Extraction

But you have to stick to the formula for making what's at heart a C movie actually entertain the target audience, drunk dudes. That formula? Simple storyline, bare bones dialogue, and expertly choreographed fight scenes that come no more than five minutes apart. The script was terrible from beginning to end. Bruce Willis tells a bad guy "Don't you ever threaten my family", just before delivering the kill shot. Immediately I got a bad feeling, because the line should have been "Nobody threatens my family" in order to make sense as far continuity. That may seem like a small detail to someone who isn't a writer but trust me, words matter. The dialogue never gets better and though most of the fight scenes are okay, enough of them are badly staged that it detracts from the only thing that makes the film worth seeing. The acting was below average with the exception of Bruce Willis, who phoned it in but is still a veteran. Gina Carano was under utilized, which seems to keep happening to her. There are too many bad movies that are still a lot of fun for you to waste time on this one. 4 out of 10.

The makers of "Extraction" use the same marketing gimmick as used in films such as "The Cold Light of Day", "Fire with Fire", "The Prince" and "Vice". It's the famous Bruce Willis magic trick. Actually, it's dead simple. Make sure this star actor of yesteryear (I have to say I was always a big fan of BW) participates in an upcoming B-movie. However, the length of time you can admire him is limited and his presence is evenly spaced. You let him turn up at the beginning of the movie as an appetizer and give the impression that this might be a real Willis movie once again. Eventually, he disappears for most of the film and pops up again in the end for the big reveal. Then place him centrally on the cover so future viewers will get the feeling that he's playing an important part in it. I'm convinced that this is the biggest marketing trick that ensures the necessary revenues. As a viewer, you feel cheated though. Yep. The "Die Hard" star adds just another B-movie to his record of achievements. I must admit that the beginning of the film provided a momentary enthusiasm. For a moment, I had a feeling the old Bruce Willis was back and I was getting ready for some cool one-liners and beaten up opponents. Yippie kai yee! The result was a short-lived excitement, because before you know it the Willis marketing trick reveals itself and he disappears like a white rabbit during that well-known magic trick. Not in a black hat, but in the murky world of terrorists who captured a device called CONDOR. When activating this device, telecommunications will be disabled worldwide. Or something like that. Time for Kellan Lutz to show up. He plays Harry Turner, a CIA analyst who would love to follow in the footsteps of his father, but his application is always refused by the respective services. Until the day comes when someone kidnaps his father Leonard (Bruce Willis). Despite the explicit prohibition of his superiors to get involved, he still heads out to defuse that CONDOR. And this with the help of this other field agent Victoria (Gina Carano). And what a surprise, she's someone Kellan had a brief relationship with before. Who would have thought of that? What follows is just a cheap Secret Service action movie with the necessary fight scenes. And with of course the obligatory locations such as a biker bar (starring some billiard balls and a broken jukebox) and a trendy nightclub. Carano showed already in "In the Blood" that she can stand her ground in such dark clubs. The story brings nothing new and is full of familiar clichés. Even the denouement at the end was predictable. Not quite a good movie, you might say. The same can be said of the performances. Willis plays another comatose role and looks quite pathetic and uninterested in the few moments when he's on screen. Lutz and Carano make the best out of it and during the action scenes, the entertainment level rose a bit. And then there's the fact that Carano's curves are certainly a feast for the eye. I wouldn't date her though. Not with this testosterone-filled chunk of energy. Before you know it, you're stuck in a stranglehold that can be fatal. For now I've lost all hope for another brilliant Bruce Willis movie. Yippie kai ... yeah yeah yeah!

The film reminds me of, The Cold Light of Day, both involved Bruce Willis playing a dad whose son joins the family business of espionage after hit with tragedy

But instead of Man of Steel's Henry Cavill, we get some new guy, Kellan Lutz. It looks like the new guy is trying to showcase his fighting skills. Though the action sequences are OK, they do absolutely nothing to make me think this new guy could be the next Jason Statham or anything like that. Pretty lame since his name appears before Willis.

What really sucks is that the movie is sleeping Gina Carano's skills. I was thinking that she was in the film as a backup just in case the new pretty boy falls short, which he does, and she would pick up the slack, but she acted as no more than just the love interest for the hero, which is so lame, cause I seen her do too many amazing fight scenes to be second rate in this film.

Speaking of second rate, Bruce Willis most likely lends his name to the movie in exchange for a big pay check. He's barely in it. I will say when he is on the screen, Mr. Willis does do a little bit of acting. Just enough to give the character a little more depth than the others (guess he did not want young and hot new action star to upstage him)

So the movie is not as bad as I'm making it out to be. it's a 100% pure action flick and it's too generic to be in a good or bad category. It just is. Something that you can stream on your computer while distracted by other things.

Saturday, 19 December 2015

There are two movies with the same title "Extraction" for release in 2015. One which stars Bruce "Moonlighting & "Die Hard" Willis and sexy fighter turned actress Gina Carano. The other, a non union low budget full of unknown actors/actresses {actor-director, Tim Kirkpatrick, Caitlin Custer and Iranian-American actress Medalion Rahimi. The latter is set to be on DVD and the i- net later this month.

I have seen Bruce in much better action films, especially "Die Hard "1 & 2 and "The Jackal" with the brilliant Sidney Poitier. This movie is as bad as his old movie "Hudson Hawk". The action is predictable as well as the outcome ending. Some guys look good doing fight scenes beating up 5 or 6 guys such as real good martial artist/actors Wesley Snipes and Michael J. White. Even brilliant academy award winner, Denzel Washington's fight scenes in "Equalizer" and brilliant actor, Liam Neeson in all three "Taken" movies fight scenes looked way better than in this movie.

Kellan Lutz is not impressive. He is better doing non action films. His fight scene with the Asian man in the warehouse mid way in the film, the Asian man would have beat the hell out of him, but the script was written for Kellan to win. The only reason I am rating it a 5 is because sexy fighter turned actress, Gina Carano is in it. Gina is the saving grace of this movie. Gina is a real good fighter, nice figure, sexy and prettier than her competitor, Ronda Rousey.

Please "Extract" this movie from my eye sight.

A total disappointment leading me to avoid any future movie promoting Bruce Willis. He was in the movie 5 minutes, at best. What a sell-out! For whatever reason, this site requires me to add more information in order to qualify enough lines to post a review. How many lines of text does one need to state the movie is disappointing, bad, not entertaining, overdone as to violence, poorly scripted, using no-name unbelievable unattractive actors. Do not waste your time watching this movie as I have spent trying to reach the required (ten) number of lines of review in order to allow my review to be accepted. The "leading female actress" was overweight and lacking any sexual appeal while the lead actor "son of Willis" was a cardboard hero possessing little if any acting skill.