Pretty damn awesome movie from Mike Judge, who even gets a great performance out of Ben Affleck. In a nutshell, it’s mostly about Jason Bateman. Overworked and drifting away from his wife, he gets the hots for a hot drifter girl, Mila Cunis (in her most devious role yet). While Mila is cleaning out anyone that has the hots for her, Jason is thinking about selling his Extract factory and retiring. I know, it doesn’t sound funny when you describe, but what’s great about the story is that it’s a story. It’s very low stakes about real people. The whole thing feels very organic.
Judge knows how to leisurely set up a bit and have it pay off bigger down the road. The movie almost completely jettisons the idea of a “villain”. A lazier writer and director would’ve have a “big bad corporate guy” coming in to ruin everything. Instead, we have a whole cast of interesting characters, sometimes on the ball, but usually reacting in panic, fear and thinking with their dick. (I think we’ve all been there bros.)
Is it as good as Office Space? It’s pretty fucking close. It’s hard to compare the two. I would say this movie sacrifices a little of the wackiness to give you a more realistic take on the characters. So if you put a gun to my head, I’d say it’s not quite as funny. However, the story is more refined and the characters more nuanced than Office Space, which in my book makes it a better movie overall.
I give Extract a 9 out of 10 keggers. See it, bros. Beavis and Butthead said so.
