DVD review: Extract brews up a tasty treat
Mike Judge is the cult king of satire. His greatest successes have been in televised animation (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill), but he’s probably best known for his cult hit Office Space. The exaggerated portrayal of business office life and politics struck a chord with the public (long before The Office showed up) and the film has only grown in popularity over the years.
Once again, Judge has made a very good film that quickly came and went from theaters.
I’m not sure Extract will catch fire on DVD like Office Space but it sure has potential. This time Judge centers the action not on the employees, but on a business owner. Jason Bateman plays Joel, a chemist who has built a modestly successful flavor extract company. He’s doing alright except for the fact that he has the world’s most catty and stupid employees.
If that wasn’t enough, the long hours he works is killing his sex life with the wife. Despite these problems, he’s mostly happy and manages to get through life without too many troubles.
Things start to change when employee bickering leads to an industrial accident and a female con artist breezes into town. These seemingly disparate events lead to some very bad advice from his best friend (Ben Affleck) a pharmaceutical peddling bartender.
Before he realizes what has happened, Joel’s company is getting sued, his employees are threatening to strike, and his wife has fallen for a gigolo.
As usual, Judge manages to take the mundane and make it seem absurd. Whereas a lot of filmmakers would struggle with this, he makes it look not only easy but believable as well. It’s also a whole lot of funny.
Extract boasts a great cast featuring Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live), and J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man). The ensemble cast is excellent, but Bateman and Affleck are the stars.
Bateman, who’s been on a roll the last few years, is perfect as the everyday schlub who seems to get the worst life has to offer. His interactions with Ben Affleck are priceless. This is a stellar role for Affleck and you can tell he’s having fun. His blunted out, clueless bartender goes totally against type but he does it so well. I guarantee you his performance will remind you of someone you know. After taking a public drubbing for his romance with J-Lo, Affleck has rededicated himself and is doing some really good work lately.
If you’ve liked any of Judge’s live action work (Office Space or Idiocracy), you should check out Extract. It’s not the funniest movie you’ve ever seen, but it’s very good and a perfect way to kick back for 90 minutes and put a smile on your face. Judge has a unique style and I can only hope he’ll break through with a big hit someday.
4 out of 5
Rated R
The DVD
Extract hits home video with a solid looking 1.85:1 widescreen aspect picture. It’s not a visually stunning movie, but the picture quality is clean. Sadly, the disc only comes with one special feature; a fairly standard 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette entitled “Mike Judge’s Secret Recipe.” It contains the standard cast and crew interviews, and while it’s interesting, there isn’t too much to get excited out.
Bonus Features rating
2 out of 5
Tony Robinson is a past host of KATU's Movie Guys film review segment and currently reviews movies exclusively for KATU.com. He lives in Portland with his wife, son and action figure collection. He can be reached at tonerobe@hotmail.com.