Mike Judge is known in the animation world for his successful creations Beavis and Butthead, and King of The Hill. He also wrote and directed Idiocracy, and the cult-hit Office Space; Extract is the latest offering from Judge.
In Extract, Jason Bateman stars as Joel Reynolds who runs a successful flavor-extract company; however, while Reynold's Extract is doing well, his love life is not. Joel is getting increasingly frustrated with his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig) whose rule of “no sex after the sweatpants go on at 8pm” has caused months of no sex (but several funny scenes of Joel racing home only to see Suzie tying the knot in her sweatpants)
Joel is also frustrated because of incompetent employees who might ruin the sale of the company to General Mills. This frustration is only exacerbated when this incompetence causes a workplace accident to the would-be floor manager Step (Clifton Collins Jr.). Things get worse in the attractive form of new temp worker Cindy (Mila Kunis) who’s a grifter that has heard about the accident and smells a large payday by hooking up with Step. However, she also starts flirting with Joel who considers having an affair with Cindy since his love life is so empty.
Joel turns to his bartender friend Dean (Ben Affleck) for advice, and Dean suggests hiring a gigolo he knows named Brad (Dustin Milligan) to seduce Suzie, then Joel could have an affair with Cindy guilt-free. Of course things don’t go as planned and Brad and Suzie start having feelings for each other with Brad still charging for each “meeting.” Then things fall apart with Cindy and Joel’s idea of an affair is torpedoed and he may have lost his wife as well.
Jason Bateman is very funny as the frustrated Joel who wants success in his business and love life, and both Mila Kunis and Kristen Wiig were good as the women in Joel’s life; however, their screen time is too brief. But stealing the movie in his scenes, is Ben Affleck. He is truly funny as Dean, and anyone who has seen him in Kevin Smith’s films knows how talented he is. Extract lets him use those talents again. Also look for J.K. Simmons, Beth Grant, and Gene Simmons in supporting roles and it’s the overall cast that makes this film (even if some characters screen time was too brief).
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