Crackle, the online movie and TV site, unleashes an original film that combines shades of Die Hard and surprisingly, The Raid: Redemption with an ensemble cast.
The U.S. military are working closely with the CIA and FBI for a major assignment. A special unit of covert ops are sent to Chechnya, Russia to “extract” an ally to a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist group. To extract means they must bust him out of the prison and bring him back alive. The man in question is Rudolf Martin.
When the group goes to the prison to begin the extraction process, they are caught by British-Russian warden Rudnovsky, who sends his guards to kill the entire unit. The entire unit is wiped out with one exception. Mercy Callo, a member of the squad whose parents years ago were killed by the same terrorist group Martin had funded, survives and goes forward to extracting Martin himself.
While Mercy goes for the extraction, FBI agent Natalie Meyers becomes Mercy’s only line of communication while Colonel Harding and CIA agent Kyle Black oversee the operation. Will Mercy successfully extract Martin or does Rudnovsky have something up his sleeve to prevent this from happening?
Written and directed by Tony Giglio, this is quite an interesting action thriller that capitalizes on films such as Die Hard and The Raid: Redemption. Giglio truly knows his action films and came up with a story that as it goes on, keeps bringing the viewer intrigued with the device of the plot twist. The plot twists here make the viewer want to see what happens next in a good way.
An ensemble cast takes over the film, led by wushu champion turned actor Jon Foo. Foo, who should have had his name known in the live action adaptation of Tekken, plays Mercy, the young maverick hero who decides to continue his assignment despite the rest of the team being killed off. Foo resorts to not only using firepower, but gets to unleash some brutal martial arts skills, combining some nice kicking skills with close quarter attacks.
While he proves to be the fighter on screen, one cannot hide the fact that pulling some interesting performances are the likes of veterans Danny Glover (as the colonel heading the mission) and Sean Astin (as the CIA agent who acts as a liaison for the extraction unit). Vinnie Jones mainly mugs for the camera, but gets some shots in as corrupt warden Rudnovsky.
In charge of the action are veteran James Lew and stuntman/stunt co-ordinator Lin Oeding. They pulled off some impressive action sequences that don’t go on the technical as much as the close quarters techniques. In fact, it is a welcome merging of the two with Foo leading the way. In a nicely shot fight scene, Foo finds himself taking on a bevy of guards and relies on using himself as a weapon, pulling off some impressive maneuvers in the process. While there is no real final fight scene, a fight between Foo and a prisoner combines some kickboxing style action but turned up on the brutality.
Extraction is definitely a fun action thriller. It is truly a welcome combination of military action, firepower, and martial arts film. This could be the role lead Jon Foo has been waiting for. Definitely worth seeing, and it is available on Crackle.
WFG RATING: B
Crackle Films present a Sony Pictures Television production of a Ranger 7 Films film. Director: Tony Giglio. Producers: Reuben Liber, Mike Callaghan, and Justin Bursch. Writer: Tony Giglio. Cinematography: Jesse Brunt. Editing: Peter Mengus.
Cast: Jon Foo, Falk Hentschel, Vinnie Jones, Joanne Kelly, Sean Astin, Danny Glover, Adam Croasdell, Branden Morgan, Adam Tsekhman, Maximillian Osinski, Ben Jenkin, Spencer Garrett, Paul Duke.
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