Mike Judge knows stupid. In fact, he’s made a career out of reminding us that our neighbors, family, friends, and co-workers are painfully dumb. Dumb enough to make American Idol the most popular show on television. Dumb enough that Transformers: Rise of the Fallen grosses four hundred million dollars. Dumb enough to allow Jerry Bruckheimer to continue producing movies.
Judge’s newest film, Extract, fits perfectly into his Library of Idiocy. Fed up with his life as the proprietor of Reynolds’ Extract, Joel Reynolds (Jason Bateman) hopes to sell his company and retire—and finally have the chance to make sweet, sweet lovin’ to his wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), more than once every three months. That is, until Step (Clifton Collins Jr.), a factory employee at Reynolds’, loses most of his manhood in a Rube Goldberg-esque accident that can only be described as emasculating. Seeing an opportunity to cash in, Cindy (Mila Kunis) feigns interest in Step, encouraging him to sue Joel’s company into bankruptcy.
The narrative may be thin, but Judge’s movies never succeeded because of plot development—consider that his prior work includes a cartoon about two kids running around yelling, “Tee-pee for my bung hole!”
Extract fails because Judge couldn’t do what he’s always done—make us laugh by reminding us that we live in an incredibly dim-witted society. Sure, Joel may be surrounded by lazy racists, thrash-core burnouts, and IQ-challenged gigolos, but these are sad characters that elicit little more than a few chuckles. Where are the Bill Lumberghs and Milton Waddamses of Extract?
Even with a running time of ninety minutes, there just aren’t enough jokes to carry the film. It may be funny to see Ben Affleck and Gene Simmons—both of whom make cameos—offer Joel designer drugs and testicular harm (respectively), but only as one-time, throwaway jokes. At times, Extract felt like a movie on a twenty-minute loop, repeating the same tired jokes again and again. Fast-paced comedy may not have fit the film, but neither does the bare-bones comedy approach.
Judge can do better, making Extract a huge disappointment for fans. But he does deserve credit for making his typically dark comedies even darker. For all of Joel’s efforts to get a college degree, own his own business, and get married, he is still unhappy with his suburban life. Cindy suffers no punishment for her grifter lifestyle, swindling men by the grace of her God-given assets. Suzie cannot resist the charm of a younger man, despite her love for her husband. And of course Step is half the man he used to be.
Extract teaches audiences a couple lessons, nonetheless. If you work in a factory, always wear protection. Never hire a gigolo to seduce your wife, and when Ben Affleck offers you drugs, just say no.
