Extract

Jason Bateman deals with a bad marriage and the possible sale of his flavor extract comedy in "Extract."

The film directed by Mike Judge, (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Office Space), stars Bateman as Joel Reynold an owner of a company that he built from the ground up with its patented brand of culinary extracts. But as he serves as the Extract King, Reynold deals with a romantically challenged life with his wife Suzie played by Kristen Wiig.

Joel confides in his best friend Dean played by Ben Affleck, and in doing so gets wrapped up in a plan to make Suzie cheat on him with a moronic gigolo played by Dustin Milligan, thus allowing Reynold to pursue his new beautiful employee Cindy (Mila Kunis) with a clear conscience.

But as Reynold begins to pursue, he learns that Cindy is a con artist whose treadding on her third strike, also his right hand man Brian (J.K. Simmons) has entered negotiations for a buyout of Reynold Extract by General Mills and the company is dealt with a lawsuit from Step (Clifton Collins, Jr), the self proclaimed fastest sorter in the company, who suffers a unique accidental injury in the factory.

I could go on, but this story was so silly and cornball, there is really no need to continue.

Mike Judge, a genius director, who gave us Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill and one of the funniest films of all time, Office Space, completely missed the mark with this film.

First of all Bateman, who is in the middle of a career resurrection after starring in Arrested Development and appearing in 2007's "Juno", plays this role with a lack of personality, that literally bored me.

Affleck's character well it wasn't really original, personally it was a watered down version of James Franco's character in Pineapple Express.

Sure Judge, chose to the get the male audience by casting Kunis, too bad she was the only worth seeing in this film.

The cast of characters including a creepy and annoying neighbor played by David Koechner and the employees working in the factory left to little to be desired such as Rory (T.J. Miller), a goth-rock geek who spends more time passing out flyers for his band than shuffling extract bottles; and Mary (Beth Grant), a fanny-packed bitter slouch stationed at the end of the assembly line.

Judge even made a cameo in this film, when he really should have hit his head in shame. Now of course, this review is negative, and I gave an equal review for Adventureland last year, but for some reason critics loved both movies, I just don't get it. To me, Extract is one of the worst movies of the year, it was I call a "flatline" comedy, meaning there was no pulse, no upbeat hilarity at any point in the film.

Next time on Reel Revue, is my review for "Shorts."