I honestly don't think I've ever laughed less in a comedy than Extract. I mean, I seriously can not remember once that more than a smirk appeared on my face.
The ads didn't help me see this in theatres, nor the Mike Judge name attached, despite he made one of my all time favorite comedies, Office Space. In addition, even though I love Jason Bateman and J.K. Simmons, they weren't a draw for me. I simply waited for video and a recommendation from a friend.
On the flipside, I can't say this movie was horrible; it just wasn't at all good nor funny in the least. I almost forgave the blatant character rip-offs from Judge's other comedy, Office Space – they even had the same mannerisms and lines! But what I couldn't forgive is the wasted talent and time the main stars are throwing away.
Take for example, Bateman, who had his comeback a few years back with films like Hancock and Juno, and granted with fame, comeback heroes generally will just make about anything for attention and a buck. (Uh
Travolta? Battlefield Earth, Michael, or just about 70% of anything past Pulp Fiction.) Next, we see the strikingly gorgeous "Meg" Kunis. She's only going to look like this for so long. Pick smarter scripts, even comedies. And definitively don't drive down MeganFox Lane. Finally, J.K.'s forgiven as he seems to be always that "number three or lower" cast member, despite the fact he's always good.
A quick snip of the plot line: Phoned-In Bateman stars as Joel who built his extracting business from the root up and apparently read on people he hires. The typical worker humor scenes ensure and Joel wants to sell. A scene, I'm guessing to be funny (and even if it were hilarious, it was ruined by the trailer) has idiot coworkers causing an accident, deformation and as usual, without remorse, one of my pet peeves –even when its fictional. Oh, and in addition, Joel's not getting any at home and spends more time bromancing Dean (Affleck of all people.)
To confuse the plot more
(stop here – seriously, slapstick comedies such as this need to keep it simple. Once you go past 3 or more subplots you lose your target audience as well as any sign of a box office. Extract's no exception.)
they throw in a pool-boy-prostitute in which they don't even cover up the Desperate Housewives rip-off, a bunch of drug scenes (that Bateman did NOT take advantage of for potential comedic scenes) and a lone criminal who's trying to, well, extract as money as she can from a company run by monkeys and injured worker who mimics most primates.
Will it all work out in the end? Who really cares? When it ends you'll probably spend more time shaking your head than laughing. Especially that off-wall ending.
A movie this solely reminded me off, despite the stolen Office Space characters, was the 150% better Election. Watch that movie. Even after a decade, Election, with a lot of the same principals but much more smartly developed, holds up extremely well. I can imagine this one not only forgotten soon, but simply disappearing.
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