Extract - Office Space for 2009?

In Mike Judge's new film Extract, Jason Bateman plays the owner of a small flavor extract manufacturing plant. He is accompanied by JK Simmons as a disconcerting foreman, Mila Kunis as a super sexy small time con artist, Ben Affleck as a stoner bartender, and Kiresten Wiig as his bored housewife. This is easily the biggest name cast of any Judge film to date. While occasionally all the characters weren't given enough to do, or didn't fully envelope the roles, Extract is a success. This is mainly due to Judge's skill in writing parts for blue collar workers without coming off demeaning or judgemental (no pun intended).

This point of view does not coincide with Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly. Now I will say of the two main film reviewers at EW, I tend to agree with Mr. Gleiberman more than the other. With a 5 paragraph review of Extract Mr. Gleiberman dedicates the final 2 paragraphs to a different movie all together. Robert Siegel's Big Fan. Which he claims is the better movie. Owen spends the first paragraph of his review mostly quoting Thoreau, and again comparing the two movies. Then he opens his 3rd paragraph complaining of the banality of the title "Extract". He then goes on to criticize Judge's writing and his spontaneity as a filmmaker. I find it interesting that someone complaining of stale writing only gave a synopsis of the plot and about 3 sentences of actual review withing 5 paragraphs. Then when he did write his clever critique is read like this:

But didn't Judge realize that Extract, with its plastic setups and one-dimensional harpies, plays like Kevin Smith remaking a bad George Segal comedy from 1978? ~ Owen Gleiberman

Does anyone even know what this means? George Segal only released 1 movie in 1978. Who is killing all the Great Chefs of Europe? If Kevin Smith directed that, what would happen?

Mr. Gleiberman also made it a note to mention that Ben Affleck is the only one having fun. I found Ben Affleck to be painfully unfunny in virtually ever scene he was in. It is main ingredient I would have changed in the film. He was out acted by Gene Simmons of KISS fame as an obnoxious prosecuting attorney.

On a similar spectrum Peter Travers of Rolling Stone found Affleck to be...

A goofball delight hiding behind a beard. ~ Peter Travers

Maybe I am just missing it. One other scene both critics agreed on was where Affleck and Bateman smoke pot together. Both critics raved on this scene, and to me it almost brought all the comedic timing to a halt. But again, maybe weed jokes are wasted (again, no pun intended) on me. To Mr. Travers credit he did point out a few other positive points.

He (Judge) can anchor laughs to the rhythms of life not sitcom. ~ Peter Travers

Extract reminds us of how little a damn Hollywood gives for the workplace where most Americans spend their lives. ~ Peter Travers

As an employee of a factory for several years in many different positions, I have seen all of the one note characters Judge put in front of us and I can say that he hit the nail on the head on all of them. His research must have been as diligent as Aronofsky's was for The Wrestler. It reminded me very much of the 1941 classic Sullivan's Travels in which a director of fluff films wants to make a movie with a social conscience. So he dresses in hobo clothing and joins the lowest class only to learn the lesson of his life. I better stop now, I wouldn't want this review to ramble on too much about a second film.