Extract (2009)

Joel, the owner of an extract plant, tries to contend with myriad personal and professional problems, such as his potentially unfaithful wife and employees who want to take advantage of him.

Director:

Mike Judge

Writer:

Mike Judge

Stars:

Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Bateman	...	Joel
Mila Kunis	...	Cindy
Kristen Wiig	...	Suzie
Ben Affleck	...	Dean
J.K. Simmons	...	Brian
Clifton Collins Jr.	...	Step
Dustin Milligan	...	Brad
David Koechner	...	Nathan
Beth Grant	...	Mary
T.J. Miller	...	Rory
Javier Gutierrez	...	Hector
Lidia Porto	...	Gabriella
Gene Simmons	...	Joe Adler
Matt Schulze	...	Willie
Lamberto Gutierrez	...	Victor

Storyline

Joel, the owner of an extract manufacturing plant, constantly finds himself in precarious situations that steadily worsen by the minute. First, his soon-to-be floor manager acquires a serious injury in a machine malfunctioning accident that subsequently endangers the wellbeing of his company. Second, his personal life doesn't fair much better when he takes the advice of his bartending friend Dean during a drug-induced brainstorming session on how to test his wife's faithfulness. Finally, compounding these catastrophes is new employee Cindy, who happens to be a scam artist intent on milking the company for all its worth. Now, Joel must attempt to piece his company and his marriage back together all while trying to figure out what he's really after in life.

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Plot Keywords:

gigolo | on the job injury | groin injury | con artist | bar | 

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Taglines:

Sticking it to the man has never looked so good.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, sexual references and some drug use

Did You Know?

Trivia

After Office Space (1999), Mike Judge wanted to make a follow-up companion piece to the movie. It would be about his experiences owning a small independent company and would be sympathetic to the boss.

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Goofs

In the opening scene, the music store employees call the pickups on the Gibson guitar "humbuckings." Those type of pickups are either called "humbuckers" or "humbucking pickups," but not "humbuckings." Someone picky enough to fuss about the difference between "color" and "finish" would likely be the same way about pickups.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Guitar Salesman #2: Yeah, it's expensive, but it's sweet. Yeah.
Guitar Salesman #1: Are you familiar with Gibson humbucking pickups at all, or...
Cindy: No, I'm sorry. I actually don't play. It's for my dad for his 50th birthday.
Guitar Salesman #1: That's, that's really sweet.
Cindy: Yeah, my sisters and I are all chipping in, so...
Guitar Salesman #2: Your dad will love these humbuckings. I mean, they really kick ass.

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Crazy Credits

There is a short scene during the end credits.

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Connections

References Dancing with the Stars (2005)

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Soundtracks

(I Got The) Same Old Blues
Written by J.J. Cale
Performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Mild

"OK, so I'm a bit of a character." Dean (Ben Affleck)

Just mention King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead, or Office Space from creator Mike Judge and you'll get reactions of awe for his "characters"-- their iconoclastic, offbeat humor. The setup of Extract is eccentric enough to fit those social comedies: an artificial flavoring factory filled with oddball assembly workers and an accident where one of them loses a testicle.

But writer/director Judge can't fully match the promise of the premise as he tailors only a few scenes to his brash humor: for example, three men on a bong is smart on several levels, especially the timing and Jason Bateman's laid-back factory-owner Joel, who doesn't fit the smoking scene but whose droll responses to Ben Affleck's New -Age bartender are quite funny.

Bateman's everyman persona holds the cast and story together as well as he can in spite of the many slow scenes and repetitious comedic bits such as the nerdy neighbor (David Koechner), who appears too many times in an annoying bit about The Rotary Club, and the testicle motif.

Underneath the shallow humor lies a commentary worth attention—the plight of the factory workers waiting for a company to be sold with few places for them to go. Seen from management's point of view, they are racist slackers who can compromise their own well-being by damaging production at will. With the humorous daily shenanigans of those line workers halting production for various petty jealousies and intrigues, Extract is not a bad commentary on the vicissitudes of factory life for management and workers.

Joel's vacant sex life--his wife, Suzie (Kirsten Wiig) is not responsive-- heightens the social commentary concerning the trade offs of the American dream that needs tending 24/7. But I stretch to make something out of the weak end of summer film fare. Extract is simply an extract of the larger comedic genre which will have to wait for fall to be adequately seasoned.

I hope.

Details

Official Sites:

Miramax [United States] Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 September 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Extract

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,340,108, 6 September 2009

Gross USA:

$10,823,158

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$10,848,783

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ternion Pictures, F+A Productions, 3 Arts Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1