Opening

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—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
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Extract (2009)

tomatometer

63

Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 184
Fresh: 116 | Rotten: 68

Extract has some very funny moments and several fine performances, but the film feels slighter and more uneven than Mike Judge's previous work.

59

Average Rating: 6/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 17

Extract has some very funny moments and several fine performances, but the film feels slighter and more uneven than Mike Judge's previous work.

audience

38

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 172,241

My Rating

Movie Info

Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig, Clifton Collins, and J.K. Simmons star in writer/director Mike Judge's comedy about a flower-extract plant owner contending with an ever-growing avalanche of personal and professional disasters. An employee at the factory has just suffered an unfortunate accident on the assembly line, but little does the put-upon owner realize that things are about to get much worse. As the injured employee threatens to sue and it begins to look like his

R,

Comedy

Mike Judge

Dec 22, 2009

$10.6M

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Cast

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All Critics (185) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (116) | Rotten (68) | DVD (16)

'Extract': Mike Judge's Retro Jack Lemmon Movie

September 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Passionate Moviegoer
Passionate Moviegoer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There are so many good jokes packed in there.

September 8, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The entire cast, in fact, seems to be having fun, with Affleck and Koechner cheerfully stealing each one of their scenes.

September 4, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Daily News
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There are some priceless character turns.

September 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It has all the ingredients for cult immortality and will likely live on long after this year's Oscar winners are forgotten.

September 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Detroit News
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

These days, it appears to be a rare gift to do comedy in a way that comes across as smart, but never superior or willfully crass. Bateman has that talent to spare.

September 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Denver Post
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Even if the whole isn't quite the sum of its parts, those parts offer enough touches of off-kilter inspiration to amuse.

June 4, 2012 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com
TheMovieReport.com

Extract doesn't have a memorable message, a moralizing mission or a satirical axe to grind. But if your life needs a little humorous flavoring, pour away.

September 29, 2011 Full Review Source: American Profile
American Profile

A decade on from his sublime white collar wage-slave comedy Office Space, director Mike Judge returns to the workplace for this gentle satire.

April 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Scotsman

There is a lot of unconvincing, random plot, most characters are deeply unsympathetic and the women are poorly served by underdeveloped roles.

April 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Express
Daily Express

Has many promising ingredients, yet somehow none of them quite gel.

April 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

The film is never funny enough, and comes across as dispiritingly mean.

April 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK]
Daily Mail [UK]

Aside from being not all that funny, Judge's droll-ish observations on the small-mindedness of corporate America never hit the mark while there are too many go-nowhere plot diversions.

April 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK]
Daily Mirror [UK]

Judge knows his game well enough, but too often the jokes feel like seasoning to a premise that is just slightly overdone.

April 23, 2010
Little White Lies

Extract is the kind of economical comedy that's more about sly grins of acknowledgments and quiet chuckles than rolling in the aisles laughter.

April 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Digital Spy
Digital Spy

A bemusing black comedy that is as unfocused as it is unbelievable.

April 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Radio Times
Radio Times

Bateman is perfectly cast as the understated lead and Kunis works well as divisive eye candy, but it's the supporting actors who really shine.

April 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Sky Movies
Sky Movies

Mike Judge's latest comedy is never exactly laugh-out-loud funny but it's very enjoyable nonetheless, thanks to strong comic performances and a drily witty script.

April 22, 2010 Full Review Source: ViewLondon
ViewLondon

Mixing absurd comedy with understated dialog, Mike Judge spins an amiable farce about marriage and work ethics

April 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall
Shadows on the Wall

Judge really feels for these losers, making this shaggy, unfocused fun.

March 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

Judge's latest doesn't linger long in the memory, generating more gentle chuckles than outand- out belly laughs. But it goes down smoothly enough...

March 16, 2010 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

Extract works better as a bunch of miniature observations than as a singular piece, but viewed within the context of Judge's body of work, it's a funny and worthy addition to his suburban comedies.

January 31, 2010 Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

While not as complete a success as "Office Space", it is often quite brilliant.

January 16, 2010 Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com
CinemaBlend.com

Many setups with no punchlines.

January 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies
Window to the Movies

Mike Judge's nuggets are often enjoyable enough for us to want to ignore the fact that Extract really doesn't work particularly well in its totality.

January 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

A classic Judge film: somewhat uneven but filled with interesting, albeit clueless, characters and funny set-ups.

January 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Views

Audience Reviews for Extract

My grade is probably a bit inflated, but it's hard to ignore my bias toward Mike Judge. He gets workplaces. He gets satire too, even if the stuff on display here is more blunt and low-key than it probably should be.

Although it is nowhere near the same level, this film had a fairly evident feeling of being Coenesque, which I consider to be a really good thing. In their hands, this would have been more of a masterpiece. As it stands, it's a gem, but it's really rough. It leaves a lot to be desired, and the humor is a tad too subtle in places, but I still laughed, and was still very much entertained.

As decent as Bateman is, the supporting cast is where its at. Wiig is good, if slightly underused; Judge in his uncredited cameo is funny, as is a riotous Gene Simmons. It is Clifton Collins, Jr, Beth Grant, J.K. Simmons, and (most of all) Ben Affleck and David Koechner who really steal the show. Koechner is really funny, but Affleck manages to edge him out slightly. Everything about Dean is funny and appealing (as a character): his beard and hair, his mannerisms, his outlook on life...he's just this groovy whacked out cat, and it's definitely what Affleck needs to rebuild his still tarnished career.

So yeah, this is a hit, albeit a minor one, but fans of any of the cast (even Mila Kunis is actually fairly believable), workplace comedies, deadpan delivery and humor, or Judge should find something to enjoy here.
June 24, 2010
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

Extract is a live action film written and directed by Mike Judge, most famous for his television shows King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-head. His other live action films include the venerable Office Space and Idiocracy, the former being the basis for yet another workplace folly. Judge even admits that this is a sendup to his original film. While Office Space was about us drones, working for the unconscientiously dickish boss, Extract takes the lead from the boss in question and the problems that comes from that stress. While that in itself is an interesting concept, Extract suffers from the fact that it doesn't stay coherent, and struggles with defining the ill issues of said boss. Instead of real time workplace problems, main character Joel has marital woes, does a bunch of drugs, and can't seem to get rich. Instead of the uncomfortable office atmosphere and awkward workers, Extract relies on caricatures of small town USA to flesh out the cast. The comedy isn't as sharp as the original. The cast was really impressive for the film, including Jason Bateman as the crabby extract plant owner, Kristen Wiig as his repressed wife (who doesn't get enough screen time, in my opinion), and Ben Affleck as his druggy friend/bartender, and Mila Kunis as....I seriously don't know what to categorize her as. She's not a key plot point because she barely affects anything, she's not a romantic lead because she doesn't wrap up the plot, and she isn't contingent on anything so she's not really a lead character. Many of the characters don't really have any point. There isn't really that much of a moral, unless you count not sleeping around, but that keeps getting sidetracked by Joel's infidelities pretty early on in the film, so that's not it. Really, it's a Mike Judge kind of film, with little minded people and hard to swallow humor. It doesn't resonate, but it is another film about hardheaded people, and that is always at least a little entertaining.
August 3, 2010
FrizzDrop

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on Extract

September 3, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Despite Laughs, Extract Isn't Quite Potent Enough
This week at the movies, we've got a wacky workplace (Extract, starring Jason Bateman and Ben...
September 2, 2009:
Mike Judge Talks Extract, Office Space, and More
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August 26, 2009:
Jason Bateman Talks Paul, The Baster, Arrested Development
With "Extract," "Paul," "The Baster," and presumably the "Hancock" sequel on the way, Jason Bateman...
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