Extraction 2 is about as good as the first Extractions… which is to say it’s very good at what it’s trying to be… and it ain’t trying to be much more than a straight-up action flick. At that, it’s quite good… at anything else, less so.

The flick stars Chris Hemsworth as a mercenary hired to break someone out of prison… and keep one step ahead of the army of goons sent to stop him.

The main extraction arrives very early and is one of those virtuoso one-take action scenes… the kind your higher brain functions know is made up of a lot of scenes stitched together… but your primitive lizard brain doesn’t. Nor does it care. It’s very tense, very thrilling, and wildly improbable.

The rest of the film is made of more traditional action set pieces and they are pretty good as well. Not as alive and breathless perhaps, but still pretty tense and thrilling.

The film tries, kind of late in the game, to have characters and pathos which isn’t terribly interesting. But it’s not lengthy and its at least well enough acted to forgive. I guess the actors figured they should do some of that acting now and again.

Extraction 2 is about as good as Extraction 1. Take that as you will. My lizard brain and I enjoyed it. But maybe my higher brain functions will expect more from the inevitable Extraction 3.

Score: 85