Extract

– Two stars(out of four)
– Rated R for language, sexual references and some drug use.
– Who’s going to like it: hard to tell. Mike Judge fans for sure. You’ll just have to see it and make up your own mind.

A much more dry, less character driven Office Space

Writer/director Mike Judge has an inconsistent fanbase. One person who loves his 1999 dark cult comedy Office Space may hate his animated television series King of the Hill. Fans of his ’90s MTV hit Beavis and Butthead may have no clue that he wrote and directed a film starring Luke Wilson titled Idiocracy. Judge’s style of comic is quite unique. While some comedic parts may trigger immediate laugh-out-loud responses, others are more subtle and situational, almost requiring a second viewing to fully “get the joke.” And that’s the best way to describe Judge’s comedy – either you get it, or you don’t. And Extract, Judge’s latest film, is no exception.

Extract stars Jason Bateman, best known for playing the lead in television’s Arrested Development, as Joel Reynolds, creator and owner of Reynolds’ Extract company – a small extract-making and bottling facility. Joel’s picture perfect life is about to be rocked. There’s a major lack of intimacy from Joel’s emotionally shut off wife (played by brilliant SNL cast member Kristen Wiig), causing him to be tempted by the gorgeous and flirty new temp employee Cindy (played by That ’70s Show and Forgetting Sarah Marshall star Mila Kuna). Joel’s best friend Dean (Ben Affleck), a drug-using modern “spiritualist” bar owner, drugs him up and convinces him to hire a good-looking 20-something gigolo to temp his wife into cheating so that Joel can cheat on her with Cindy and not feel bad about it. At the same time, Joel is having problems at work. Although he’s in negotiations to sell Reynolds’ Extract for a very high price, the buying company won’t finalize the deal until a lawsuit filed by a former injured employee is closed. The several developing conflicts in Extract all end up affecting each other until the breaking point.

While I laughed consistently throughout Extract, mostly due to lines of dialogue and situations presented, it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations created by Office Space. There aren’t any of the everyday observations that you can connect with. To explain that, let me remind you of a scene in Office Space. One of the office employees can’t get the fax machine to work. It gives meaningless error codes that help you in no way to solve the problem. When you saw that scene, you connected immediately with the situation because you’ve used a similar machine and had a similar experience. Nothing along the lines of that observational humor happens in Extract.

Another thing missing here was a complete cast of memorable characters. Any Office Space fan can spout every character’s name off the tops of their head. Why? Because they were memorable. While Extract gives us several, they aren’t in the right places. Ben Affleck’s Dean is hilarious. I wish he’d play more of these types of roles. He’s memorable, funny and unique. David Koechner (Champ from Anchorman) plays Joel’s unbelievably annoying neighbor. Fairly unknown actor Dustin Milligan plays Brad the gigolo. If you don’t laugh every time he’s on screen, then you’re not a Mike Judge fan. Kristen Wiig is perfectly utilized as the subtle comedic tool she is. She’s funny without even having to try. While I list these as being the character highlights of Extract, notice that none of them are the leads.

I’m a huge Jason Bateman fan. He makes me laugh – even in his serious roles. Mila Kunis is fantastic. As if being easy on the eyes isn’t enough, she also wins you over without having to try. But in Extract, neither offer very much. Kunis’ character just comes in and stirs the pot and Bateman’s makes bad decisions that he thinks are right, when in reality it just further complicates his situation. Neither characters bring anything new or special to the show. And considering Bateman’s Joel is the lead character, it’s all the more important that his character have some unique twist, yet be normal enough for us to connect with.

But with everything said, know this: every Mike Judge film can not be accurately critiqued after one viewing and three days. The first time I saw Office Space, I laughed – but not nearly as much as I did the second time. The third viewing was even more funny than the second time. I just keeps getting better and better. And the same goes for Idiocracy. With only one viewing under my belt and three days to make up my mind, this review of Extract may be completely inaccurate. Only time and multiple viewings will tell.

Photo credit: Miramax