Extract

After we got back from seeing TRON:Legacy we decided to watch the rental movie Extract.  I didn't hear about this movie at all when it came out, but I added it to my rental list without really knowing anything about it because it's a Mike Judge movie and Office Space is one of my all time favourites.

It turns out Extract is about a group of workers at a factory that makes food extracts.  The setting really isn't that important to the story though, it would work equally well with any mundane job, it's just observations about normal people which is what Mike Judge is known for

The story mainly follows the owner of the factory who has built up the company from nothing.  He's unhappy in his marriage and an attractive new employee tempts him into having an affair but he doesn't want to risk the financial loss of a divorce. That's until his bartender friend (a hilarious return to form for Ben Affleck) dopes him up on ketamine and convinces him that he should pay a gigalo to seduce his wife first so she wouldn't have a case. However this backfires when the gigalo falls in love with the wife and won't stop seeing her.

Meanwhile the owner of the plant is trying to sell it but that's put at risk when there's an accident in the factory (one of the idiot employees loses a testicle), and there's the risk of a major lawsuit bankrupting the company.  There's also a number of petty thefts from the employees which causes further unrest. All this comes to a head in comic fashion at the end of the film when the owner realises one person is causing all his problems.

Rating: 7 out of 10: Original and amusing movie with some laugh out loud moments and interesting characters, it's no Office Space but it's a major improvement over TRON:Legacy (yes I really hated that movie and here's why if you missed my earlier review).