Extract (2009)
Joel (Jason Bateman) owns and manages his own company, making food flavoring extracts. He is frustrated in his lifeless marriage to Suzie (Kristen Wiig). If he is not home by 8:00, before she is in her sweatpants, he knows it will be too late for any intimacy.
The film is about corporate life at a manufacturing plant and the people who work there, much like Office Space, the cult classic also directed by Mike Judge. The plant is threatened by several events: the possible buyout by another company, the on the job injury of one of its employees and the recent hiring of a new temp, played by Mila Kunis, looking to steal and other ways to get rich.
For the most part, it is a slow-moving comedy about ordinary people in the workforce, very similar to Office Space. But despite the talented cast, I don’t believe Extract will become the cult sensation as did the other film. J.K. Simmons plays the plant foreman who can’t remember any of the employees’ names. A long haired Ben Affleck plays Joel’s best friend who is filled with ready advice and drugs. Kristen Wiig, from SNL, play’s Joel’s’ wife but she is underutilized and not as funny as she should be for the role. Extract is a light comedy, lacking the pace and acerbic wit of Office Space, which made it such a hit. The characters are all familiar, just not memorable. In the end, it’s not a bad comedy, just not a terribly effective one.
MPAA Rating: R
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