"Extract"
by: Paolo Sardinas

Over the past few years, Mike Judge has become one of the funniest men in Hollywood. His cartoon characters, Beavis and Butt Head, defined stupid. "Office Space" defined what it means for a comedy to be a cult classic. Even "Idiocracy" was a somewhat joyous and abit underrated. Thats why it saddens me to say that "Extract", his latest comedy, is shockingly his worst.

The story revolves, REVOLVES, around Joel. The owner of a food flavor extracting factory, and follows him as he deals with his boredom, workplace problems and his personal problems. His wife, Suzie(Kristen Wigg), is absolutely obsessed with reality TV. So if Joel doesn't make it home before shes tugs those sweatpant ties, he basically "gets none". Joel, as expected, turns to the aid of his best friend, Dean(Ben Affleck). What follows is a somewhat comedy about how life can suck.

Compared to Judge's previous films, the performances in this one fell a bit flat. Bateman, playing the stories main protagonist, gives a flat and boring performance for a character whose having a mid life crisis.. times two. Mila Kunis, a newly arrived con woman who begins to work at the bottling line, also gives a weak performance. The movies this character driven you need characters, which is what "Extract" fails in. The only good or decent performance in the whole film, is that of Ben Affleck. He does well playing a bartender who basically does nothing. The slacker of the slackers. Out of the whole cast, Affleck is the one who has some fun.

The script, boring at times and just plain original at others, manages to deliver a few clever moments, but nothing that really WOWS you. The whole way it develops and plays out, could've been thought out a bit more. At times you can't help but feel that Judge focused a bit more on trying to recreate the fame and status he established with "Office Space", rather than truly creating something unique and fresh.

As over the top as it is, Wigg falling for a moronic gigolo is a good example, it still is able to prove, at times, that a comedy can be as ridiculous as it can be and still be somewhat entertaining. "Extract" still manages to kind of captivate the viewer, while not taking itself to seriously. The script is both over and under developed, and I think both Beavis & Butt Head can sum up that cast's acting. "These guys are cool - for a bunch of mimes." Grade: C