The trailer for Mike Judge’s new comedy “Extract” is full of good gags, but you don’t have a clue what the story is actually about.
Audiences will feel the same after sitting through the film itself.
Judge, whose 1999 feature “Office Space” quickly became a cult classic, can’t settle on the story he wants to tell.
Is it a factory satire, a rumination on a failing marriage or a stoner comedy? It’s none of the above even as it tries to be all three.
Jason Bateman stars as Joel, the owner of a modestly successful food extract factory. His trouble begins when a worker at his plant loses a testicle in a bizarre – and humorous – accident.
Enter the adorable Mila Kunis, who plays a new factory worker who wants to exploit the recent accident to her monetary gain. She’s the wild card in this otherwise ordinary deck, but her character is far too undernourished to help save the movie from mediocrity.
Joel’s problems extend to his personal life. He can’t convince his bride (Kristen Wiig, uniformly unfunny for the first time in her career). to have sex with hm. When Joel comes home after work and sees her wearing sweat pants, he knows another sexless night awaits.
The missed comic opportunities start piling up mid film and extend to the final, laborious scene. Why cast Ben Affleck as Joel’s stoner bud when someone like Steve Zahn could play the role far more effectively? Why constrain the talented Wiig with a thoroughly unpleasant role?
And just what does Judge want to say with his newest comedy?
“Office Space” skewered our cubicle nation, while “Idiocracy” skewered … the nation itself.
“Extract” seems without purpose, an occasionally humorous comedy in search of a mission statement.
Near the end Judge allows one of his characters to pay testimony to the heart and soul of the working man, but it feels tacked on, as if the writer/director realized he needed to say something, and fast, to salvage his film.
Judge does have his perfect muse with Bateman, who does the slow burn to perfection as well as a dozen other comic shadings. And David Koechner is terrific as the neighbor from hell, an out and out bore who doesn’t know when to shut his yap.
“Extract” is smarter than your average comedy and features a bevy of crackerjack comic actors, but we expect far more from the mind behind “Beavis & Butt-head.”
Photo: Jason Bateman as Joel and Mila Kunis as Cindy in EXTRACT Photo Credit: Sam Urdank/Miramax Film Corp.)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
My wife and I just returned from seeing it and both loved it. It is perhaps because I founded, ran and recently sold a small business. It is refreshing to see a story told from a business owner’s point of view.
Highly recommend it.
Thanks for your feedback, Mike. I did find many funny moments here — the extended bong hit is classic, hands down — I just found the story so very fragmented.
My wife and I think this review nails it. The movie was entertaining, but we laughing out loud only a few times more than we did in Schindler’s List.
I always enjoy Mike Judge’s approach to micro scenes, but this movie swings and misses in so many ways.
I trust your reviews, Christian. But I hope you’re not saying “Idiocracy” was a good movie. Sorry. Can’t agree. I’ve only seen it once, but it left me flat.
Good concept, poorly delivered. Perhaps I need to see it a few more times — but while “Office Space” cut with a scalpel, I thought “Idiocracy” bludgeoned us with a sledgehammer.
(But I’m with you on Kristen Wiig. She was gold in the otherwise disappointing, only because we expect so much from Ricky Gervais, “Ghost Town.”)
I thought the concept behind “Idiocracy” was terrific … and it had its moments. But I’ll need to see it once more to truly assess it. Just the kind of movie it is.
It’s not nearly as focused and funny as “Office Space,” but I admired its chutzpah. “Extract” lacks that in spades.
And I thought “Ghost Town” was highly overrated. I think critics have Gervias classes when they watch his projects — “Extras” bored me (at least the few eps I watched)
Eh. Gervais had his moments in “Ghost Town.” Not enough of them, admittedly. And I must say that several episodes of Extras were brilliant (especially the pilot). But it slowed down as it went along. I actually lost interest and stopped renting them before the finish.