Starring: Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck, David Koechner
Director: Mike Judge (Office Space, Idiocracy)
Running Time: 1 hr 29 min
Release Date: Sept. 4, 2009
Budget: N/A
Average Critics’ Score: 65%
“The funniest American comedy of the summer.” Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
“…jokeless and joyless…” Dan Zak, Washington Post
Its satire isn’t as sharp as Office Space, Judge’s 1999 cult classic he himself rips off too much here, but Extract is still a zany, enjoyable late-summer comedy. Set against the backdrop of blue-collar bleakness, Joel (Bateman) is the passive, struggling owner of a flavor extract company who’s dealing with a lawsuit at work and with a sexually aloof wife (Wiig) at home. Though the characters aren’t fleshed out enough and the film is loosely strung together, Extract scores lots of laughs from Bateman’s ridiculously funny scenes with his dazed druggie friend (Affleck), a dull yet yakky neighbor (Koechner), a temptatious scammer of a temp (Kunis), and an endearingly dimwitted gigolo (Dustin Milligan).
