Does Mike Judge Have the Right Formula in ‘Extract?’
Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis in Extract
Most of us in Frat-ville are familiar with Mike Judge’s last marketing and box office disaster movie, Idiocracy. The 2006 film starring Luke Wilson sat on the shelf for a couple years and then was dumped into a paltry amount of theatres with no marketing budget. Years later, the film has garnered a cult following, including those who saw story parallels with last year’s Oscar winner, Wall-E. Even Judge’s first film, Office Space, was not a box office success when first released. In fact, I bet the studio made more money off licensing red Swingline staplers than from the box office and home video sales combined.
Judge’s latest film Extract stars Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis and is scheduled for release on Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately for Judge, Labor Day is one of the worst box office weekends of the year. However, a story at Ain’t It Cool News indicates that “Don’t let the September 4th release date fool you: Miramax is very happy with Mike Judge’s EXTRACT.” We wish it were so.
The spy report at AICN provides additional info and some spoiler info, so read the spy report with caution. We did notice some mentions of some of our Frat Pack favorites, so this is starting to gain our interest.
Bateman — whose wife Kristen Wiig keeps her lady treasures buried deep in her sweat pants — hasn’t been laid in a good long while, and the central plot revolves around him trying to find a justification for cheating on her with his new employee, a con-woman played by Mila Kunis. His plan, as suggested by his stoner buddy Ben Affleck (while Bateman is fucked up on horse tranqs): hire a gigolo to try and bone his wife. If the gigolo succeeds, then Bateman is free to fuck whoever he wants. The guy who plays the gigolo, Dustin Milligan (fans of the new 90210 may recognize him) is really the breakout star of the film. His interactions with both Wiig (whom he falls deeply in love with) and Bateman form some of the most genuinely hilarious comedy set pieces of the film.
A recurring bit with David Koechner as an annoying neighbor pays off in one of the funniest jump cuts in recent cinema history
very nice , great article thank you.