Extract
Dir: Mike Judge
2009
**
Mike Judge has said that his 2009 comedy Extract is the companion piece to his cult film Office Space, made ten years prior. Personally, I think it's pale in comparison. Judge has also said that he started the script for Extract while filming Office Space and he wanted to make it straight after. There are familiar tones that deal with the common workplace but these are fleeting and not really on the same level as one another. Apparently Judge's 'representative team' (?) convinced him to pursue something a little more commercial and so he concentrated on 2006's Idiocy instead, which is a far superior film in my opinion. His 'representative team' were pretty much on the money. Extract flew under the radar much like his earlier films but unlike the others, people still haven't noticed it. It's got a fairly impressive cast including Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Clifton Collins Jr, J. K. Simmons, David Koechner and Ben Affleck. A likable group of actors but no one really excels apart from Kiss's Gene Simmons who has a short but sweet cameo. I didn't care much for the story that looses momentum fairly early on but I thought the script was pretty strong. After Office Space and Idiocy, two sharp, funny and rather brilliant films, Extract is a huge disappointment that is neither clever or particularly funny, relying purely on an odd sort of twisted logic that left me a little baffled more than anything.