Fellow film streamers, should you find yourself looking for something to stream amid the muck of the overwhelmingly mediocre titles available on Netflix, I strongly advise against relying solely on the algorithmically driven top 10 trending carousels to inform your viewing options. If you do, you may find yourself confusing the seemingly ok Netflix original Extraction with a 2015 title by the same name which has rocketed to the 9th position on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies in the United States.
The older Extraction that is currently trending among the top 10 movies on Netflix at the moment, as noted by Business Insider, stars Bruce Willis and Kellan Lutz and appears to have landed on Netflix this week. Based on my limited research, the film centres on the kidnapping of a CIA official who — by some extraordinarily imaginative script-writing — has inexplicably relayed the keys to Big Telecom and Big Missile to his captors, who plan to annihilate the United States.
The movie looks about as well-conceived and executed as it sounds — but please, don’t take my word for it! The good people of Rotten Tomatoes gave this polished turd a Tomatometer score of just 6%. Its forgiving Audience Score is a slightly higher 17%.
Meanwhile, the more recent Extraction, a 2020 Netflix original starring an absolutely jacked Chris Hemsworth, was directed by Sam Hargrave and produced by the Russo brothers. This film, which also centres on a kidnapping and hostage situation, is a markedly more interesting-looking film than its spiritual cousin. Extraction was expected to be one of the service’s most-watched originals to date, and a second instalment — like the first, written by Joe Russo and starring an utterly Hulked-out Hemsworth who puts his brother Liam to shame in every way — has already been given the green light. This title has respective Rotten Tomato critic and audience scores of 68% and 69%. (Nice.) A considerable improvement over single digits of its 2015 namesake!
To the best of my knowledge following a limited Google search, there was no sequel to the 2015 Willis-starring Extraction, which seems like the best thing for everyone involved.
Netflix didn’t immediately return our request for comment about why the shittier of these two films is trending when the most recent, decidedly better title was released only months ago. And I’m no streaming executive, but it’s also unclear why Netflix would invite this kind of chaos by adding the older title to its summer lineup while its tentpole production is still competing for eyeballs.