Mike Judge doesn't make many movies. His CV is short with the cult classic Office Space and the scarily amusing Idiocracy. Well now he returns with Extract, an amusing little character driven tale of simple folk working in a food extract factory.
Jason Bateman plays Joel, the owner of Extract, and he is pretty lost in his world. His wife doesn't want to sleep with him. His co-workers are not the brightest sparks in the world, and to top it all off, one of his employees gets involved in a very nasty accident that could cost him the company and his dream of selling it. Then Cindy walks into his world, a con artist out to reap the benefits from the possible law suit, and Joel's world gets even worse.
This is an amusing piece that relies on strong characters to propel the story along. Ben Affleck gets beared up as a drop-out bar tender, while the always reliable J.K. Simmons does another good job as Bateman's second-in-command. David Koechner almost steals the film as the annoying neighbour from hell and there are good turns from Kristen Wiig as the wife, and Clifton Collins Jr as the victim of the tear-ducting accident.
The trouble lies in Jason Bateman. He is a very competent comic actor, as proven in Arrested Development, but here he is given the least to do, even though it is his shoulders that the film rests, and i am sure that is not his fault. Judge has crafted a script that has plenty to enjoy but has left his leading man with nothing to get his teeth into.
It did make me chuckle in places. After finding out that his wife has slept with the supposed pool guy 15 times, Bateman replies: '15 times? It hasn't been 15 days...how can you sit?' It is lines like this that make you giggle but there isn't enough of them.
It isn't the worse comedy I have seen, but after Office Space, I would have expected a little more. 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment