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 EXTRACT |
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| Featuring: Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons, Clifton Collins Jr. |
| Director: Mike Judge |
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Studio: Miramax |
| DVD release: 22 December 2009 |
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Runtime: 90 min.
(1 disc) |
| Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, Blu-ray |
| DVD features: 1080p HD, Aspect ratio 1.85:1, Audio tracks (English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround), Subtitles (English SDH, French, Spanish), Mike Judge's Secret Recipe |
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Jason Bateman is Joel. He has built up a company that makes food extracts in a unique way. His little company is valuable to the food industry, and a major industry player is showing interest in acquiring it. Joel works long hours making his company profitable despite the lazy and stupid employees who ignorantly attempt to bring his factory down. He very nearly has his company sold and an early retirement sealed when an accident that seems organized by Reuben Goldberg himself injures the... erm... groinal area of Step (Clifton Collins Jr.). A loyal employee who has a good chance of a promotion when he is half-emasculated, Step would be happy to grab his meager settlement and return to work. Enter Cindy (Mila Kunis), a vixen with a talent for the con.
Cindy gets a job at the extract plant when she hears about Step's accident in hopes of getting closer to him. She comes on to Joel, who has never before even considered an affair; on the other hand, his wife, Suzie (Kristin Wiig), refuses to entertain the notion of carnal friskiness after 8pm (moments before Joel gets home). Joel is intrigued with the notion of an affair but doesn't want to go behind Suzie's back. His bartender buddy Dean (Ben Affleck) talks Joel into hiring a gigolo to pose as a pool cleaner to see if Suzie can be swayed. If she gives in to temptation, he can go ahead and cheat as well (it's practically Suzie's blessing, right?). If not, he will remain loyal and try to make it work.
The plot is somewhat noirish for a comedy; the hero does things he shouldn't, but it doesn't go to the extremes expected of film noir. It's a film filled with characters: Mary (Beth Grant), who is as willing to lay the blame on the untrustworthy foreigners she works with as she is to stop the assembly line out of spite; Nathan (David Koechner), a neighbor who lurks in the yard waiting for Joel to come home so he can pester him with rotary club tickets and other inane banter; and Brad (Dustin Milligan), the gigolo just trying to make his way on the man-whore scene without more than a few brain cells to rub together.
Extract is an entertaining film, though it doesn't quite have the sharp focus of director Mike Judge's Office Space or Idiocracy . I have a feeling I'll like it better the second time around.
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