Extract (2009)

[lester1/2jr]

On the one hand I really liked this. On the other hand, when you get into the 4-5 star area, stuff I call "interior decorating" kind of comes more into play. You love a person in spite of their faults, but a movies faults can keep you from expressing your love with a 5.

I haven't checked but this movie has probably gotten some pretty bad reviews from mainstreamers in part because of the ad campaign, which made it look like it was about a naughty husband contemplating cheating on his frigid wife with the hot girl from That 70's show (which you couldn't pay me to watch) (Ashton-phobia). The actual plotline is a little less sassy.

A guy (Jason Bateman who is really good here) is having marital troubles due to his working long hours at this extract factory he runs. Mila Kunis, who has since rocketed to semi legit stardom after getting a face full of Natalie Portman in Black Swan, is kind of what the commercial led you to believe but not at all really. The cast is rounded out by awesome people from past Mike Judge movies. This has elements of both Office Space and Idiocracy. It deals with capitalism/ working vs managerial class as in OS but contains some of the cartoonishness of Idiocracy (or for that matter King of the Hill)

Okay Interior Decorating: some of the characters in this movie, the nosy neighbor, the dim bulb gigolo guy from the bar, are a little broadly drawn. Some of it is funny, some of it is a little on the slapstick side (not as bad as, say, "Burn After Reading"). The thing that really p**sed me off though was the ending. It's pat, ala SNL in the 90's. It's where the cartoon chevy ran out of gas. Not to give too much away but as common as cheating on spouses is, it's not humdrum. I think Judge misses alot of the complexity and combustability of it here.

As far as an actual film watching experience, divorced from my issues with various of decisions the director made in regards to the emotional/ moral sort of statement, it was a 5. With it, it was

4.5/ 5 but still recommended.

[akiratubo]

I didn't like Idiocracy or Office Space (or "King of the Hill" or "Beavis and Butthead", for that matter).  Should I bother with this movie?

[lester1/2jr]

absolutely not.

[Hammock Rider]

I remember liking it when it first came out. But now I don't remember much more than Mila was sexy and Kristen Wiig, as usual, was very funny. I guess that about says it all.