Despite an uneasy relationship with his secret agent father, operative-in-training, Harry Turner, played by Kellan Lutz, goes rogue to the rescue when dear old dad (Bruce Willis) is kidnapped. And who is hot on Harry’s tail…his ex-fuck buddy from college, played by Gina Carano.
Regardless of what I had read up on Extraction, the knowledge of Steven C. Miller occupying the director’s chair brought hope of a light at the end of the tunnel. After first appearing on my radar by helming the non-starter TV movie Scream of the Banshee (2011), he brought us 2012’s Under The Bed, which featured some gruesome monster action before finally piquing my interest with his surprisingly good re-imagining of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). Miller was finally in his element. So please trust me as you read on that where Extraction itself is concerned, the fault does not lie with him.
Bruce’s beef with his son is just silly, expecting an unassuming teenaged boy to suddenly possess the ability to take down a professional hit-man??? I realise that there are third-world countries where children run around carrying automatic weapons, but that shit doesn’t come naturally to anyone!
Frankly after observing this now oddly muscle-bound “pencil-pusher” 2 fights in, his old man should be more worried about his combat skills. The dude is in way over his head. He damn near gets the shit-kicked out of him every time, and yet somehow he is either saved by a rescuer’s perfect timing, or by slapstick fighting tactics that should really only work in movies like The Naked Gun.
But it can’t all be down to the box office poison that is Kellan Lutz. The fight choreography is pretty messy. Also, the makeup department have done a very interesting job. I’m sure they were aiming for “tough chick”, but they ended up making the very beautiful Gina Carano look very manly indeed.
LAST WORDS:
Against all odds, and some Victor/Victoria face paint, Gina manages to come out on top, irrespective of the movie’s dumb script. Hopefully Miller can shake off the stink of this one. After all, you can’t really blame him for not passing on a Bruce Willis movie, can you.