Extract

Extract
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Mike Judge
Produced by	Mike Judge John Altschuler Mike Rotenberg Glenn Lucas
Written by	Mike Judge
Starring	Jason Bateman Mila Kunis Kristen Wiig Ben Affleck J. K. Simmons Clifton Collins, Jr. Dustin Milligan David Koechner
Music by	George S. Clinton
Cinematography	Tim Suhrstedt
Editing by	Julia Wong
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	September 4, 2009 (2009-09-04)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$10,848,783

Extract is a 2009 American comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. Extract stars Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Dustin Milligan, J. K. Simmons, and Ben Affleck. This was said to be Judge's companion piece to Office Space. Judge also makes an uncredited appearance as 'Jim', a union organizer.

Plot

Joel Reynolds is the owner and founder of Reynold's Extract, a flavor-extract company. Although his business is successful, his marriage is now completely sexless. His best friend Dean, a bartender and pothead, tries to ease his mind with Xanax and various other drugs, but the straight-laced Joel refuses.

One day, a series of mishaps occurs at the extract factory, resulting in an employee, Step, losing a testicle. Cindy, a con artist and drifter, reads a news story about the accident and gets a job at the factory, flirting with Joel in order to find out more information about Step. Although Step initially decides not to sue the company, he changes his mind after a "chance meeting" with Cindy, and hires ambulance-chasing lawyer Joe Adler.

Joel entertains the idea of an affair with Cindy, but still loves Suzie and would not want to have any regrets. At the bar, Dean suggests hiring a gigolo to seduce his wife, so that Joel can then have a guilt-free affair of his own. Joel initially balks at the idea, but—after his judgment is impaired by an accidentally administered dose of ketamine—eventually accepts and the two hire Brad to pose as a pool cleaner and have an affair with Suzie. The next morning, Joel sobers up and realizes what he has done and tries to stop Brad from going to his house, but he is too late; Brad and Suzie have begun an affair. Brad falls in love with Suzie and wants to run away with her. After smoking marijuana with Dean and his friend Willie, Joel attempts to call Cindy, but soon realizes that he is calling Willie's number. Just then, Cindy walks into the apartment. Willie realizes Joel is trying to make time with her [she's living with Willie, they're a couple] and Willie furiously punches Joel in the face.

Joel meets with Adler and his associates in the factory office to discuss the terms of the settlement. The workers, believing that the meeting is about a buy-out of the factory by General Mills, organize a strike. Frustrated by Adler's unflinching negotiations and the disrespect from his employees, Joel storms out and goes home, where Suzie admits that she had an affair with Brad. Joel admits he hired Brad to do so, and leaves the house to escape her wrath.

Joel moves into a motel, where he spots Cindy staying in another room. When he goes to her room, he notices a purse stolen from one of his employees, along with other stolen items, and realizes that she is not only a thief, but behind a lot of the problems at the company. He begins to leave and call the police, but softens when Cindy breaks down in tears, and the two spend the night together. The next morning, Cindy disappears, but leaves the stolen items behind.

Step meets with Joel at the factory to tell him he is dropping the lawsuit on the condition that Joel promotes him to floor manager. Meanwhile, while cleaning the pool herself, Suzie loses her temper with her annoying, overly talkative neighbor Nathan and tells him what she really thinks of him; just as she is finishing her tirade, he collapses and dies. Feeling that she may have caused his death, Suzie attends the funeral, where she runs into Joel. After a few awkward moments, the two share a ride home, hinting at a possible reconciliation. It is revealed that Cindy has scammed Adler also and ends up stealing his luxury car, replacing it with Step's truck.

Cast

• Jason Bateman as Joel
• Mila Kunis as Cindy
• Kristen Wiig as Suzie
• Ben Affleck as Dean
• J. K. Simmons as Brian
• Clifton Collins, Jr. as Step
• Dustin Milligan as Brad
• David Koechner as Nathan
• Beth Grant as Mary
• T. J. Miller as Rory
• Javier Gutiérrez as Hector
• Lidia Porto as Gabriella
• Gene Simmons as Joe Adler
• Matt Schulze as Willie
• Lamberto Gutierrez as Victor
• Brent Briscoe as Phil
• Hal Sparks as Guitar Salesman #1
• Nick Thune as Guitar Salesman #2
• Tom Virtue as Guitar Customer
• Christopher Rocha as Pawn Shop Guy
• Jenny O'Hara as Joel's Secretary
• Matthew Williams as Band Member
• Gary Cole (uncredited) as Bar Patron
• Mike Judge (uncredited) as Jim
• Briston Meeney (uncredited) as Bar Patron
• Shawna Reina (uncredited) as Lawyer

Soundtrack

• "She's All I Got" - Johnny Paycheck
• "Apurate"
• "Hoogie Boogie" - John Lee Hooker
• "I Thank You" - ZZ Top
• "Wundercrotchen" - Matthew Strachan (aka Klaus Harmony)
• "The Lunatic Fringe" - Yggdrasil (The song Rory's band God's Cock performed)
• "(I Got the) Same Old Blues" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
• "Wrapped" - Bruce Robison
• "Who Were You Thinkin' of" - Texas Tornados
• "Rainy Day Woman" - Waylon Jennings

Production

Filming began on August 25, 2008 in Los Angeles.^[1] Shortly after completing the film Office Space director Mike Judge was already about 40 pages into his follow-up script, set in the world of an extract factory, when he was convinced by his representative team that he needed to shelve that and concentrate on something more commercial. "The only idea that I had that anyone was interested in was what eventually became Idiocracy", says Judge. Over the next several years he focused his energy on developing Idiocracy. But years later, by the time of the film’s release, audiences had decided that Office Space had struck a chord, and they were ready to see Judge get back to on the job humor and thus the Extract script was given new life.^[2]

Seeking to keep Extract below the radar of the studio system, Judge and his producers set up a production company, Ternion Productions, and arranged private financing - while partnering with Miramax for domestic distribution of the film. Judge relied heavily on his own personal knowledge of the industrial world to bring the story to life. “I actually worked in a factory a little bit myself,” the director stated. “I hopefully write stuff that is recognizable as the archetypes of this world.” Keeping true to this baseline of reality, "Extract" was shot in a working factory, in this case a water bottling plant south of Los Angeles, in the City of Commerce.^[2] Judge took the authenticity one step further by using the plant’s employees as extras in the scenes’ backgrounds. “Those people were actually running, doing some bottling while we were shooting. There were people working on machines that were so loud in there they couldn’t hear anyone call ‘action’ or ‘cut.’ They were just doing their job.” Shooting on the factory set led Judge to some epiphanies about what made the story resonate for him: “Office Space was told from the point of view of the employees looking up at management as the ‘bad guys’. This is told from the point of view of the owner of the place and the workers are the big pain in the butt to him. I think partly it was inspired by that point in my life where I suddenly had a large number of people working for me and realizing you can’t be a ‘cool guy boss’. It just doesn’t work. So this is my more sympathetic take on the boss.”^[2]

Marketing

Leading up to the film's release, Affleck went on a promotional tour of various cities, starting in Vancouver, Washington, on August 20, 2009, and ending in Los Angeles on September 14, 2009.

In effort to promote the film, Judge released a promotional short which featured his characters Beavis and Butt-head who summarize, and critique, the events depicted in the film.

Reception

Critical response

Extract earned a 63% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes, based on 179 reviews. The consensus was "Extract has some very funny moments and several fine performances, but the film feels slighter and more uneven than Mike Judge's previous work."^[3]

Dan Zak of the Washington Post, called it "the most disappointing American comedy of the decade".^[4] On the other end of the spectrum, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called it "the funniest American comedy of the summer".^[5]

Box office

Extract made $4.3 million during its opening weekend and $7.1 million in its first week of release, with a total worldwide gross of $10,848,783.^[6]

Home media

Extract was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 22, 2009.

References

External links

• Extract at the Internet Movie Database
• Extract at AllRovi
• Extract at Metacritic
• Extract at Box Office Mojo
• Extract at Rotten Tomatoes