Extract

Directed by Mike Judge

(R)

***

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A factory owner struggles against routine

Extract may be the “most disappointing American comedy of the decade,” said Dan Zak in The Washington Post. Ten years after his cult-classic Office Space, writer-director Mike Judge returns with a “jokeless” comedy about work. Jason Bateman plays the owner of a flavor-extract factory who struggles to keep his company afloat and his sex life alive. What might have been a farce about asinine antics on the assembly line instead is a film “too timid to be black comedy, too inert to be slapstick.” There are actually plenty of laughs here, said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. Extract just opts for a “sly and wry” approach. Judge achieves a “higher grade of ridicule, maintaining one foot in the real world.” The plotting is “deceptively clever,” the jokes are “off-center,” and Bateman’s performance as an “Everyman” is subtle and perfectly timed. It’s the kind of humor that doesn’t always succeed at the box office, said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. But Extract will likely achieve a “kind of immortality as a cult DVD”—which probably suits its director just fine.