Never Not A Nerd

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Mike Judge is awesome, plain and simple. His comedic imagination has birthed some of the funniest shit in the past, what, 20 years now. Beavis and Butthead will always be timeless, King of the Hill had a strong fan base, and Office Space is one of top comedies made in the past 50 years. Judge has had some problems in the past as Idiocracy had a hit or miss feel to it and The Goode Family is muddled in mediocrity. When the trailer for Extract hit theaters, the marketing device was that Mike Judge is making a spiritual follow-up to Office Space. However, this film could not be farther from its predecessor. Extract is a film about the painfulness of every day life. Not so much about going to a monotonous job, but having a scheduled monotonous life. If the film wasn’t trying to be a comedy maybe this would work.

Extract is about the owner of a flavor extract company, Joel (Jason Bateman), who is terribly unsatisfied with the current status of his life. Though he has a pretty hefty salary, he feels obligated to supervise his workers despite the fact that his work hours are not beneficial to his marriage life. Thus, Joel ventures out to the local watering hole to drown his sorrows and discuss his shitty life with friend Dean (Ben Affleck). During one of their late night conversations, Dean makes Joel take a horse tranquilizer and they discuss how to get Joel’s wife to commit adultery so that he can then score with the new chick in the office, Cindy. This leads Joel, Dean, and the rest of the workers at the extract plant down a path which has no real consequence.

YAY:

• The on screen ensemble of this movie works well. Bateman and Affleck build off of each other very nicely and the same can be said for the rest of the crew. J.K Simmons is the shit as the assistant manager though. He’s totally believable and a bit more of a real life interpretation of Jonah Jameson, the role he plays in the Spider-Man (R.I.P) movies.
• The plot is very well done even though its not really a laugh-til-you-cry comedy. It does bring to light the terrible boredom that comes with day to day work life in the modern American world. Because the film accomplishes this so well, you sort of have a  panic attack in the middle of it while saying to yourself, “I hope to god my life does not end up like this”.
• When the movie is funny, it’s hilarious. From the epic nutshot which happens in the first 10 minutes to the giant bong hit that Jason Bateman accomplishes, it’s just plain funny. Perhaps not Office Space or Hangover funny but damn funny none the less.

NAY:

• Mila Kunis’ character is retarded. She is this drifter criminal that does nothing but steal and swindle people out of their valuables. She has almost no point in the film at all besides eye candy for both the main character and the audience of testosterone mongoloids. Since Judge is responsible for Beavis and Butthead, I guess he knew that she was bringing his bread and butter for the first week anyways.
• Though I did mention that the plot is written pretty well, by the end of the film almost nothing seems to have been accomplished at all. Things overall remain the same and the main character has the same outlook on life that he did before, only he appreciates it more? The movie’s conclusion sort of hits you with the feeling of “I’m glad I saw this movie but I am never going to watch it again”.

All and all Extract is a good movie worth a matinee with some buddies but if you want a true comedy then wait until the Hangover comes out on dvd because I do not see anything truly funny coming out in the following months.

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