Tag Archives: gina carano

Extraction

action, movies, thriller, , ,

extractionDirected by Chris C. Miller, Extraction opens with CIA field operative Leonard Turner played by Bruce Willis. The scene is an important part of the story because his wife is killed by the bad guys, and he prevents his son from being killed as well.

Next, we see his son Harry, played by Kellan Lutz, and it is ten years later. He followed his father’s footsteps and is a CIA agent.  He is training under the keen guidance of Leonard’s best friend Ken played by D.B. Sweeney. Harry wants to be a field agent like his father but keeps getting turned down. He is assigned to a project involving a top secret piece of electronic equipment called CONDOR. It is pretty powerful and can control anything electric.

Leonard is sent on a mission to purchase CONDOR and gets captured. Harry finds out and wants to save his father, but is told to stand down. Harry figures out who captured his father, but the CIA says he isn’t strong enough to help save his father and send him home with an armed escort. Harry breaks away and sets his sights on saving his father.

Victoria Phipps, played by Gina Carano, is assigned to the case. She is one of the best field agents, and to make the story more interesting, a former lover of Harry. She lets him join her and help track down CONDOR, find his father, and take down the bad guys. Time is the key to pulling this all off, and they have to work fasts. The story has some twists and turns and confusion occurs on trying to figure out who are the bad guys and who are the good guys.

Seems like a pretty good action movie, but in all honest it isn’t that great. Technical glitches with the overall sound and vocals are disconcerting. The odd edit cuts and jumps prevent the flow of the story. On top of that, I enjoy watching Carano do her action stuff, which I have seen in her other movies. She’s great, but in this movie, she doesn’t do all that much. I mean, she is a former MMA fighter. Let her show her stuff.

All in all, I really wanted to like this movie, but it started off great and went downhill from there.

Heist

action, drama, movies, police drama, , ,

HeistDirected by Scott Mann, Heist follows Lucas Vaughn, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who works at the Swan Casino. The casino is owned by Mafia-Boss Francis ”Pope” Silva, played brilliantly by Robert De Niro. Luke’s young daughter is hospitalized, and is seriously ill in need of expensive treatment. The real problem lays in the fact that Luke did not keep up the Medical-Insurance payments. His daughter may not be cared for with the correct treatments if he doesn’t pay the medical costs. Luke asks his old friend and employer if he could help him out with a loan. The employer says “No Favors.”

Along comes fellow employee Cox, played by Dave Bautista, who plans to rob his employer and wants the knowledge Luke has to help pull off the heist. Cox knows Luke has worked there for many years and has the knowledge he needs. Helping Cox is the only way Luke can pay the medical costs, so he agrees to be a part of the heist to save his daughter’s life. He has his own ideas on how the heist should go, and the plan seems to work until security is alerted.

Gunfire ensues as they make a getaway in a bus with hostages. Now, they are pursued by the police. With Cox crazed and ready to kill a victim to getaway, Luke tries to keep things under control. The bus is being chased by both Pope’s bodyguards and the police.  Pope is interested in getting the money back before the police make an arrest because the money belongs to the mob, which the casino laundered.

Luke strikes up a rapport with one of the police officers named Kris, played by MMA’s fame Gina Carano. She soon understands Luke is the link to freeing the passengers on the bus without harm.

The whole situation gets very intense before it comes to an end. The movie is well worth the watch because the story is really good, and the acting matches the spirit of the movie. I recommend you catch it on demand or rent it.