Mike Judge's Extract is sweet but unfulfilling

Mike Judge’s Extract (R, 91 min.) is hard to dislike. It’s full of entertaining and funny characters. Unfortunately, none have any depth. Like the food extract assembly line in the movie, each character has an assigned role, rigidly carries it out, and hands the plot off to whoever’s next. Extract provides a funny and sweet taste of its characters, but ultimately left me unfulfilled and craving a comedy with more substance.

Here’s a rundown. Joel (Jason Bateman) owns a food extract company/factory that makes and jars concentrated flavors like vanilla and root beer. He has a big house and drives a BMW, but is unhappy because he hasn’t had sex with his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig) in more than three months. While he’s metaphorically nutless, one of his workers, Step (Clifton Collins Jr.), loses an actual testicle in a factory accident—his last testicle is “hanging on by a thread.” Joel is thinking of selling the company to General Mills, but can’t until the mess is resolved.

Cindy (Mila Kunis) has a special effect on men, and probably some women. It’s much like the Summer effect (see 500 Days of Summer), except Cindy takes full advantage of her gifts. While men fawn, she takes their money. We don’t understand why she acts how she acts, and probably never will. Nevertheless, she reads about Steps’ accident in the paper and wants a piece of the settlement money. The words “no testicles” and “million dollars” are enough make Steps her new dream man.

Dean (Ben Affleck) is Joel’s lackadaisical bartending buddy. “OK, so I’m a bit of a character,” he admits to Joel. He’s right. Affleck plays a “bit” of a character. He’s there to have a beard, serve Joel bad advice, and be a likeable stoner. Together and drunk, the two cook up a great plan for Joel to feel okay about cheating on his wife. If Joel hires a good looking dumb gigolo to seduce her and she cheats on him, then he’s in the clear, right? Enter hilarity.

Thankfully Mike Judge never lets the plot fall into the thousand clichéd traps he sets. Instead, events go down much like they might in the real world, without an abundance of Hollywood-style absurdity. Everything keeps getting worse for Joel, but he’s always partially responsible for his problems, and their resolutions (if you want to call them that). He doesn’t win the bad luck lottery like Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents.

I wish the screenplay could match the talent of Extract’s cast, but Judge is far more interested in circumstance than he is character development. Bateman, Affleck, Wiig, and Kunis are perfect for their roles, as are most actors in the film. The supporting cast is especially strong. Gene Simmons, Dustin Milligan, Beth Grant, J.K. Simmons, and David Koechner share some of the film’s best moments.

Koechner plays a pesky neighbor who is always around and never shuts up or takes no for an answer. I’ve known people like him. You just want to tell them how much you can’t stand them. If you’re like me, you never have the guts to actually tell them off. Instead, I usually end up smiling, nodding, and slowly heading toward the door.

Extract shares some themes and motifs with Judge’s previous films, especially in the relationship between the working and upper class, but the narrative isn’t as potent or directed as Idiocracy or Office Space. Everyone in Extract is comfortable where they are and what they’re doing. Mike Judge is happy to leave them that way.

Score: 3 out of 5 Red Swingline Staplers

(It’s likable and funny, but too slow and quiet for some mainstream audiences who yearn for nonstop shenanigans, and the characters are flat. Rent it on DVD later this year.)

Read the review in full with pics and stuff at http://www.cinemasoldier.com/articles/2009/9/4/extract-is-sweet-but-unfulfilling-review.html.

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