Extraction (2020)

The latest Netflix original film to arrive on the streaming service. Extraction sees Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), a black market mercenary, embark on the most deadly extraction of his career when he’s enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) of an imprisoned international crime lord.

As much as their originals are hit and miss and the sheer amount of content they release being ridiculous, there is no question that Netflix allow pure filmmaker freedom without the restrictions and interference of Hollywood influence as here the film is allowed to make full use of its 18 rating and not have the burden of setting up or continuing a franchise. Though generic and cliche in its story telling, the action and stunt work are an absolute blast to witness and make this a step up from what I was expecting.

The film’s 2 hour runtime may have some filler sequences around the middle section, but the 1st and 3rd acts are fast paced and frantic, throwing you right into the situation, the film knows exactly what it wants and sets out to deliver it. The race against time and constant improvisation of the extraction itself makes for a consistently engaging watch, though the film does brush over motivations (the villain here is especially lacklustre) and character back story, with Tyler solely relying on a few flashbacks and essentially an exposition interview with the kid he is protecting, so that we get more of his story.

However what this basic premise does allow for is to be filled with brutal, well choreographed and creative action. This film delivers one of the best set pieces of this year, with a phenomenal one-take style 15 minute sequence, which goes from a car chase, to a building assault to a lorry chase, it’s absolute controlled chaos. As a fan of John Wick, The Raid etc. it was excellent to see their influence on the choreography, the camerawork never is too shaky or quick cutting meaning it is easy to follow and witness every stab, punch, kick in their bone crunching and visceral glory. The shootouts sound great and are intense, always ending in bloody results, especially the finale sequence.

It’s good seeing Hemsworth in a grittier, darker non-Thor/MIB role and he delivers here in a more somber and focused role, though also channels some of the action hero vibe of the 80/90’s that this film is going for. Jaiswal is also good here as the kid thrown into this life or death situation, he is never irritating or acts unrealistically at all (which is the case with kids in these types of films at times). Randeep Hooda has an intimidating screen presence as someone working for the kid’s father and David Harbour gives an enthusiastic performance, though his character’s section does stall the plot pacing.

Extraction is a fun watch to turn your brain off for 2 hours and was actually better than I expected. The action is bloody, visceral and frantic with some brilliant practical effects and choreography and the cast give good performances. The film does suffer from several cliches and genre traits and lack of character depth, but honestly from a purely entertainment perspective this does the job.

imdb.com/title/tt8936646/

 

Kingdom (manga)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kingdom (キングダム Kingudamu?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhisa Hara. The manga provides a fictionalized account of the Warring States period primarily through the experiences of the war orphan Xin and his comrades as he fights to become the greatest general under the heavens, and in doing so, unifying China for the first time in history. The series was adapted into a thirty-eight episode anime series by studio Pierrot that aired from June 4, 2012 to February 25, 2013. A second season was announced[1] and aired from June 8, 2013 to March 1, 2014. An English language release of the anime was licensed by Funimation Entertainment.[2]

What is a Raspberry Pi?

The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python. It’s capable of doing everything you’d expect a desktop computer to do, from browsing the internet and playing high-definition video, to making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games.

Linux cheatsheet

# cheat_sheet.org.sh
# The contents of this file are released under the GNU General Public License.

Feel free to reuse the contents of this work, as long as the resultant works give proper attribution and

are made publicly available under the GNU General Public License.
# Best viewed in emacs org-mode.
# Alternately, one can keep this cheat sheet handy by adding the following line to ~/.bashrc:
#
# alias cheatsheet=”less ~/path_to_cheat_sheet.org.sh”

* Reference:
** Basics:
*** Getting help:

# View the manual for target command
man command

# Get help with a target command (probably the same as above, but not always):
command -h

How To Reset A Forgotten Raspberry Pi Password

I’ve got a Raspberry Pi running in my garage as part of a security system. It’s been running for so many months that I forgot the password so I was unable to access it via SSH.

Luckily there is was a technique that I could use to reset the password and get it back up and running. You need physical access to the SD card, a separate PC and the ability to connect your Pi to a monitor and keyboard. I used a Windows PC but this should work fine on a Mac or Linux machine.

 

Step 1 – Grab The SD Card

Power down the Pi and remove the SD card. Insert it into your PC.
Step 2 – Edit cmdline.txt

Raspberry Pi Model B+ 3.5mm Audio/Video Jack

The Model B+ features a new 3.5mm audio jack which also includes the composite video signal. This has allowed for the removal of the composite video socket found on the Model B.

The new jack is a 4-pole socket which carries both audio and video signals and is often found on other multimedia devices such as iPods, MP3 players and smartphones.

standup comedies

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Criminal Minds

My Review: Criminal Minds

Show Summary:

The Behavioral Analysis Unit consists of an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country’s most twisted criminal minds and anticipate their next moves before they can strike again.

Criminal Minds stars Thomas Gibson as Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, Joe Mantegna as Senior Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi, Paget Brewster as Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss, Shemar Moore as Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan, Matthew Gray Gubler as Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid and Kirsten Vangsness as Analyst Penelope Garcia.

Lie to Me

My Review: Lie to Me

Show Summary:

Inspired by a real-life behavioral scientist, this FOX drama tells the tale of a deception expert who helps uncover the truth for the FBI, local police, law firms, corporations, and individuals. Dr. Cal Lightman and his team are effectively human polygraph machines, and no truth can be concealed from them.

The Lightman Group is headed by Dr. Cal Lightman and his partner Dr. Gillian Foster who is a gifted psychologist.