Extract

From the creator of King of the Hill, Office Space and 'Beavis and Butthead', Mike Judge, Extract is the story of a successful married man whose life is shaken up when he finds his company in jeopardy following a lawsuit initiated by a new-in-town femme fatale.

Starring Jason Bateman (Smokin' Aces, Hancock, Arrested Development) as the lead and Mila Kunis (Family Guy) as the forbidden fruit, Extract presents a set of scenarios which not only seem to defy logic but also any realism.

The premise presented to us by Mike Judge, known for his immature but altogether brilliant observations of different aspects of everyday society, is that of a husband who in order to sleep with the new girl, must incriminate his wife by having her seduced by a gigolo fronting as a pool boy. Should she, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), resist the temptations, their marriage is solid and he has no reason to be worried. However, should she take up the offer of extramarital sex, Joel (Bateman) has no reason to feel guilty for coming onto his new employee, unaware that her sexual advances hold an ulterior motive; she wants his money.

This in itself is a storyline that is hard to consume. Not only is Kunis in reality almost half the age of Bateman, bringing into the fray an uncomfortable age-gap but the very premise set out presents many unrealistic complications in a film which doesn't seem to be of a set genre. The core plotpoint involving a lawsuit brought about through an employee losing half a testicle effectively demonstrates the ludicrous nature of the film. The real problem is the poor standard of acting from Wiig, better known as a comedian. Her lines lack any sincerity and she simply doesn't play the role of a bored housewife convincingly. That aside, Bateman is once again solid as the concerned and bewildered authority figure at a loss as to how he should tackle the various obstacles facing him in his normally unspectacular job, as owner of an extract factory.

Extract is a hard film to judge, for it isn't a terrible film nor does it do anything especially well. Acting for the mostpart is par for the course, and whilst it won't be winning any awards, there are colourful exchanges which brighten up otherwise dull and largely unspectacular scenes. Destined to be missed by mainstream audiences everywhere.

6/10