Rated: R | Review date: 8-Dec-2009

Mike Judge presses out Extract, a comedic concoction arriving 10 years after the acclaimed Office Space and the follow up to 2006′s Idiocracy. So far responses to Extract seem to draw up mostly comparisons to Office Space, which surely left large shoes to fill. While I agree this film didn’t have much of the same effect as Office Space did, it’s still great in its own right and in my opinion just as funny.

Jason Bateman plays the lead role as Joel, the owner of an food flavoring extract factory full of a motley mix of employees. Bateman is superb, accurately portraying a successful man dealing with both personal and marriage issues. Joel is a character that many men can relate to and Bateman is believable and on point. Joel’s interactions with certain characters are simply hysterical and make for plenty of laugh out loud moments.

Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) plays Joel’s wife Suzie who, unknowingly to Joel, is becoming bored in their relationship. Joel on the other hand is frustrated simply by the fact that their sex life has drifted off to the point where if he doesn’t get home before 8, Suzie’s sweatpants come on and all hope is gone. This relationship angle of the story is one that kind of skips over a lot of details, but hey, they have to squeeze (I swear I’ll stop with the extract puns) it in a reasonable time frame.

The story gets more interesting when a young, gorgeous con-artist named Cindy (Mila Kunis) arrives to work for Joel. Wooing every man in her path, Cindy easily grabs the attention of Joel. After a night of boozing and mysterious-pill popping with his bar-tending friend Dean (Ben Affleck), Joel winds up enacting a wild plan in hopes to revive his manhood. Ben Affleck was without a doubt the highlight of this film. Every scene involving Dean was non-stop funny, and I really hope Affleck continues to do more comedic roles as a result. Gene Simmons also had a surprisingly funny cameo as a bus-advertisement famed lawyer who attempts to wreck Joel’s business as a result of a wacky factory mishap.

The film never has a dull moment. Certain aspects of the story left out details and it seemed kind of rushed at times. Even so, what the film potentially lacked also made the runtime fit perfectly with the laugh factor. Mike Judge did not disappoint with this one, and while I hail Office Space as one of my all time favorite comedies, Extract is an equally amusing working-class themed film that I’m sure will earn more respect from bitter viewers over time.

IMDb/trailers/Beavis and Butthead promo

Official Extract site

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