Click the poster to be taken to IMDB

January 3, 2010 – First time viewing.

As comedy goes, I pretty much love anything workplace related: “Dilbert”, TV’s “Newsradio”, “The Office” (both UK and American versions) etc… and I certainly love Mike Judge’s “Office Space”. The work environment is a strange place. More often than not, you’ve got a bunch of very different people working together for the sole purpose of making a living. Nobody wants to be there but everybody wants to get paid so they put up with everyone else. Sometimes this works, and other times it doesn’t. When it doesn’t it’s funny as hell.

Even work culture is something to laugh at. The way people interact, the things people do, the things people try to get away with including senior management all the way down to the lowly office drones. To give you an example, I walked into my office bathroom earlier today only to see multiple two inch round dried wads of paper stuck to the wall. This is the kind of thing that by default can be found in every elementary school across the globe…and yet I’m sure this kind of stuff can be found in half the offices in North America.

This is what Mike Judge tapped into so perfectly with “Office Space”. “Extract” has its moments of workplace glory but it also veers off track a bit. While it is a very amusing movie, I feel it has a ton more potential.

From IMDB, “Extract” is about

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.

Jason Bateman plays Joel, his wife is played by Kristen Wiig and other characters are played by Ben Affleck, Mila Kunis, J.K. Simmons, and David Koechner. It’s a great cast and they all lend their unique comedic talents to the mix. Bateman has his moments, as does Simmons. The rest play such understated versions of their typical, funny roles that most of the time they aren’t even close to funny. Mila Kunis especially. She was completely and utterly useless. Aside from playing the character that instigates a lot of the conflict in the movie, she did nothing. I didn’t count but she has maybe ten lines in the whole movie and the remainder of her time on screen is filled with fake crying and smiles. Stupid. This is where I find the film was off course. The best scenes of the film happened on the extract factory floor. This is where we get to see Mike Judge shine dealing with blue collar, everyday people interacting together at work. Anything outside of the factory was barely funny.

The one exception to this last statement is David Koechner. In my write up of “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” for my 20 Must See Films of the 00’s, I stated that Koechner’s role in that movie was the best of his career. His role as an irritating suburbia next door neighbor in “Extract” is his second best role. He’s the guy that’s always lurking on your lawn, trying to strike up a conversation and never able to get the point or take ‘no’ as an answer and he does it perfectly. Easily one of the funniest parts of the film.

The Bottom Line: 3/5. A movie worth renting if you like Mike Judge and Jason Bateman and also to experience David Koechner’s hilarious scenes. The film has its moments and is still funnier than a lot of comedy in theaters but it won’t leave much of a lasting impression and will most probably get you Jonesin for some “Office Space”.

What did you think of “Extract”? I haven’t seen Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” yet. Is it funny?

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