A recent film on Netflix starring Chris Hemsworth that was considerably better than I thought it was going to be. I have a tendency to be a bit "afraid" of Hemsworth action films, as I tend to enjoy him more in dramas. However this one proved to exceed my expectations, although it does have a few downsides.
The fact that the movie has some of the same people involved in it that were involved in Avengers should appeal to some people; for me this was a non-issue since I seem to be one of the only people who didn't particularly care for those films. It is a pretty good indicator that a movie is going to have some great action though, and this film definitely delivers on that!
It does take a little while to get moving at the start as we are slowly introduced to Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) and taught that he is an Australian black market mercenary with a bit of a troubled past and is a member of a highly sought after team that is called into India to retrieve the son of a drug lord who has been kidnapped by another drug lord and taken to Bangladesh.
Once the pieces are all in place by Rake's team is in place for the rescue, which they easily pull off only to discover that their problems have only just begun. The drug lord son was being held for ransom and the captors are not going to allow Rake's team to escape so easily. Thus begins as massive "Extraction" adventure to get the boy out of Bangladesh and back into India.
This is where the action is good and continuous, and the major characters in the film are actually pretty great and solidly cast especially Randeep Hooda, who plays a mercenary that is working to hunt down Rake and steal the boy from him in order to collect the ransom himself.
Randeep was phenomenal in his role and I would like to see him in other films but since he is a Bollywood actor I think that this is likely where he will stay.
Some problem that I had with the movie was it's pretty shakey and not believable storyline. I realize that drug lords have connections inside of the police force and what not but these drug lords are able to call upon the full resources of the police and the military? Totally at their disposal - that's just a bit too far really. Also, while I like blood as much as the next guy, the body count is absurdly high in this movie to the point where it starts to become a bit absurd when Hemsworth takes out his 100th policeman.
Never ending ammunition and weapons that never jam are a couple of other not-so-practical things you have to look forward to as well.
Look, this was never going to be an Oscar-nominated film and it is just a fast-paced action film and if you walk into this movie accepting that (or even better, wanting that) I think you are going to enjoy this. The story is a bit weak but the cinematography and action are fantastic. Therefore I say this one is a winner