The best comedians do not laugh at their own jokes. Instead, they let the audience laugh. The new Mike Judge movie "Extract" qualifies as the kind of low yield humor movie that maintains a straight-face throughout its 89 minutes but lacks a tenth of the humor as "Idiocracy." Judge looks like he told everybody to behave like nothing funny was happening in his absurdly insane bit of nonsense. Nobody gives a bad performance in this comatose comedy.
"Extract" is neither a laugh-out-loud comedy nor a "Beavis & Butthead" wet dream. The scenes are subtle with humor. The characters are complete cretins, from the protagonist Joel (Jason Bateman) who owns and operates a flavor extract factory with the most nitwits that you will ever see. Judge treats Hispanics exceptionally well while he is not so sympathetic whites. Into the marginally sane world of Reynolds Extract comes sassy Cindy (ass hot sexy Mila Kunis)who looks like she walked out of a wet-dream and knows it. The first scene where Cindy sasshays out of a guitar shop with a $3000-plus electric guitar while two smitten sales clerks are away getting her another guitar is a hoot.
"Extract" is largely a hoot itself but it doesn't like to toot its own horn. Ben Affleck, who seems to be taking time off from starring in movies to playing supporting roles, is Dean, the best friend that Joel has and can trust. Dean is a bearded bartender who tries to help Joel solve his problems with controlled substances, like horse tranquillizer and marijuana. He takes Joel to see one of his stoner buddies who smokes pot out of an eight-foot bong. It seems that Joel has not been getting laid by his frigid wife who puts on the sweat pants at 8 PM and refuses to give it up. Clifton Collins, Jr. is cast as Step, an incredibly idiotic redneck, who loses a testicle in a hilarious factory accident that plays out like a Rube Goldberg stunt. The plant itself is basically a convey belt run factory with employees putting bottles of extract into boxes and moving them around the premises with a fork-lift.
Kristen Wiig is Suzie, the wife of the protagonist, who does the moronic pool cleaning stud fifteen times. Initially, Joel pays Brad (Dustin Milligan) to have sex with Suzie while he tries to score with Cindy. Actually, Cindy is scoring with Step and trying to get him to sue Joel and his company for restitution for his lost testicle. "Kiss" vocalist Gene Simmons plays an accident shyster who represents Step it in his law suit against Reynolds' Extract. The funniest guy in "Extract" is David Koechner as Nathan, an obnoxious neighbor that Joel and Suzie struggle to avoid at all costs. He means well but he is a complete nincompoop. Don't leave your seat until you have seen the two scenes during the ending credits. You may smile a lot, occasionally laugh, but you will not laugh out loud.
"Extract" is nowhere as much fun as "Idiocracy" was.
"Extract" is neither a laugh-out-loud comedy nor a "Beavis & Butthead" wet dream. The scenes are subtle with humor. The characters are complete cretins, from the protagonist Joel (Jason Bateman) who owns and operates a flavor extract factory with the most nitwits that you will ever see. Judge treats Hispanics exceptionally well while he is not so sympathetic whites. Into the marginally sane world of Reynolds Extract comes sassy Cindy (ass hot sexy Mila Kunis)who looks like she walked out of a wet-dream and knows it. The first scene where Cindy sasshays out of a guitar shop with a $3000-plus electric guitar while two smitten sales clerks are away getting her another guitar is a hoot.
"Extract" is largely a hoot itself but it doesn't like to toot its own horn. Ben Affleck, who seems to be taking time off from starring in movies to playing supporting roles, is Dean, the best friend that Joel has and can trust. Dean is a bearded bartender who tries to help Joel solve his problems with controlled substances, like horse tranquillizer and marijuana. He takes Joel to see one of his stoner buddies who smokes pot out of an eight-foot bong. It seems that Joel has not been getting laid by his frigid wife who puts on the sweat pants at 8 PM and refuses to give it up. Clifton Collins, Jr. is cast as Step, an incredibly idiotic redneck, who loses a testicle in a hilarious factory accident that plays out like a Rube Goldberg stunt. The plant itself is basically a convey belt run factory with employees putting bottles of extract into boxes and moving them around the premises with a fork-lift.
Kristen Wiig is Suzie, the wife of the protagonist, who does the moronic pool cleaning stud fifteen times. Initially, Joel pays Brad (Dustin Milligan) to have sex with Suzie while he tries to score with Cindy. Actually, Cindy is scoring with Step and trying to get him to sue Joel and his company for restitution for his lost testicle. "Kiss" vocalist Gene Simmons plays an accident shyster who represents Step it in his law suit against Reynolds' Extract. The funniest guy in "Extract" is David Koechner as Nathan, an obnoxious neighbor that Joel and Suzie struggle to avoid at all costs. He means well but he is a complete nincompoop. Don't leave your seat until you have seen the two scenes during the ending credits. You may smile a lot, occasionally laugh, but you will not laugh out loud.
"Extract" is nowhere as much fun as "Idiocracy" was.