BuzzSugar

Extract: A Few Drops of Humor

BuzzSugar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:30:46 -0700

Director Mike Judge's Office Space didn't do well at the box office, but it enjoyed a popularity and appreciation long after its release that continues to this day, particularly by cube dwellers who find solace in identifying and ridiculing the archetypal office workers. It can be a dark, uncomfortable movie in parts, but there's something almost uplifting about the end of Office Space.

Judge's latest movie Extract has only a few of the elements that make Office Space so great, though, and those elements are dramatically watered down. With the exception of Clifton Collins' character Step, who suffers a distressing injury on the job and whose bumbling good intentions make him hard to resist, there's not much heart to Extract. There are some funny moments for sure - mostly from the supporting cast - but overall it just feels soulless. For more of my thoughts on this, read more.

The story is set in another workplace, but this time we're in a factory and our main character Joel (Jason Bateman) actually likes what he does - owning and running the extract factory. He likes extract, and he has a sort of even mix of fondness and frustration for his employees on the floor. He dreams of selling the place and leaving behind the annoyances of running a business, but mostly his dissatisfaction stems from his home life where he never has sex with his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig). He never talks to her about it, though, he just whines to his friend Dean (Ben Affleck) who dispenses alcohol, pills and bad advice in equal amounts.

One such piece of advice is to hire a gigolo to seduce Suzie so Joel will have no guilt about sleeping with his new hot temp, Cindy (Mila Kunis). Sure, Joel is heavily drugged when he agrees to the plan, but even when he comes to his senses he doesn't seem all that perturbed about it. Though he goes through a variety of experiences and emotions throughout the movie, Bateman's expression never wavers from basic tired exasperation. It's hard to ever tell what Joel is really going through here, which makes it hard to care.

Up until recently, I was a huge fan and supporter of Jason Bateman. I love it when a movie has just a dash of his specific type of funny (like Smoking Aces and State of Play), but when the side character played by Ben Affleck is funnier than Bateman's leading man (granted, Affleck's character is sillier all around), there's something wrong. Actually nearly every other character in the movie is more appealing and satisfying to watch than Bateman's Joel.

The supporting characters really are fantastic. Judge has a way of creating spot-on replications of the types of coworkers that we've all worked with. Office Space was full of them, from the passive-agressive boss to the overly chipper phone operator to poor old Milton who has focused his whole life on basically one thing (a stapler). Here in Extract, we've got the chatty Cathys who just gossip, complain and shift blame, and the punk kid who can't seem to retain any work-related information in his brain but manages to play in four different bands outside of work. And Joel's clueless, talkative neighbor Nathan (a pitch-perfect David Koechner) is one of the funniest and most painfully realistic portrayals in the film.

This is where I think Judge shines: in crafting characters that people can recognize, at least to some extent. There is a tremendous amount of comedy to be mined from these characters, and they add great flavor to the larger storyline following the average straight man. Problem is, it's pretty tough to like or sympathize with Joel so all we do is keep looking toward the other characters for some fun and relief. They deliver, but it's disappointing that the main storyline is so empty.

Photos courtesy of Miramax

Caption It!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:30:00 -0700

Welcome to the Caption It game on BuzzSugar! Every Wednesday, I'll post a photo still from a TV show or movie here and challenge you to think of the most hilarious caption possible. I'll announce the finalists the following Tuesday, and you'll get to vote for the best caption!

First check out the winner for last week's challenge, which displayed the stripped-down benefits of Casey's college life on Greek. erinsugar is running away with the poll with the hilarious quip:

"No, Evan, I don't have to measure it. I'm ordering you a small."

Good work, erinsugar. Now let's move on to this week's challenge, from new movie Extract, starring Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck.

Leave your captions in the comment space below before 5 p.m. PDT on Monday, Sept. 7 to be considered for a spot in the voting round. Have fun!

Image courtesy of Miramax

Movie Preview: Affleck, Bateman in Extract

BuzzSugar — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:30:50 -0700

Jason Bateman. Ben Affleck. Director Mike Judge (Office Space). If you like any one of these things, you may want to take a look at the new teaser trailer for Extract, another comedy from Mike Judge that follows an average guy in an average job who's dissatisfied with both his work and his home life. Bateman plays the central character, Joel, the owner of a flower-extract factory whose marital problems with his wife (Kristen Wiig) bum him out - but he perks right up when a pretty new temp (Mila Kunis) joins the company. Affleck (sporting a beard and some long, scraggly hair) plays Joel's lawyer friend.

Extract opens Sept. 4. Check out the trailer after the jump and tell me: Does this look funny to you? Or a bit of the same old, same old? To watch, read more.

Ben Affleck Tries Comedy Again

BuzzSugar — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:37:21 -0700

At least he's in good company for this one: Ben Affleck is in talks to join the cast of Extract, a comedy by Mike Judge (director of Office Space, creator of Beavis and Butthead). He'll be working alongside Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Mila Kunis and Clifton Collins, Jr.
Variety has more details:

Actor is in negotiations to play an ambulance-chasing lawyer in the pic, which centers on a flower extract factory owner (Jason Bateman) who's dealing with workplace problems and a streak of bad luck, including his wife's affair with a gigolo.

Clifton Collins Jr. is also joining the cast as a factory worker who loses a body part in a freak accident and is now due for a huge settlement.

Granted, I'm more excited to see more Jason Bateman up on the big screen, but I'm also curious to find out how Affleck does with this kind of comedic material. And after seeing Bateman paired with Will Smith this summer in Hancock, I think I'm liking it when he's paired up with "bigger" names and the two can play off one another.

Source

Jason Bateman Goes to Work with Office Space Writer

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:30:04 -0700

Jason Bateman is so good at playing the everyman, he could even make the Bluth family's over-the-top problems seem relatable. And with Office Space, Mike Judge proved that he could tap into the psyche of downtrodden workers everywhere. So it seems the two could be a match made in heaven for a new feature called Extract.

The film, which Judge will write and direct, focuses on the owner of a flower extract factory (huh?) who can't seem to get a break - either at the office, where he has a string of bad luck, or at home, where his wife has had an affair with a gigolo. Variety describes it as a movie "about what it's like to be the boss when everything seems to be shifting around you."

Apparently Arrested Development alums are in high demand right now: Mae Whitman landed a TV job last week, as did Alia Shawkat. And I'd say that this casting news fully cements Bateman as a big-screen leading man, at least for a certain kind of comedy. What do you think? Are you excited to see Bateman getting a higher profile?

Source