Review: ‘Extract’

Mike Judge created one of the biggest cult classics of our generation with ‘Office Space’, then had a misstep with ‘Idiocracy’ but has now fully redeemed himself with a truly funny and original comedy in ‘Extract’.

Basically we have Joel (Jason Bateman) who created his own brand of extract which comes in more flavors than just vanilla. He has pretty much the perfect life, great house, beautiful wife at home, but when the shit hits the fan it all comes in buckets. Every night is pretty much the same routine for him.   Joel tries to rush home before 8 pm, which is the time his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig) jumps into her sweatpants and gets comfortable for the evening, in the hopes of getting laid. When he gets home to realize that she has already tossed them on, he heads down to Dean’s (Ben Affleck) bar for a few drinks.

After things go horribly wrong at the extract plant and future floor supervisor Step (Clifton Collins, Jr.) loses at least one testicle and possibly both Joel’s business is in danger with the possibility of a lawsuit looming. When the new intern Cindy (Mila Kunis) comes into the picture things start to fall apart at the seems. Cindy isn’t just a new intern, she is a lying and thieving drifter who is trying to take advantage of Step and con him into suing the company to make more money.

After one rough night of drinking and possible drug use, Joel and Dean decide to hire Brad, a gigolo, as their new pool boy to seduce Suzie. The next morning he awakens hung over and then realizes the agreement they had come to the previous night and quickly panics to undo it. Before he could fix it he receives a phone call from Brad stating that the deed has been done.

Toss in the fact that Joel and Suzie live next to the worst neighbors in the history of shitty neighbors and you have the makings for a ridiculous and absolutely hilarious film. I was afraid that we would see a little bit of cheese in the film but I walked away very pleased and didn’t feel like this is something I have seen a million times before.

The standout performances here are definitely Clifton Collins Jr(who I have stated many times as the most underrated actor in Hollywood) and J.K. Simmons who plays Brian, one of the plant supervisors. Clifton Collins Jr has been doing a lot of scene stealing this year with roles in ‘Star Trek’, ‘Crank 2’ and is costarring in ‘Boondock Saints 2’. Its about damn time that Hollywood got on board the Clifton Collins Jr bandwagon that I’ve been driving around since I saw him in ‘Rules of Attraction’ and ‘Traffic’.

I am really impressed with what Mike Judge has done with ‘Extract’ and although its not going to blow everyone away, it is definitely funny and well worth the price of admission. Welcome back to the game Mike Judge we have missed you..PS will you please consider some new Beavis and Butthead stuff?

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5