Extract

Speaking of bad titles, there's Extract, a film by Mike Judge. Is it a verb, is it a noun (which changes the pronunciation)? In either event, why would anyone want to see a film called Extract?

Judge made one of the sharpest, funniest comedies ever about the soullessness of the workplace, Office Space. Extract returns to the workplace, but it is an anemic follow-up, with only mild humor. The script plays like a rough draft, and there doesn't ever seem to be anything critical at stake in the film. And I'm not sure what Judge was trying to say about modern attitudes about work.

Jason Bateman plays a role that is familiar to him. He's the put-upon owner of a small company that makes food flavorings (the extract of the title). His factory is staffed by a collection of incompetents, and he tells his second-in-command (J.K. Simmons) that he often feels like a babysitter. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to infantilize the American work force--does Judge really think that blue-collar workers are this oafish? The film was released last year, right in the heart of the unemployment crisis, and this is also bad timing.

An industrial accident injures one of his workers, a good old boy played by Clifton Collins Jr., in a sensitive area. A local con artist (Mila Kunis), who trades on her good looks to get what she wants, cozies up to Collins to try to persuade him to sue. This gets the film's most bizarre cameo--Gene Simmons as a personal injury lawyer.

There's also a sub-plot involving Bateman's attempts to have sex with his wife, (a wasted Kristen Wiig), aided by his bartender friend, Ben Affleck. There's nothing terrible about any of this, but it just kinds of lays on the screen, mechanically playing itself out. There are also some elements that defy logic, such as when Simmons meets with Bateman over Collins' settlement. You would think a company, even as small as Bateman's, would have a lawyer present.

I only laughed out loud once, with a gag involving a boorish neighbor played by David Koerchner. Judge has contributed a lot of great humor to pop culture over the last decade or so, but Extract is really lackluster.