Chris Hemsworth is back as mercenary Tyler Rake, the perfect mix of Jason Bourne and Rambo (with some Chuck Norris tossed in for good measure). Returning director Sam Hargrave ups his game for this sequel and manages to outshine the original—and that’s not just because of the mind-blowing 21-minute, real-time, seemingly (but not really) single-take tracking shot that moves deftly from prison break to car chase to train escape. The script by Joe Russo (‘The Grey Man’) is tighter, giving Hemsworth more to sink his teeth into, and the mission (saving a family from evil Georgian gangsters) is easier to get on board with. Sure, everyone seems to be as ridiculously bulletproof as a foot-thick block of steel, but that’s small potatoes in this solid, wham-bam action flick.
4/5 stars