Extract (2009)

Aww poor Mike Judge, doomed to have all of his movies compared to Office Space. Oh well. In Extract, his latest feature, small business owner Joel (Jason Bateman) is afflicted with whiny employees, a wife (Kristen Wiig) withholding sex, an impending lawsuit from an injured factory worker (Clifton Collins, Jr), and a smooth-talking con woman named Cindy (Mila Kunis) trying to take advantage of the situation. He complains a lot about the no-sex thing to his bartender pal Dean (Ben Affleck), who convinces him to hire a male prostitute (Dustin Milligan) to seduce his wife, that way Joel can cheat (preferably with Cindy) without feeling guilty.

The gigolo is buff, moronic, and all too successful at his job, making Joel worry a lot more about his wife than he did before when she seems overly responsive to these advances. Meanwhile his extract company gets an offer for a buyout, offering him a lucrative exit strategy from his thankless job, but won't settle a deal until the personal injury lawsuit is dropped. And Cindy is doing her best to ensure a lot of money comes her way by swindling herself into that lawsuit.

This movie is pretty funny. It's got jokes and wacky situations, ok? There's a fantastic cast playing various ridiculous characters, from the talkative and invasive neighbor, Nathan (David Koechner) (think a combination of Office Space's Milton and Lumbergh), to the passive-aggressive assembly line worker Mary (Beth Grant). Ben Affleck is hilarious as the slacker bartender, and he's in it a surprising amount considering his "With Ben Affleck" cast credit. Jason Bateman's character is a whiny, clueless asshole but because it's him I didn't mind as much. Judge certainly has a knack for creating unsympathetic main characters for really likable actors. It's a weird dichotomy.

One of my biggest issues is the misuse of Kristen Wiig and Mila Kunis. As if it isn't already hard enough for comedic actresses to find good roles, here are two very talented ones barely appearing in the film that advertises them as co-stars. When Wiig shows up, she's barely given anything to do. Kunis is there a bit more but her character starts off seemingly important and interesting and then just sort of peters out and nothing is done to develop her story. I found it quite frustrating.

Overall Extract is a bit uneven. It's very funny at some parts, and sort of bleh at others. I hated the whole "wah wah my wife won't have sex with me so instead of talking about it like adults let's get a gigolo to fuck her so I can cheat" storyline. I know it's not supposed to be smart, but it's too stupid to be amusing. However, I do like a lot of the side characters who pop up throughout and it's certainly never boring. In conclusion: it's ok.

3.5/5