Extract

Late summer is a time of the year when studios have run out of blockbusters, so it is a chance to discover those hidden gems and surprise treasures like Little Miss Sunshine. Or, you can find something like Extract.

Jason Bateman stars as Joel - the owner of an extract making and packaging plant. He's on the verge of selling the company and making enough money to never have to work again, but Joel is not all that happy with his life. On the homefront, Joel's wife, Suzie (Kristin Wiig), has grown distant and uninterested in their life together. At the plant, the sale is in danger because an accident has left an employee, Step (Clifton Collins Jr.), embarrassingly injured and considering a massive lawsuit. Worst of all, a new temp, Cindy (Mila Kunis), has captured Joel's attention, but her motives are much less than pure.

Can Joel re-ignite the spark in his marriage?

Will he figure out what Cindy truly is seeking?

Extract feels like a movie trying too hard to make guys talking sound like guys talking, but with none of the subtlety or intelligence. Maybe writer/director Mike Judge wanted to make a movie called Boys Behaving Badly. Instead, he should have focused on the workplace comedy staring him in the face and begging for overtime.

Unfortunately, all three plots in Extract blend together about as well as peanut butter, mayonnaise and horseradish. Judge drops the Cindy story for long periods of time, which is a shame, since the opening of Extract would suggest this is the main story to follow, and Kunis makes for one of the best femme fatales you could imagine for any movie (the devil always is more dangerous when using a cute face to hide the cloven hooves and horns). Extract is at its best when we see her conniving, plotting and planning in action, controlling the men who are more than willing to be manipulated (it is our weakness), and Bateman and the other men in the cast are up to the task of showing us the amusing side of it all. It's funny and more interesting than the dudes being dudes part of the film.

Yet, I think Judge wants to make Joel and his buddy, Dean (Ben "I am hiding behind the beard and hair to prove I am a thespian" Affleck), into older versions of Beavis and Butthead (Yes, Affleck is Butthead). Their silly antics and misguided attempts to save Joel's marriage are somewhat ridiculous, and elicit a few giggles along the way, but make for the least interesting moments in Extract. The plant is full of crazy characters with all sorts of memorable, mockable traits that make for great comedy. I already mentioned how Kunis is underused, but this character could have been a wonderful way to show us everyone at work, their eccentricities, the petty squabbles and more to make us laugh out of recognition.

Extract needs to be more rapid fire, filled with more jokes, and better focused on the stories that are funny, especially in the middle, where it feels like Judge is lost and the movie is going nowhere. It's one of those movies that reads like a disappointing report card - shows promise, but is not dedicated.

Extract is rated R for language, sexual references and some drug use.