the kind who whisper a metaphor and then plunge a rake into your throat.
We learn a bit more about Rake and even meet members of his extended family, but he remains a one-note emotionally suppressed man. One knock on the franchise is that it hasn't been able to take advantage of Hemsworth's humor, like Marvel has done with his Thor.
Family is at the heart of "Extraction 2" as Rake gets in between this Georgian clan and also seeks to keep alive his trusted handler, Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani, seriously good, a franchise spin-off anyone?) and her cool-as-silk sidekick brother (Adam Bessa).
Death will only free one side and, along the way, a fancy rooftop gym will be turned into a charnel house, a skyscraper will be virtually razed by rocket fire, an airfield will explode in a fiery mess and a church will be wrecked — sorry, God. But death isn't the final word — in this franchise, that's relative.
"Extraction 2," a Netflix release that airs Friday, is rated R for "strong, bloody violence throughout and language." Running time: 123 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Mark Kennedy is an AP entertainment writer
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More