Extraction

Stars: Kellan Lutz, Bruce Willis, Gina Carano, D B Sweeney, Joshua Mikel, Lydia Hull

Director: Steven C Miller

Poor Bruce Willis. There's no way he should be making a string of straight-to-DVD-style action thrillers such as this one, but here he is, taking the money and running out of most of the film, leaving the legwork to the anonymous Lutz as his son, in a deeply confusing but mercifully shortish thriller about covert CIA operatives chasing the Condor - 'the ultimate hack' that will enable its owner to gain control over the world's communications.

The only hope is the Patriarch Key, which will put a stop to all that nonsense. But Willis is in the hands of the bad guys, the chief of whom will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who's ever watched espionage thrillers as bad as this one. 'I have to save my dad and save the world,' says Lutz and, aided by equally planklike agent Carano, he aims to do just that by the might of his American fist.

The ensuing plot is hard to follow and confused, its narrative broken into dozens of pieces, while Miller's very fidgety direction and dizzying, hand-held camerawork robs the story of any cohesion it might retain. At the ending, lots of people shoot lots of others, although it's hard to tell at times who are on which side. Bonuses? Not many: a couple of decent fights and crisp, clear Fotokem cinematography by Brandon Cox on the occasions the camera is allowed to keep reasonably still.

David Quinlan

USA 2015. UK Distributor: Kaleidoscope. Colour by Fotokem.
88 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 3.

Review date: 07 Mar 2016