Image © Paramount Pictures
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Extraction 2
(Limited Theatrical Release June 9, Streaming on Netflix on June 16)
Based on Ande Parks’ graphic novel Ciudad, the first Extraction introduced black ops mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth). His mission was rescuing a crime boss’ son. Rake did so by besting dozens of combatants, eventually delivering the boy to safety, but Rake was gravely injured during the final stretch. Nine months later and newly able to resume his duties, Rake’s next mission is to rescue the innocent family of a ruthless Georgian gangster from prison.
Since Extraction was viewed in 90 million homes within the first month of its Netflix release, a sequel was immediately ordered with Joe Russo once again penning the script. Director Sam Hargrave and actor Hemsworth were determined to top the first film’s 12-minute, “one-shot” action sequence, delivering a 21-minute set-piece that helps earn the film’s R-rating. During another sequence, a helicopter lands atop a moving train (not CGI!). Chapter two is receiving a limited theatrical release before making its way to Netflix the following week. (Lisa Miller)
Shabu
(IndiePix DVD)
A good natured if willful 14-year-old boy named Shabu bounds across the streets of Rotterdam, peddling homemade popsicles, having adventures with friends, dreaming of becoming a rap star through his laptop hip-hop experiments. The urban public housing setting is familiar, but the story told in the Dutch documentary avoids cliches of victimhood and what director Shamira Raphaela calls “poverty porn.” She follows Shabu through a summer of debt paying and dreams. He drove off in his grandmother’s car, totaled it, and the family demands that he pay the cost. They are a coherent, multigenerational black family from the former Dutch colony of Suriname, and they are setting standards for him to follow. Will he mess up? (David Luhrssen)
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
(In Theaters and Streaming on VUDU, on June 9)
Imagine Transformers meets King Kong: Skull Island and you’re halfway there. This seventh live-action Transformers movie introduces the “Maximals” and is part one of a planned trilogy. In 1994 Brooklyn, Noah (Anthony Ramos) steals a silver-blue Porsche, only to discover that it’s actually an Autobot named Mirage (voice of Pete Davidson) able to project holograms at will. Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobot resistance (Peter Cullen), is alerted that artifact researcher Elena (Dominique Fishback), has located a key—sought by the Autobots—at the museum where she works. Mirage volunteers Noah to retrieve it. The Terrorcons (a faction of the Decepticons), also want the key, triggering a battle that draws in Bumblebee, Terrorcon Scourge (Peter Dinklage) and Maximal Airazor (Michelle Yeoh)—who transforms into a gigantic peregrine falcon. (Dizzy yet? I am). More and more transformer factions join the fray to engage in seemingly endless battles too numerous to count. It’s the mechanical eye-candy that drives this 2-hour, PG-13 fantasy. (Lisa Miller)
