Extract

Extract: (v) to remove with force or effort. Or the process by which the performances and the humor in the latest Mike Judge comedy are excruciatingly obtained.

Known best for his work as writer/director of the 1999 cult classic Office Space, Judge won the hearts of comedy lovers with his uniquely ordinary characters struggling to take charge in a world of TPS reports, downsizing and roaming red staplers. With Extract, Judge hopes again to spice up the humdrum with humor, but his film’s flavor is off.

Joel Reynold (Jason Bateman) has a wife (Kristen Wiig), a 7-Series and the keys to an extract factory he built up from the ground. Sure, it’s no Fortune 500 and the misses is perpetually “too tired” past the eight o’clock “sweatpant deadline.” But for a workingman like Joel, pleasure has become as simple as a post-work whisky with his degenerate wingman Dean (a barely recognizable Ben Affleck) and the prospect of a dwindling libido. That is, until a doe-eyed beauty named Cindy (Mila Kunis) shows up at the factory looking for a job. Intrigued, Joel immediately sets her to work on the assembly line and consequently allows the allure of the off-limits to disrupt his marriage and morals.

Thanks to years of perfecting the “Seriously?” look on Arrested Development, Bateman fits comfortably back into his role as the modern-day Atlas, shouldering a world full of whackos. Unfortunately, Judge simply doesn’t push the rest of his cast to their comedic capabilities (case in point: SNL’s normally side-splitting Kristen Wiig). Similarly underwhelming is the plot, which is filled with red herrings that may fascinate with Hitchcock horrors, but here reveal a dearth of character development.

Although Extract may not have needed the full 37 pieces to rouse a chuckle, this Judge-omedy is ultimately lacking in flair.