Jason Bateman surrounded by idiots again – ‘Extract’ Review…

Posted on September 17, 2009 - 8:18pm by michael Extract, the latest creative effort from "Beavis & Butt-Head" and "King of the Hill" creator Mike Judge, is not only a cleverly written and entertaining comedy but also further proof of my theory that whenever you have any kind of problem or conflict in any movie, somewhere there is a woman behind it all. Judge has a tendency to fill his shows with characters of astonishing stupidity, along with one or two intelligent ones who are constantly exasperated by the idiocy around them, so it’s fitting that “Arrested Development” star Jason Bateman should be cast in the lead role of Joel, playing essentially the same character that he played on that show. Add to that the fact that he has a loveless and sexless marriage to a wife who has such a finely tuned mental clock that at the very minute of 8pm she ties on a pair of dreaded sweatpants, leaving Joel denied of sex for yet another evening. You remember this scene from the previews. Joel rushing home against the clock, explaining that once his wife pulls that drawstring tight those pants are on for the night and he gets nothing. I imagine we’re supposed to sympathize with a man stuck in such a frigid and uncommunicative marriage that he can’t have a simple conversation with her about their sex life and their mutual needs. Personally I'm completely unable to sympathize with people who suffer terribly from small problems with simple solutions, but no matter. But check out this plot, it’s classic. A gold-digging hottie named Cindy (Mila Kunis) sees an article in the newspaper about a guy named Step who loses a testicle in a factory accident with the potential for a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Mesmerized by phrases like “multi-million dollar lawsuit” and “no testicles,” she immediately sets herself to the task of seeking him out and re-directing those funds to herself. [caption id="attachment_55986" align="alignleft" width="391" caption="Ah the long-haired bartender. Moral anchor for successful businessmen everywhere..."][/caption] Once attaining a temp job at the factory, she flirts with Joel in an attempt to get close enough to him to get her hands on the one-nut employee’s contact information, but also giving Joel the impression that she likes him. When he finds himself unable to generate the conscience vacuum necessary to cheat on his wife, his bartender buddy Dean (Ben Affleck) suggests he hire a gigolo to sleep with his wife and thereby remove his guilt about an affair of his own. The gigolo situation works out well, although right about at the same time that Joel realizes that Cindy isn’t at all interested in him, but is instead dating the greasy Step, despite the fact that he’s half the man he used to be. Joel now has to stop his wife’s continuing affair, which he paid to start and which has now taken on a life of its own, while at the same time stop this lawsuit from destroying his business right before he has a chance to sell it and retire young. The movie is basically the throwing together of a lot of kooky characters and watching them thrash about among each other, and it works because they're all unique and interesting characters, if not always very believable. Jason Bateman has become very very good at playing successful but highly overwhelmed characters, and my second favorite is J.K. Simmons (the newspaper boss from the Spiderman movies) as Brian, Joel's second in command. This guy is an amazing comic actor, I could watch him do anything, although that god-awful tv series "Oz" was definitely an endurance test. Mila Kunis, who is leaps and bounds more attractive than Meg, the character that she voices on "Family Guy", plays the manipulative hottie with such skill that it’s almost hard to believe she has never employed such tactics in real life. Ben Affleck also takes a fun turn in the movie, playing a dirtbag bartender and clearly having a blast with the role, and when actors are having fun playing their characters, it’s generally pretty hard not to have fun along with them. Also joining them are a lot of actors that you will recognize by their voices, not necessarily including Gene Simmons who, you have to admit, is no fun at all to look at but has one of the funniest scenes in the whole movie. He's also nice enough to keep his tongue in his mouth for the duration of the film, so that was nice of him. He fits his character well, too, but not quite as well as the hilarious David Koechner (The Goods), who fits entirely too comfortably into the role of the irritating neighbor that never goes away and simply can’t understand basic conversational clues that all mean “I have to go” or “please leave us alone.” The only real characterization problem in the movie is asking us to believe that Joel’s wife Suzie is really interested in this brain-dead gigolo. Kristen Wiig plays Suzie as far too beautiful and classy to be interested in Dustin Milligan’s Brad, who has roughly the IQ of a sun-dried tomato. There is a scene in the middle of the movie where Joel accidentally gets really high, first on either Xanex or Ritalin or Special K, Dean can’t be quite sure which, and then on some pretty powerful weed, and it is as stupid and pointless and unamusing as it would be in any film, but the rest of the movie is a well-written sitcom pushed along by amusing performances and creative characters. It’s doesn’t have the same immediate relevance or ease of identity as Judge’s Office Space, his best film, but it’s the same style of average people suffering from average problems, if slightly exaggerated. Unfortunately though, I have a feeling that it’s not going to get the attention it deserves given that it’s competing at crowded cineplexes with heavyweights like G.I. Joe, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Final Destination 4, and the amazing new animated film 9, so I hope you’ll take my advice and go check it out! The Bean Meter [caption id="attachment_55989" align="aligncenter" width="261" caption="3.5 Beans out of 5."][/caption]