Extract
Writer-director Mike Judge generally makes films that satire the absurdities of a workplace and the last one that became a cult favorite in DVD and cable TV is Office Space. It was a movie that was well focused on the subject with no forced comedy. But, a decade later Judge’s latest comedy flick is Extract where the focus of the story is not the employee of a workplace but the owner of a bottling plant.
Extract basically portrays the impersonality of a work place and the work is considered as real only when they are done by hands. Judge addresses issues that have less universal appeal and may be this is the reason why his movies such as Idiocracy are not box-office hits. In Extract, the movie’s backdrop is shot in a California bottling plant.
In Extract you will see Jason Bateman as Joel who is the boss of the bottling factory and who has built his company from the scratch. But he is vulnerable to his employees’ whims and fancies. But more than that, at present it’s a dull and gloomy life for Joel who is constantly enduring moments of grief not only at his workplace but at home from an unhappy marriage.
Joel’s wife Suzie is never in the right mood and momentum for a sexual relationship with Joel and Joel is simply frustrated about his life. He shares moments of sadness with his bartender friend Dean. Joel speaks about his anxiety to him and expresses his grief over a possible separation issue that might soon crop up between him and his wife.
Dean advises Joel to move into a relationship with another woman. But as Joel is very honest he did not want to cheat on his wife. On this, his bartender friend advices him to hire a gigolo who in turn would seduce his wife and that would free Joel of his guilt.
Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis in Extract
As Joel was unhappy with his workplace, he was contemplating on selling off his bottling plant. Just then he finds himself embroiled with a lawsuit filed by Step against his company who met with an unfortunate accident and lost his testicle.
Besides this there is a woman employee who is lazy and who not only works less but influences others not to work as well. In the midst of all these, arrives Cindy, a con artist who begins to work all the more less in the bottling plant as her main aim is to flirt with men and to take a part of lawsuit money from Step.
Joel is found to begin flirtation with Cindy and to escape from his guilt he hires a mentally challenged gigolo to sleep with Suzie. Problems in Joel’s life does not end with this as he also has a nerdy neighbor Nathan who keeps coming to Joel and Suzie’s house and never understands the signals to leave the home. He is the ultimate case study of a great bore.
In Joel’s life with problems at workplace, sexual frustration coupled with this next-door neighbor combine together for a cosmic explosion. But to know what happens finally, you can check it out at the theaters. But, here again, most Mike Judge movies are best as DVD cleaners.
| Film | Extract |
|---|---|
| Cast | Jason Bateman as Joel Mila Kunis as Cindy Kristen Wiig as Suzie Ben Affleck as Dean J.K. Simmons as Brian Clifton Collins Jr. as Step Dustin Milligan as Brad David Koechner as Nathan Beth Grant as Mary T.J. Miller as Rory |
| Director | Mike Judge |
| Screen Writers | Mike Judge |
| Producers | John Altschuler, Michael Rotenberg |
| Runtime | 1 Hour 31 Minutes |
| Rating | 2.5/5 |
Posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 5:32 pm