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The Lovebirds (2020)

5/22/2020

“The Lovebirds” stars Kumail Nanjiani, Issa Rae, Anna Camp, Paul Sparks, Betsy Borrego, Kyle Bornheimer, Kelly Murtagh, and Moses Storm. Released on Netflix on May 22, 2020, the film is about a couple who gets caught in the middle of a murder mystery.

The film is directed by Michael Showalter, who also directed “The Baxter”, “Hello, My Name Is Doris”, and “The Big Sick”. Don’t you just hate it when you’re on a date with someone you really liked and then all of a sudden, you witnessed a murder? It sucks, doesn’t it? This weekend sees yet another theatrical film that’s going straight to our homes due to the pandemic. The film was originally set to arrive in theaters last month, but since the cinemas are still closed, it wound up being delayed like the other potential theatrical films that were scheduled for this year. Some time later, Netflix bought the distribution rights from Paramount and had it release on the streaming service. This is a nice change of pace in my eyes because so far, I paid at least 40 dollars to review two movies that went straight to premium video-on-demand due to the coronavirus, and yes, two of them were animated kids movies. Not that I didn’t mind, of course, but since I’m out of the job temporarily, I have to save my money for important stuff like food and toilet paper. This is also the latest film from “Wet Hot American Summer” co-creator Michael Showalter, who has been impressing me so far with his last two romantic comedies, with one of them being one of my favorite films of 2017, despite not being a huge fan of the romance genre. The marketing made it look like another ordinary R-rated comedy compared to Showalter’s down-to-earth rom-coms that were released a couple of years ago, but is it a good ordinary R-rated comedy? Let's find out.

The story follows Jibran (Nanjiani) and Leilani (Rae), two people who are going through a rough patch in their relationship. Their trip to a friend’s dinner party suddenly went off the rails when they witness a murder right in front of their eyes and are falsely accused of the crime. Forced to go on the run, Jibran and Leilani must survive every single circumstance known to man in order to find the real suspect, clear their names, and save their relationship. “The Lovebirds” offers a different flavor to Showalter’s rom-com scenario as it threw in a murder mystery aspect and a few extra doses of R-rated jokes into a romance story that involves a broken relationship. Combining those elements together can either make the film amusing or make it into a complete mess depending on the viewer’s expectations. Personally, I was expecting it to be a fun and hilarious comedy because the last two comedies we got on Netflix didn’t exactly meet my expectations. Actually, it’s more along the lines of filling my heart with sadness instead of joy. After viewing it for myself at the comfort of my own home, I was relieved that it didn’t wind up being as irritating as the likes of “Coffee & Kareem”. Its straightforward plot does result in the film being a step down from Showalter’s last two films, but the film was able to compensate by delivering a nice little diversion that has its share of laughs and charms. The major part that holds this film together is the chemistry between Nanjiani and Rae. Whether they’re arguing with one another or trying to solve a murder mystery together, these two actors brought a considerable amount of life into their performances, which helped lift the film through its noticeable shortcomings and made its effortless storytelling a bit more enjoyable to watch. Not only that, but they also made me care about their respective characters and their troubling relationship. Nanjiani is just as entertaining as ever as Jibran. As for Issa Rae, let’s just say that I’m glad that she found something that works well for her talent. Going back to the combination of the film’s elements, it did seem that Showalter wanted to make a fun R-rated rom-com mystery without relying on an overabundance of adult-oriented jokes and offensive gags to get some laughs. While this strategy wasn’t 100% perfect on screen, I have to give Showalter credit for attempting to make this type of balance work. The film’s humor was also quite enjoyable despite it not being as raunchy as the humor in “The Wrong Missy”. It had several humorous moments that worked for me in terms of the dialogue, along with a couple of scenes that made me laugh out loud. There were a couple of humor-related scenes that dragged on a bit too long, but other than that, it’s a solid improvement over the last two Netflix comedies I’ve seen this year.

Overall, “The Lovebirds” falls short of being the best comedy of 2020, but it’s an entertaining and charming comedy regardless. Even though it didn’t reach the same heights as the other well-received rom-coms, especially “The Big Sick”, the film’s respectable blend of adult comedy, romance, and mystery has enough merits, most notably the chemistry between the two leads, to make it a worthy addition to Netflix’s collection of original films. If you’re a fan of the two main actors, then I can assure you that you will like them in this film, whether the final result is good in your eyes or not. If you’re looking for a decent comedy that’s not too raunchy, but has plenty of amusing moments, I would say that this one should suit you well.

B

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Scoob! (2020)

5/16/2020

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“Scoob!” stars Frank Welker, Will Forte, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Isaacs, Ken Jeong, Kiersey Clemons, Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, and Gina Rodriguez. Released on May 15, 2020, the film has Scooby-Doo and his friends attempting to save the world from a devious villain.

The film is directed by Tony Cervone, who is known for directing several direct-to-video films that involve “Scooby-Doo” and “Tom and Jerry” with Spike Brandt, and it is a reboot of the Scooby-Doo film series. It is also based on the animated franchise created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Looks like those meddling kids are at it again. After spending more than a decade solving mysteries in their direct-to-video adventures, the Scooby gang is finally ready to take on their biggest challenge yet: teaming up with the other classic Hanna-Barbera characters. The Scooby-Doo franchise, which started in 1969, has been delighting many, many people for a very long time with its humorous characters and its series of mysterious antics that they keep getting themselves into. Whenever there’s something strange in your neighborhood and the Ghostbusters are busy doing something else, consider these guys as your back-up plan. The success of the original series, “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”, lead Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. Animation to produce a bunch of follow-up and spin-off shows as well as television specials, a lot of direct-to-video films, two live-action theatrical films from Raja Gosnell and “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn, and two live-action television films. The franchise is still continuing on the small screen, with “Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?” airing on the Boomerang streaming service as of this writing. From what I can gather, it appears that the franchise has not made an animated Scooby-Doo film for the big screen during its lifespan. Until now, of course…which is what I would say if the cinemas hadn’t closed down. The film was supposed to hit theaters this weekend, but because of what is going on outside, it decided to go down the “Trolls World Tour” route and premiere at home via video on demand instead. Still better than being delayed to next year like some of the other 2020 films. Like a lot of you readers out there, I too grew up with Scooby-Doo. It’s undoubtedly one of my favorite childhood cartoons ever, right alongside “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Ed, Edd n Eddy”, which is why I was pretty excited to see everyone’s favorite mystery team in a brand new CGI adventure, complete with an all-star cast. Is it a well-welcome addition to the franchise? Let’s grab our magnifying glass and solve this curious mystery.

Like the 2009 television film “Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins”, “Scoob!” is an origin story that showcases how the Mystery Inc. gang came to be. The gang consists of Shaggy Rogers (Forte), Daphne Blake (Seyfried), Fred Jones (Efron), Velma Dinkley (Rodriguez), and Scooby-Doo (Welker). They spend many years solving a bunch of mysteries around the world because that’s the entire purpose of this franchise. It’s not “Scooby-Doo” without a mystery or two. They later come across a mystery that’s unlike anything they’ve encountered before. One that doesn’t involve bad guys in monster costumes and paranormal activities. The Mystery Inc. crew will have to join forces with superhero Blue Falcon (Wahlberg) and his companions Dynomutt (Jeong) and Dee Dee Sykes (Clemons) to take down Dick Dastardly (Isaacs), a villain with a nefarious plan to unleash an ancient creature known as Cerberus upon the world. That’s right, this film is taking the “Avengers” approach by uniting several characters from the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. You got the members of Mystery Inc. because they’re the main stars. You also got Blue Falcon and Dynomutt from “Dynomutt, Dog Wonder”, Dee Dee Sykes and Captain Caveman (Tracy Morgan) from “Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels”, and the already-mentioned Dick Dastardly from “Wacky Races”. I guess you can say that “Scoob!” is every Hanna-Barbera fan's dream come true, but the big mystery is whether or not it provided anything else beyond that to convince the newcomers to pay its $20 rental price. The film’s story focuses less on the franchise’s teen-detective scenario that the franchise is known for in favor of a modern, old-school, cartoonish “Avengers” clone that displays the importance of friendship, with Shaggy and Scooby-Doo being the heart of the film’s central theme. These two characters and the charismatic chemistry between them are my personal favorite parts of the shows and movies, and it’s safe for me to say that “Scoob!” nailed those parts perfectly. The story itself, however, has some hits and misses that kept it from being a perfect nostalgic experience. At times, the film seemed to rely a bit more on nostalgia and pop culture references to entertain the young kids and the adults who grew up watching the Hanna-Barbera cartoons rather than combining them with strong storytelling, which could be a turn-off for some of the non-fans who prefer animated films from Pixar or Studio Ghibli. It also didn’t help that the film went through the similar motions like the other films that involve friendship. While those misses, along with the absence of the teen-detective aspect, might disappoint some of the franchise’s hardcore fans, the film offered plenty of hits that did well in masking the negatives. It retained the heart and the goofy, slapstick-like charm that made the Hanna-Barbera cartoons special while making itself fresh in order to stand out compared to the other Hanna-Barbera adaptations. Sure, the story wasn’t as groundbreaking as the likes of “The Lego Movie” or “Inside Out”, but come on, it’s Scooby flipping Doo, not “Citizen Kane”. If you go into this film expecting it to be the next animated classic, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. It’s a 90-minute CGI cartoon that’s made to introduce the young newcomers to the franchise and impress families with its amusing and heartfelt narrative and its old-school cartoon sound effects. It’s not a fantastic CGI cartoon, but I was mildly entertained by its heart and its fast-paced energy. With the exception of Frank Welker, who reprised his role as the title character, the original voice cast for the Mystery Inc. gang from the past got replaced with celebrity voice actors because every animated film needs to have famous celebrities providing the voices for cartoon characters. You got Forte as Shaggy, Efron as Fred, Seyfried as Daphne, and Rodriguez as Velma. It’s definitely a shame that the original voice cast didn’t return to voice their beloved characters for the film, especially Matthew Lillard, who I thought did a great job playing Shaggy in the live-action films and the recent cartoons. However, I’ve gotten over it rather quickly because the new voice actors didn’t do too bad. I honestly thought Will Forte was fine in his role as Shaggy. He’s not as great as Matthew Lillard, but he made an honorable attempt to make this character his own in terms of the voice, and the result was pretty decent. The rest of the cast were also entertaining in their respective roles, including Mark Wahlberg as Blue Falcon and Jason Isaacs as the wicked Dick Dastardly, and I got to say, the casting for the latter is perfect. I only know Dastardly from the “Wacky Races” game I used to play as a child, and I usually see him as a wicked character who’ll do anything to get what he wants. This film successfully brought that character to life in CGI form, and Isaacs had the right voice acting skills to fit into his shoes perfectly. I also have to say that I’m extremely glad that they got Frank Welker back to voice Scooby. I cannot imagine someone else voicing him in the film. Frank Welker is Scooby-Doo. Enough said. I was also impressed with the film’s animation style when it comes to the cartoon physics, the environments, and the character designs. It’s basically a Hanna-Barbera cartoon with modern 3D graphics. As for the film’s humor, my only concern is that its use of pop culture gags might turn off some people who don’t want their childhood properties to be ruined by this type of stuff. Other than that, it gave me some good laughs. They’re not memorable laughs, but I laughed, and to me, that’s all that matters.

Overall, “Scoob!” is a tasty Scooby Snack that’ll satisfy almost anyone with a hunger for some family-friendly fun. Not only did it honor the spirit of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons with its charm and slapstick, but it also added some modernized freshness to the Scooby-Doo lore to keep things interesting, which, despite the risk it was taking, paid off quite well. The talented voice cast, the colorful animation, and its respectable humor were enough to overshadow its run-of-the-mill storytelling and its unusual amount of pop culture jokes. It doesn’t have the same quality as “The Lego Movie”, but I had a nice time revisiting one of my favorite childhood memories. If you’re a fan of Scooby-Doo and some of the other cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, I would say give this one a shot.

B-

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The Wrong Missy (2020)

5/13/2020

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“The Wrong Missy” stars David Spade, Lauren Lapkus, Geoff Pierson, Sarah Chalke, and Molly Sims. Released on Netflix on May 13, 2020, the film is about a man who accidentally invites a blind date to his work retreat.

The film is directed by Tyler Spindel, who is known for directing “Father of the Year”. So far this year, I have watched and reviewed at least four original films that came out on Netflix, and with the pandemic still going on, there will be more where those came from, for better or for worse. In case you haven’t read my reviews for those Netflix films, let’s just say that Mark Wahlberg in an action thriller and Ed Helms in a buddy cop comedy didn’t appeal to me that much compared to Chris Hemsworth rescuing a teen and a bunch of children getting rid of their bone-headed parents. In other words, the streaming service’s original content this year was a hit-and-miss in terms of film so far. This next film from Netflix I’ll be looking at today is (surprise, surprise) another project from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, the same production company that is responsible for such comedies as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”, “Grown Ups”, “Jack and Jill”, and “The Ridiculous 6”. This is also the latest collaboration between David Spade and director Tyler Spindel, following 2018’s “Father of the Year”, which is another Netflix film produced by Happy Madison Productions. I haven’t exactly watched that film, and based on the reviews it’s getting, it’s pretty obvious that I’m not ready to watch it just yet. I remembered watching the trailer for this a while ago just to see what the concept is like, and I can already tell that the word “idiotic” is plastered all over the place. Typical Sandler. Always trying to make some critics cringe with fury with his crazy ideas. But as a respectable reviewer, I can only judge this film by watching it all the way through, whether I like it or not. With that in mind, let’s see if this so-called “romantic comedy" has enough substance to impress some of its target audience. Keep in mind that the keyword is “some”.

The story follows Tim Morris (Spade), a man who runs into a beautiful woman named Missy (Sims). After having a wonderful first date with Missy, Tim decides to invite her to his work retreat. However, he makes a huge mistake and accidentally invites another woman (Lapkus) who shares the same name as the woman of his dreams instead. That woman, who’s also named Missy, is a deranged blind date that Tim met in the past. Now he has to survive the retreat with Missy #2 in order to keep his sanity while attempting to impress his boss. This is obviously a film that has “Adam Sandler” written all over it when it comes to the humor and a bunch of familiar faces like Spade, Nick Swardson, and Rob Schneider. It also has plenty of cliches that you’ve come to expect from Sandler’s other romantic comedies like “50 First Dates”, “Just Go With It”, and “Blended”. So if you’re hoping that this film will offer plenty of surprises in its formula, do me a favor and throw that piece of hope out of that brain of yours because you’re not going to find a single one in this piece of “Sandler Theater”. This is another rom-com that goes through the motions without offering something to keep some of its viewers from switching over to “Tiger King” or whatever is popular on Netflix right now. It’s very straightforward, but it is also unsatisfying. The message it’s trying to provide was undoubtedly thoughtful, but the journey in delivering that message will depend on your tolerance level. Aside from its tolerable third act, the film is nothing but a series of comical mishaps that are backed up by notable cliches, forgettable humor, and an uninspired script. The only thing that I thought was passable was Lauren Lapkus, who is known for starring in the Netflix show “Orange Is the New Black”. She plays “The Wrong Missy”, in case you forgot. In terms of her character’s psychotic personality, she fit the role quite well. Even though Missy is the type of character that you either love or hate because of their actions, I can’t help but give Lapkus some sort of credit for envisioning this kind of role flawlessly. Heck, I would even say that her performance was better than David Spade, who I thought was okay in the film as Tim. Poor guy can’t seem to catch a break nowadays. As for the rest of the cast, they don’t have a lot of special moments either. Nick Swardson wasn’t all that great as Nate, and Rob Schneider…well…he tried. Another thing I would like to mention is the film’s humor. Most of the films that Sandler and his pals were involved in provided a series of jokes that were either crude, controversial, ridiculous, unfunny, or all of the above, with the biggest offenders being “Jack and Jill” and “That’s My Boy”. While the humor in “The Wrong Missy” was far from insulting, the sex-related jokes might make you not want to have one for at least a couple of days. The jokes in this film are more ridiculous and unfunny than offensive, so people who are worried about them being the latter shouldn’t have to be concerned over it, although they will still be disappointed in the film due to its lack of memorable laughs. The part where Missy falls off the cliff didn’t even come close to being both funny and painful. Spoiler alert: It’s actually more painful than hilarious.

Overall, “The Wrong Missy” might entertain a few people who enjoyed some of the other works from Happy Madison Productions, but for those outside of its target audience, it’s a blind date that no one wants to hang out with. Aside from Lapkus’ performance and its third act, the film is a disappointing romantic comedy that fails to deliver on both the romance and the comedy. It’s not the worse film I’ve seen on Netflix this year, but it is something that I would easily forget a few days after watching it.

D

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Wendy (2020)

5/3/2020

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“Wendy” stars Devin France, Yashua Mack, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, Ahmad Cage, Krzysztof Meyn, and Romyri Ross. Released on February 28, 2020, the film is about a young girl who encounters a mysterious boy with a thirst for adventure.

The film was directed by Benh Zeitlin, who is known for directing “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, and it is a reimagining of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Another summer movie season has begun, and it’s going to be a whole lot different this year. Not only are the theaters still closed, but there appears to be a very small amount of summer blockbusters coming out compared to the years before. This is definitely an unfortunate time for me because summer is my absolute favorite season when it comes to movies (with fall being my second favorite), and seeing that it is heavily affected by COVID-19 makes me sadder than an abandoned puppy in an alleyway. However, I did manage to see a silver lining in the midst of all of this. It gives me the opportunity to catch up on some of the 2020 films that I missed so far. So let’s start things off with yet another take on the story about a boy who wouldn’t grow up. Released more than two months ago, this film marked the second feature to be helmed by Zeitlin, after his successful directorial debut, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, back in 2012. I still haven’t watched that film yet. Please forgive me. Instead of being a success like that film, it turned out to be the opposite. In addition to receiving mixed reviews from critics, it became a box office bomb as it earned over $100 thousand as of this writing. To make matters even more embarrassing, it was made with a $6 million budget. Ouch, and I thought Joe Wright’s take on “Peter Pan” fared worse. I wasn’t able to see the film when it first came out because my closest cinema couldn’t afford to show it, but thanks to this little device called “Amazon Prime”, I can finally see what went wrong with this “indie-like” version of the classic source material.

The film’s story is a modern retelling of “Peter Pan” that takes place in the rural South. It follows Wendy Darling (France), a young girl who works at the family diner with her mother Angela (Shay Walker) and her twin brothers James and Douglas (played by Gage and Gavin Naquin). When Wendy notices a young boy (Mack) climbing onto the moving train, she and her brothers decided to follow suit. The boy leads them to a mysterious island which hides a magical secret. This film definitely had plenty of elements that are similar to the source material, but trust me when I say this: This isn’t the “Peter Pan” that your kids watch on Disney+. This is the “Peter Pan” that is made for an older crowd. “Wendy” made some changes in order for itself to stand out compared to the other film adaptations of “Peter Pan”, such as the young diverse cast, its sense of realism, and the severe lack of pixie dust, which were pretty noble. However, the risks the film took weren’t enough for it to fly as high as it wanted to. The story represents the fear of growing up and losing the spirit of youth from a child’s perspective, which I thought was very relatable because let’s face it, we all don’t want to lose our inner child as we grow old. While I did notice the director’s determination on telling this type of story, mostly due to his stylistic visual flair as well as the first and third acts, I also noticed that the film took a few stumbles during its second act, especially how they handled the characters. The film is very gorgeous to look at and the production design has the right blend of magic and realism, but they can only do so much to carry this flawed and overlong narrative through. I didn’t exactly hate it as it did its job in delivering its thoughtful message. It’s just that it didn’t have that special oomph in its storytelling to soar alongside its “indie-like” nature. The young cast did a pretty decent job with their performances, especially Devin France as the title character and Yashua Mack as Peter. I wouldn't call the performances Oscar-worthy, but I wouldn't call them annoying, either. I already mentioned before that the film has some impressive visuals to go along with its story, but I will say it again just for the heck of it. Benh Zeitlin is another director who showcases visual storytelling from their own creative vision, which is one of the things that I enjoyed about film personally. Even though the film’s combination of storytelling and awe-inspiring visuals was far from perfect, I can at least admit that Zeitlin envisioned some of the most beautiful shots that I’ve seen onscreen.

Overall, “Wendy” is quite stylistic and gorgeous, but its lack of strong depth in its storytelling kept it from staying young forever. I can definitely say that it’s an improvement over Joe Wright’s “Pan” because it did something different to the story it’s based on and kept the ingredients that made the source material such a classic. Plus, there was an attempt to tell a good story in “Wendy”. However, as much as I appreciate its style and the changes it made to make itself fresh, I still prefer the Disney version of “Peter Pan” as my favorite adaptation of the source material. This is a fine film to watch if you’re curious, but in terms of the story, there’s nothing too special about it.

C+

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Extraction (2020)

4/24/2020

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“Extraction” stars Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Tripathi, Priyanshu Painyuli, Golshifteh Farahani, Suraj Rikame, and David Harbour. Released on Netflix on April 24, 2020, the film is about a mercenary who is sent to rescue the son of an international crime lord.

The film features the directorial debut of Sam Hargrave, who served as a stunt coordinator for “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Endgame”. It is based on the comic Ciudad by Ande Parks, Joe Russo, and Fernando León González. We experienced a kooky animated tale about the importance of family. Now it’s time for us to travel to the murky underworld filled with weapons dealers and drug lords. This next Netflix film I’ll be reviewing today is the latest collaboration between Chris Hemsworth and the Russo Brothers, who previously worked together on the last two Avengers films, “Infinity War” and “Endgame”. Now this isn’t the first time that the Russos have worked on a non-Marvel film with an actor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Last year, they teamed up with “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman to deliver the police thriller “21 Bridges”, which I thought was a fine little time-waster. That film was successful enough for the Russos to produce another action thriller. This time, with Thor. I’m getting the feeling that these two love working with these actors, whether they’re in the MCU or not. The streaming service has made up for their first two April films with “The Willoughbys”, so let’s see if this one can finish off the month on a high note.

The story follows Tyler Rake (Hemsworth), a former SASR operator turned mercenary who is hired to travel to Dhaka and rescue the Indian drug lord’s son, Ovi Mahajan (Jaiswal), from the city’s biggest drug lord, Amir Asif (Painyuli). This mission turned out to be much more dangerous than Tyler thought when Amir orders a lockdown in the city. Now on his own, Rake will have to rely on his skills in order to protect the boy from Amir’s goons as well as the boy’s father’s henchman Saju (Hooda) and escape the city alive. Let’s start things off by saying that the film’s plot is just as straightforward as it can get. Ranging from its basic characters to its generic and stereotypical villain, the story took the back seat and allowed the action to drive their way to their destination. There were also moments when some of the dialogue is hard for me to hear, so if you have a television with no home theater sound system, this might become problematic to you as well. To its credit, the filmmakers put some respectable effort into making me care for Tyler and the situation he’s in, but that’s about it. Despite its story problems, the film set out to be an entertaining and heart-pounding experience from start to finish, and it accomplished that task with ease. It’s obviously no “John Wick”, but I had a decent time watching Thor beat the snot out of the drug lord’s henchmen. Chris Hemsworth did a really good job with his performance as Tyler Rake, aka the only person that’s worth caring about in the film. Whether it’s the dialogue scenes or the stunts he performed, Hemsworth made every minute of his screen time count. The other actors were also solid in their roles, including Jaiswal and Hooda as Ovi and Saju respectively. Now that I got those things out of the way, let’s talk about the biggest selling point of the film: the action. First-time director Sam Hargrave has cooperated with the Russo Brothers in their MCU films as a stunt coordinator, so seeing him direct the entire film meant that he got more stuff to work with along with organizing the stunts. It reminded me of the time when Chad Stahelski went from stunt coordinator to director in order to bring the world of “John Wick” to life. While Hargrave’s direction on the dramatic scenes was far from amazing, his direction on the action scenes was definitely pleasing to the eyes of an action genre fan like myself. The action sequences were fast, intense, and well-choreographed, especially the one that was made to look like it was shot in one take. That alone is the main reason why this film is worth a watch. Plus, the cinematography and the editing made the sequences easier for me to see what was happening. From what I read, the film has been getting some critical comments about its violence, which is understandable because the film likes to favor bloody kills and explosions over storytelling from time to time. I didn’t mind the violence because of the environment it took place in and how enjoyable it was, but I can see that it’s not for everyone. Another thing I would like to point out is the runtime. The film is close to two hours long, which is fine for something like this, but for people who don't like R-rated violence, it can overstay its welcome just a tiny bit.

Overall, “Extraction” doesn’t have the perfect story to go along with its impressive stunt work, but it’s still an action-packed thrill ride that will surely please action fans and Hemsworth lovers alike. Aside from its simplistic characters and a weak antagonist, the film relied on Hemsworth’s performance, Hargrave’s direction, and the action sequences to make this another worthy recommendation for those who are still stuck inside their homes. I had a really nice time watching this film, and unless you prefer action films that offer both storytelling and violence, you might have a good time watching this as well.

B-

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The Lovebirds (2020)

B

Scoob! (2020)

B-

The Wrong Missy (2020)

D

Wendy (2020)

C+

Extraction (2020)

B-

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