Extract (2009) ***

Joel Reynolds (Jason Bateman) is a self made man, hocking his mother's extract recipe into a huge house and nice car. His life has been perfect up until this point, but now his professional and personal lives will begin the downward spiral that he seems to believe is inevitable.

Mike Judges returns with another work place saga in Extract, but instead of delving into the cubicle set Judge has decided to look at factory work and the ins and outs of running a business from small, to medium and then dealing with problems like a guy getting his nuts blown off. In the span of a few short days Joel has to deal with the little Workman's comp claim, a possible buy out from a larger competitor, the possibility of his wife's (Kristen Wiig) infidelity, his lust for the new temp girl (Mila Kunis) who is more than she seems, and finally having to deal with the neighbor (David Koechner) who can not shut up.

Judge captures all of the personalities of a workplace with this film- the bitchy broads who will die there and don't work, the guy that thinks he knows everything, the new guy, and the people who don't speak English. The real difference between this film and Office Space is that the earlier film was more about the office. Sure, we delved into Peter's personal life, but it also went back to the office and the quirks that developed there. Extract is basically Joel's bad week. There's personal conundrums, but they have nothing to do with the job. This film would have been aptly titled "Joel Goes To Hell". It's basically an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm without Larry David and not as funny.

There are some bright spots, though. J.K. Simmons (who is also in everything and for whom I no longer worry about being type cast as a racist committing man-love on Oz) is really great as Joel's partner who doesn't know anyone's name, other than "whositz" and "dingus". This is a guy whose name you may not know, but his face is totally recognizable and I will point out that he is the only cast member that should be carried over to the Spider-man reboot. And we can't forget Gene Simmons as an ambulance chasing lawyer. Let's face it, any movie with Gene gets and extra star. Hell, even Runaway.

So if you're going into Extract thinking it's the blue collar Office Space, don't bother. It's an acceptable comedy that really isn't anything special.