Let's get this out of the way right off the bat. 'Extract,' writer-director Mike Judge's latest foray into office-space comedy, is, well, no 'Office Space.' It's funny to be sure, but it lacks the quotable one-liners ("PC load letter? What the f*** does that mean?!") and on-the-money observations about the workplace (pointless TPS reports!) of its predecessor.That said, 'Extract' does serve as an amusing if not equally hilarious companion piece to 'Office Space.' Whereas 'Space' followed the misadventures of white-collar employees rebelling against their idiotic superiors, 'Extract' centers on benevolent bossman Joel (Jason Bateman), who oversees a cast of almost uniformly moronic blue-collar employees at the food-flavoring factory he founded.
Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis Unscripted interview for 'Extract'
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When one of the workers (Clifton Collins Jr.) partially loses his manhood (literally) in an on-the-job accident and, at the behest of a beautiful con-artist (Mila Kunis), threatens to bankrupt the business, Joel's life begins to unravel. Of course, it doesn't help that his wife (a refreshingly understated Kristen Wiig) is now sleeping with the man-whore he hired to seduce her (while on an horse tranquilizer-induced bender, of course) so that he could have a guilt-free affair with Kunis. Seriously, I'm not making this up.
A nearly unrecognizable Ben Affleck steals every scene he's in as Bateman's long-haired, beard-sporting, pill-popping bartender of a best friend (if you can call someone who drugs you and then urges you to pay a gigolo to bang your wife a "best friend"). And the movie heralds Bateman's arrival (or re-arrival, if you count 'Teen Wolf, Too') as an intensely charismatic leading man. To wit, did I mention that he pays a dude to sleep with his wife ... and wants to sleep with a kleptomaniac con-artist? And he still commands our sympathy. Now that's an impressive day's work.
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