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When anyone says COVID-19 is changing movies in unexpected and dramatic ways, they are not kidding.
Take “Extraction,” a super-violent, propulsive action film set in Mumbai and Bangladesh. It stars Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, the kind of guy a millionaire would gladly hire, knowing whatever the job was, Rake would get it done.
In “Extraction,” this Australian black-market mercenary is hired by an Indian drug lord to retrieve his kidnapped 14-year-old son (Rudhraksh Jaiswal). The drug kingpin happens to be imprisoned and a loathsome rival has his boy.
Hemsworth at 36 is listed by Wikipedia as one of the “leading and highest paid actors in the world,” thanks to his multiple appearances as Thor in Marvel’s various series.
That Hemsworth is making this elaborate, classically structured journey into the hearts of much darkness for a streaming service instead of theaters is one sign of just how different movies as we’ve long known them are becoming.
“Extraction” is, like superhero movies of every shape and stripe, made for a global audience.
Its various settings in jungles, teeming cities and India’s hidden fortresses perfectly attest to the power of movies to take us to places we might only imagine.
Hemsworth has long been celebrated for his physicality, comic timing and, here in “Extraction” perhaps most importantly, the ability to convey complex martial arts skills against several hundred opponents.
Unlike Mark Wahlberg, for instance, who produced and starred in the Netflix-mounted revival of the “Spenser” detective series, a potential franchise ideally suited for a streaming platform, “Extraction” is the kind of big movie you would always see first on a big IMAX-style screen.
Another noteworthy aspect is that Hemsworth on “Extraction” is reunited with his Marvel Universe cohorts, the Russo brothers Anthony and Joe. They directed the final Avengers films: “Avengers: Infinity Wars” and “Avengers: End Game,” which surprisingly (and effectively) gave Hemsworth’s mighty Thor a middle-aged beer belly and depression.
They are among the producers of “Extraction,” which Joe wrote. It is to his credit that this action film’s first-time director is Sam Hargrave, the Russos’ veteran stunt coordinator, who could be depended upon to make the virtually nonstop action continually pop!
“Extraction” was originally called “Dhaka,” which is the largest city in Bangladesh and the most densely populated city in the world. The title then was changed to “Out of Fire” before settling on the easily understood “Extraction.”
By any name, it’s a monster of a movie that signals the “small” screen’s competition with theaters is becoming intense.
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