The Film Buffa reviews 'Extraction 2', 'The Flash', and 'Arnold'
Let's talk movies and explosions as fireworks begin to explode outside.
There’s something definitive and final about a movie that I have always appreciated. Unlike a television show that could include four to ten hours of new footage, 98% of new releases don’t go over three.
A part of the experience that reaches out to you early on in the film, whispering, “this won’t last forever, so pay attention.” Then again, the rewatchability of a movie is undeniably sweet, even if that’s more of an infatuation adventure because the film touched a nerve.
Sam Hargrave’s pandemic actioner, Extraction, blazed a new trail on Netflix. It proved that you could make a big-budget and star-driven action adventure film on the streaming service, and create something big. The film exploded out of the gate, staying in Netflix’s Top 5 most viewed for weeks and the Top 10 for months.
Starring the very reliable and versatile Chris Hemsworth as a soul-crushed mercenary taking a dangerous mission on: extracting a gangster’s son from another gangster’s kidnapped position. The film didn’t let up for long once Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake starts running and gunning, pulling up for air only to revisit the tragedy in his life: the loss of a son that broke his marriage, sending him 110 mph into any mission that could kill him.
Extraction 2 takes the setup and raw action aesthetics to another level, bringing a seemingly dead (first film spoiler alert!) Rake back to rescue the imprisoned mother and two kids of a dangerous crime family. Her husband is a bad man, the kind that keeps his family inside a penitentiary with him for maximum control.
What he gets is maximum pushback from Rake and his crew (the amazing Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa), who endure the most intense (arm on fire included) prison break scene in recent memory and a bullet-riddled encounter with bad (or worse) men aboard (and on top of) a helicopter on their mission.
Hargrave, a former stuntman who doubled for Chris Evans’ Captain America, delivers premium action goods to the viewer. Joe Russo, the Avengers co-director who wrote the first Extraction film, digs deeper with the sequel’s screenplay. Instead of merely showing us a cute blonde kid on a beach, the viewer gets to know Rake’s family and history a little more. There’s also the lingering question of him leaving his dying son to go on another mission back in the day, which is explored beautifully by Olga Kurylenko and Hemsworth in a late scene.
It’s no secret the Australian hulk who embodied Marvel’s Thor for years can act: just look at Ron Howard’s Rush or last summer’s Spiderhead for evidence. Hemsworth doesn’t mind stretching his abilities and taking roles with different shades, but he’s a great action star. It pumps oxygen into his movie star engine, because he looks the part and lifts the film up to another level with his dedication.
There aren’t more than a handful of currently working movie stars who can climb aboard a speeding train with a very large machine gun and blast a helicopter out of the sky. Even fewer can perform most of the stunts in a “oner,” a stylistic director trick where the camera doesn’t flinch for 21 minutes. Hemsworth can go from that adrenaline to a drama-filled and dialogue-less scene about Rake’s tearful mistakes.
That’s versatility. I hope we get more Extraction movies. They know exactly what they are, and deliver the goods while improving upon the previous film. Let’s just say the next film tried to improve on something, and the results were a mixed bag.
I’m talking about Andy Muschietti’s The Flash, which was released a few weeks ago and quickly fizzled out at the box office. A couple of weeks ago, before the latest Indiana Jones film could flop, DC’s final output of their pre-James Gunn studio slate crashed hard into the ground upon release.
Now, I don’t factor box office receipts into my take on a film, but it’s hard to ignore the groundwork behind this film’s timeline. Muschietti, the Argentine filmmaker of the highly successful IT films, took on Barry Allen’s solo film. The young man who lost his mom and dad on the same day-her to a home robbery murder and his dad to jail for being charged with it-figures out how to use his superpowers to tinker (aka fuck with) time.
The film chronicles his mission, where the danger isn’t in the form of bad guys yet lies in the manipulation of past events, by inputting every single DCEU character and story thread into the mix. That means Michael Shannon’s General Zod comes back to play, but this time in a *SPOILER ALERT* superhero-less Man of Steel world. Ben Affleck’s Batman makes a brief appearance before being flashed out of existence, setting the stage for an older Bat to enter the fray.
That’s Michael Keaton, who inhabits the character for the first time in 30+ years. He’s easily the best part of a flawed movie, one that leans hard on viewer nostalgia instead of a screenplay that holds together. The kitchen sink and anything near is thrown at the crowd, including humorous cameos from Nicolas Cage and George Clooney. It gets more and more ridiculous, and only a sweet scene in a grocery store near the end of the film shows any form of redemption.
Here’s the thing. I liked this movie more a couple of weeks ago, but the marinating process only revealed a flick that was a doomed mistake from the jump. The director hiring process, Ezra Miller’s off-screen horrific antics, and Gunn’s new phase taking shape put The Flash in a vice.
I’d save it for a rental later. Redbox, takeout pizza or Chinese, and a big screen will do the trick. That way the overlong run time can be handled in stages instead of one huge sonic burst of imperfection.
Last but not least, a few words about one of my true favorites, Arnold Schwarzenegger. While his hapless Netflix TV show FUBAR received a second season renewal from Netflix, the streamer’s three-part documentary is much better use of your time.
Broken down into three one-hour segments: the bodybuilding breakout, the movie star, and the politician-the aptly named Arnold doesn’t miss a thing in Schwarzenegger’s life, even touching candidly on the affair with the family nanny. It’s his overall open nature and willingness to go there, even into the darker aspects of his life, that make this such a compelling watch.
Did you know Schwarzenegger was a real estate mogul and businessman before he ever broke into Hollywood? For him, big Hollywood checks from studios weren’t a necessity for him. He was already making big money selling and renting homes, and helping Venice Beach develop its outdoor fitness community.
Arnold unveils the business-savvy and action hero friendly personality that helped mold one of the world’s greatest stories. He won Mr. Olympia eight times, and then outgunned Sylvester Stallone (Sly’s words) at the movie star game. After that, he broke into California politics as Governor. His lasting effect there, creating activities for inner city kids and building the community out safely, is a positive one accounting to many accounts on display on the Netflix doc.
Later this year, Stallone gets the Netflix documentary treatment. If it’s half as good as his former rival and now good friend’s series, viewers will be happy.
Thanks for reading, and happy holidays.