Film Reviews

Extract

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Ben Affleck
• Details: US/91mins 16

Coming from the man behind brilliant cult classic, Office Space, and the now vintage MTV series Beavis and Butthead, Extract is Mike Judge hardly stretching himself in terms of character or set-up, but is an amusing watch nonetheless.
Bateman is Joel Reynolds, the proprietor of a factory in Texas that makes the drink, Extract. Joel is on the cusp of the biggest deal of his career, as a larger company wants to buy him out, but his personal life is distinctly less successful. Married to a beautiful woman, his hard work over the past few years has come at the price of his marriage, and his wife is bored senseless at home. When Mila Kunis' sexy scam artist starts work at his plant, she begins manipulating everyone she comes in contact with for her own gain, including Joel, who drunkingly sets his wife up with a gigolo on the advice of his degenerate friend, so he can have sex with his new employee guilt free. Soon Joel is in a mess that makes him realise how good he had it before.
Moving on from the high concept, but direct-to-dvd confines of Idiocracy, and returning to an area where he is more comfortable, Extract works mainly because you feel like you're hanging out with real people. Sure, there are a lot of irritating characters and idiots (another Judge trait), but the majority of the comedy comes from the reaction of Bateman and co. to said idiots. We like Bateman because we'd act just like he does in these situations, so we invariably feel kind of bad for him when things go tits up.
It is slightly too offbeat for its own good sometimes and some of the more grating characters do feel like rejects from the original Office Space script. Also, Judge has cast a brilliant comedian in Kristen Wigg (who plays Bateman's wife) but never gives her a chance to be funny.
Extract is never really sure where it wants to be, and that uncertainty can often lead to an indifferent audience; but this if still funny enough to warrant a gander during a slow weekend at the cinema.

Review by Mike Sheridan