EXTRACTION

US, 2015, 100 minutes, Colour.
Kellan Lutz, Bruce Willis, Gina Carano, D.B.Sweeney.
Directed by Steven C. Miller.

Extraction is not a film that needs to go on anyone’s must see list – probably, on the contrary.

This is the kind of action material that goes straight to DVD. However, it is somewhat enhanced by the presence of Bruce Willis, though his role is fairly small even if crucial. He is billed after Kellan Lutz, who plays his son.

The film opens with Willis being interrogated, his family threatened, his breaking loose but assassins going into his house, killing his wife, frightening his young son who is unable to pull the trigger on the assailants.Years later, the son is now in training with the CIA and assigned to Prague where there is an investigation going on about a technological spy program.

News come that the father has been kidnapped again but that the CIA is not mounting a rescue plan – so that the son decides to take matters into his own hands, becoming involved with a former romantic partner during training days, played by action star, Gina Carano, with a whole lot of complications, especially with the father manipulating the situation to get back at corrupt officials, threatening to sell the project to the enemy.

While there are some exotic scenes in Prague, most of the action takes place in a rather dingy New Jersey. The basics of the plot are fairly familiar and conventional, especially intrigues, betrayals and twists, and the young man trying to prove himself to his father.

Kellan Lutz has been a model, has played the role of Hercules, voiced Tarzan. This film might seem to be his calling card for his career and he is given fight after fight after fight to impress with his screen presence, his fighting abilities far stronger than his acting abilities.

The director, Steven C. Miller, went on to direct Bruce Willis into succeeding films, Marauders, First Kill.