“It totally works… a good movie with some amazing action.”
Although it ended up with more hours viewed, in its’ first 91 days, than its’ predecessor, Extraction 2 had a slightly longer running time. With three breath-taking action sequences to accommodate, ticking past the two-hour mark is eminently forgivable.
The Chris Hemsworth action movie is one of two new additions to Netflix’s ‘Most Popular Films’ Top 10. The list was updated, earlier this week, and there was no shifting a dominant top two.
Red Notice and Don’t Look Up were both released in 2021 and combined for more than 400 million views in their first three months after release. The Adam Project, The Gray Man and Glass Onion: A Knivies Out Mystery, are all recent Netflix releases (2022).
The movie newcomers to breach that Top 10 were Extraction 2 and The Mother. A follow-up from the 2020 original, Hemsworth returns a commando Tyler Rake with his mission, this time, seeing him go through the wringer to help rescue a gangster’s kidnapped family.
Extraction 2, we wrote, back in June 2023, kicks off with Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) recuperating from a near-death experience, and living a somewhat quiet life in a lovely cabin in the middle of nowhere in Austria. That all goes away pretty quickly when a mystery man (Idris Elba) rocks up at his front door with a job for him, sent directly from Rake’s ex-wife Mia (Olga Kurylenko).
Mia’s sister Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili) and her two young kids are being kept in a Georgian prison so they’re constantly within reach of Ketevan’s mob boss husband, and Mia wants Tyler to break in and break them out. Cue a series of visually stunning, and gripping, action sequences.
Reviews for Extraction 2
Here are some of the online reviews for Extraction 2, including one of our own:
JOE: “Extraction 2 is constructed entirely around its attention-grabbing action sequences, each of which are sprinkled with a dozen or so individual moments of violence designed to get a guttural, “OH SHIT!” reaction from the audience.”
Newsday: “The rare action sequel that works just as well as the original.”
Mashable: “With its bigger, broader swath of carnage, Extraction 2 improves upon the original and isn’t unpleasant (you know, unless you’re bothered by watching hundreds of deaths on screen).”
Film Week: “A nutty movie that’s just like the first. If you love the way that first movie was constructed, then it’s a knockdown bang fest.”
Sunday Independent: “The single-take motif from the first film is wisely kept, bringing scenes of sustained adrenaline that will please lovers of breakneck action in the John Wick mould.”
Stuff (NZ): “21 minutes. That’s how long director Sam Hargrave denies us a chance to breathe or look away, in what must be the most ambitious stunt and action sequence anyone has yet put on a screen.”
The Mother storms Netflix Top 10
Despite a Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating of 43% and an audience average score of 62%, The Mother had just under 266 million hours viewed when it was released, earlier this year.
The Jennifer Lopez action flick, in which she stars as an erstwhile assassin that comes out of retirement when the life of her estranged daughter comes under threat. That film beat Glass Onion and the two Extraction offerings to take No.7 in that Netflix movies Top 10. Here is what Empire wrote about the movie:
‘This is a come-for-Lopez, stay-for-Lopez endeavour, and she’s on fine, movie star form in this serviceable, if forgettable action thriller.’
Netflix most popular ‘Top 10’ – TV Shows
There are two 2023 newcomers in the Most Popular TV ‘Top 10’ for English-speaking shows.
Season one of Wednesday still holds top spot, with over 252 million views, followed by Stranger Things, Season 4. The newcomers are season one of The Night Agent (in at No.6) and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (No.10). Here is a snippet of our Night Agent review, from earlier this year:
‘Following on from that initial bombing attack, the series continues to pump out some genuinely impressive set-pieces, from a high-speed highway car chase, to a massive shoot-out through and over a fancy hotel, to some John Wick-esque hand-to-hand combat sequences, the action comes thick and heavy.’
The top TV show of all time, for Netflix, remains Squid Game, with more than 265 million views.
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