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Extract

One of my favorite comedies is the cult film Office Space. Mike Judge directed Office Space as well as Extract. I had fairly high expectations for this movie hoping it would be as enjoyable and entertaining to watch as Office Space. Unfortunately, I was let down by Extract after viewing it. The movie has a few funny moments, but I didn't think it had enough. Ben Afflek gives a mildly amusing performance as a pot smoking stoner. Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis are alright, but nothing special. I can't say the movie was all that memorable either. Ultimately, Extract is too uneven and unfocused to be called a success. Fans of Office Space and Mike Judge may want to watch Extract out of curiosity. It's not that great, but it is passable.

"Extract" is not one of those tour-de-force comedies that knocks you on the floor with laughter, then again, that wasn't exactly the case in Mike Judge's previous cult hit "Office Space," a film so in its own category that "Extract" will inevitably be -- pardon the pun -- judged by comparison. In the mold of that iconic working-class comedy now ten years its senior, "Extract" goes for that everyday life annoyance humor, putting a lot of stock in awkward situations. The film, however, doesn't capitalize nearly enough on the comic disaster it stirs up, making it not all that memorable. But what it does deliver comes with a good-natured everyman/everywoman charm, staying human enough to earn our admiration. Jason Bateman stars as the mild-mannered Joel Reynolds, owner and operator of a flavor extract manufacturing plant whose daily struggles include dealing with feisty and mostly incompetent employees and trying to get laid by his wife (Kristen Wiig). When a freak accident spurred by his misfit workers takes out an employee's testicle, an insurance settlement and potential lawsuit threaten to bankrupt Reynolds and his partner Brian (J.K. Simmons) as well as compound the problems in his personal life. Added to the mix are a female con artist (Mila Kunis) looking for a share of the law suit money and Reynolds' shaggy drug-endorsing friend (Ben Affleck) who convinces Joel to pay a gigolo to seduce his wife. It seems like that's plenty in terms of comic potential and the rich quirky characters that made "Office Space" excellent, but its the plight of your well- intentioned average Joel that makes "Extract" work. Not to take anything away from Affleck, Kunis or even David Koechner as the obnoxious neighbor, all of who give good performances, but it's more about how Bateman works off these characters, whether he's shunning Affleck's offers of Xanax or struggling with the temptations of the flirty Kunis. "Extract" is just one of those smile the whole way through and laugh just a couple handfuls of times comedies. It's not a triumph, the characters are not nearly as rich as "Office Space," and it skimps on its potential, but the cast is talented, the writing is natural and it still carries on the working-class spirit that made "Office Space" connect with so many people. The bottom line is that whether funny or not, Judge prefers to show off our good side, focusing mostly on the troubles we endure in life as we try to reconcile being good people with having personal needs and desires. ~Steven C Visit my site at http://moviemusereviews.blogspot.com

The best comedians do not laugh at their own jokes. Instead, they let the audience laugh. The new Mike Judge movie "Extract" qualifies as the kind of low yield humor movie that maintains a straight-face throughout its 89 minutes but lacks a tenth of the humor as "Idiocracy." Judge looks like he told everybody to behave like nothing funny was happening in his absurdly insane bit of nonsense. Nobody gives a bad performance in this comatose comedy. "Extract" is neither a laugh-out-loud comedy nor a "Beavis & Butthead" wet dream. The scenes are subtle with humor. The characters are complete cretins, from the protagonist Joel (Jason Bateman) who owns and operates a flavor extract factory with the most nitwits that you will ever see. Judge treats Hispanics exceptionally well while he is not so sympathetic whites. Into the marginally sane world of Reynolds Extract comes sassy Cindy (ass hot sexy Mila Kunis)who looks like she walked out of a wet-dream and knows it. The first scene where Cindy sasshays out of a guitar shop with a $3000-plus electric guitar while two smitten sales clerks are away getting her another guitar is a hoot. "Extract" is largely a hoot itself but it doesn't like to toot its own horn. Ben Affleck, who seems to be taking time off from starring in movies to playing supporting roles, is Dean, the best friend that Joel has and can trust. Dean is a bearded bartender who tries to help Joel solve his problems with controlled substances, like horse tranquillizer and marijuana. He takes Joel to see one of his stoner buddies who smokes pot out of an eight-foot bong. It seems that Joel has not been getting laid by his frigid wife who puts on the sweat pants at 8 PM and refuses to give it up. Clifton Collins, Jr. is cast as Step, an incredibly idiotic redneck, who loses a testicle in a hilarious factory accident that plays out like a Rube Goldberg stunt. The plant itself is basically a convey belt run factory with employees putting bottles of extract into boxes and moving them around the premises with a fork-lift. Kristen Wiig is Suzie, the wife of the protagonist, who does the moronic pool cleaning stud fifteen times. Initially, Joel pays Brad (Dustin Milligan) to have sex with Suzie while he tries to score with Cindy. Actually, Cindy is scoring with Step and trying to get him to sue Joel and his company for restitution for his lost testicle. "Kiss" vocalist Gene Simmons plays an accident shyster who represents Step it in his law suit against Reynolds' Extract. The funniest guy in "Extract" is David Koechner as Nathan, an obnoxious neighbor that Joel and Suzie struggle to avoid at all costs. He means well but he is a complete nincompoop. Don't leave your seat until you have seen the two scenes during the ending credits. You may smile a lot, occasionally laugh, but you will not laugh out loud. "Extract" is nowhere as much fun as "Idiocracy" was.

Ever wondered just how you too can flush away an hour of your life? Simple! Just view Extract... Those who believe this film, and I use the term lightly, is a cinematic wonder wouldn't know a great or even semi-decent movie if it fell from the sky, landed on their face, and began to wiggle. I honestly had to return home as quickly as possible and shower this feature from my body - truly my very own "Crying Game" moment. Why spend $10 watching Extract when you can just stay home, place your left hand into a blender, and experience the same amount of pain for free? If I were Mike Judge, I'd just move to Guam and finish out his life producing documentaries about transsexual midget prostitutes and the women who love them because a film writer he's not.

Writer-Director Mike Judge has brought back the zany antics of workplace oddity in the hilarious "Extract". It is not in the echelon of Judge's workplace comedy masterpiece "Office Space" but "Extract" still does the comedy job right. Jason Bateman is flawless as Joel, an owner of an extract company whose working & personal life goes into bizarre gear when: one of his employees suffers a testicle on-the-job accident, his bartender friend convinces him to experiment with drugs, his wife starts sleeping with the pool boy, and a new female temp makes the move on him but wants to steal more than his heart. Hey, what do you want? This kind of weird s*it always happens to Joels. Joel also gets badgered by a relentless neighbor every day to add fuel to the fire. Judge's film-making niche of creating satirical scenarios of workplace situations with wacky characterizations cannot be unmatched. To quote Carly Simon: "Nobody Does it Better", and I will be the judge of that! The ensemble acting of "Extract" was intact with sheer brilliance: Mila Kunis stole the show as the kleptomaniac temp Cindy, I got wiggy with Kristen Wiig's performance as Joel's cheating wife Suzie, Ben Affleck had a cool stillness about him as Joel's bartender friend Dean, J.K. Simmons had once again that Special J.K. thespian flavor as the company manager Brian, Clifton Collins Jr. continues to step closer to acting stardom with his role as the testicle-challenged Step, and David Koechner did not need any acting coaching as the annoying neighbor Nathan. Also, nice supporting turns were done by Dustin Milligan as the cerebrally challenged gigolo Brad, and the steady Beth Grant as the crabby employee Mary. But my favorite scene stealer of "Extract" was Matt Schulze as the stoner madman Willie or should I say Steamboat Willie. And again let's not extract our main man Jason Bateman from this ensemble comedy dream team. Judge's "Extract" screenplay was not in the verbal mastery space of "Office Space" but still worthy of an upsizing commendation. That's the working comedy word! Do not downsize this comedic gem from your movie viewing list, and catch the comedy flavor of "Extract" today. ***** Excellent

Greetings again from the darkness. Not sure if this was a social experiment by Mike Judge to see if his work can be successful whether it's funny or not, but one thing is certain ... this one is not very funny. What looked to be a spoof on small business (as compared to cubicle life in Office Space) turned out to be a bunch of short skits more related to marital frustrations. Jason Bateman runs the extract factory and is married to the always great Kristin Wiig, who works at home as a "coupon designer". Though they live in a mcmansion, they have drifted apart in their relationship ... blah, blah, blah. Seen it a million times and NOBODY CARES. When the scheming Mila Kunis sees a way to score big, she lands a job at the factory and flirts a bit with Bateman - doesn't take much these days to get him excited. At the same time, she has at least one other scheme in place ... anyway, the best thing here is the commentary on how cute girls can influence the idiot male species into doing things they wouldn't usually do. Ben Affleck is totally miscast (is that redundant??) as the drug-toting, bartending, life philosopher to whom Bateman looks to for advice. Really? A successful businessman would turn to this stunted growth doofus for advice on anything more than what martini to order? The best parts of the film are the (very) few scenes that take place on the floor of the factory. This is where the real interesting and funny story could have been with just a bit more effort from Mr. Judge. I will say the stuff with Gene Simmons as Joe Adler (the similarities to Jim Adler can't be missed) are funny. Otherwise, I feel let down - like this one was rushed through production off the strength of The Hangover (though not even close to that level). We expect more from you Mr. Judge.

I honestly don't think I've ever laughed less in a comedy than Extract. I mean, I seriously can not remember once that more than a smirk appeared on my face. The ads didn't help me see this in theatres, nor the Mike Judge name attached, despite he made one of my all time favorite comedies, Office Space. In addition, even though I love Jason Bateman and J.K. Simmons, they weren't a draw for me. I simply waited for video and a recommendation from a friend. On the flipside, I can't say this movie was horrible; it just wasn't at all good nor funny in the least. I almost forgave the blatant character rip-offs from Judge's other comedy, Office Space – they even had the same mannerisms and lines! But what I couldn't forgive is the wasted talent and time the main stars are throwing away. Take for example, Bateman, who had his comeback a few years back with films like Hancock and Juno, and granted with fame, comeback heroes generally will just make about anything for attention and a buck. (Uh…Travolta? Battlefield Earth, Michael, or just about 70% of anything past Pulp Fiction.) Next, we see the strikingly gorgeous "Meg" Kunis. She's only going to look like this for so long. Pick smarter scripts, even comedies. And definitively don't drive down MeganFox Lane. Finally, J.K.'s forgiven as he seems to be always that "number three or lower" cast member, despite the fact he's always good. A quick snip of the plot line: Phoned-In Bateman stars as Joel who built his extracting business from the root up and apparently read on people he hires. The typical worker humor scenes ensure and Joel wants to sell. A scene, I'm guessing to be funny (and even if it were hilarious, it was ruined by the trailer) has idiot coworkers causing an accident, deformation and as usual, without remorse, one of my pet peeves –even when its fictional. Oh, and in addition, Joel's not getting any at home and spends more time bromancing Dean (Affleck of all people.) To confuse the plot more… (stop here – seriously, slapstick comedies such as this need to keep it simple. Once you go past 3 or more subplots you lose your target audience as well as any sign of a box office. Extract's no exception.)…they throw in a pool-boy-prostitute in which they don't even cover up the Desperate Housewives rip-off, a bunch of drug scenes (that Bateman did NOT take advantage of for potential comedic scenes) and a lone criminal who's trying to, well, extract as money as she can from a company run by monkeys and injured worker who mimics most primates. Will it all work out in the end? Who really cares? When it ends you'll probably spend more time shaking your head than laughing. Especially that off-wall ending. A movie this solely reminded me off, despite the stolen Office Space characters, was the 150% better Election. Watch that movie. Even after a decade, Election, with a lot of the same principals but much more smartly developed, holds up extremely well. I can imagine this one not only forgotten soon, but simply disappearing.

The most unremarkable film of the year that really can't even be labeled as a comedy. I'm shocked because I'm a real fan of King of the Hill and I absolutely adore the entire cast. This is the prototypical example of a film's trailer being FAR better than the film itself. In fact, if you've seen the trailer, don't bother watching the movie at all. It deserves no more of a person's time than a cliff notes, abbreviated recap. The entire running time feels like a failed pilot episode to what would make a bad sit-com. Barely a chuckle in sight, nothing particularly funny or rememberable at all with even Mila Kunis' amazing beauty wasted and held in check.

WHAT HAPPENED? I love mike judge. He is comic genius with Office Space, Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill. There was no plot to this movie and it was slow. At times it reminded me of Very Bad Things... not the great movie part, the part like knowing something horrible is going to happen and you can't do anything about it, but it never did... nothing ever happened. There were places the plot could have gone and the movie would have taken a much better turn, it didn't happen. It was just not well though out or developed. I really didn't like any of the characters, which is a shame. This had a pretty strong cast. It was all bad script. I stayed thinking it would get better. It didn't. Don't waste your time.