Extract

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: Extract (2009)

Studio : Miramax Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 92 min

Website : extract-the-movie.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

The title of Extract comes from what the main character (Joel) sells: flavor extract. He is the founder of a local factory that makes nothing but flavor extract and loves talking about the stuff the same way a Trekker loves talking about the Enterprise. When one of his workers busts a nut at work (literally), things begin to get irksome as a pretty young con artist steps in to push Joel, his business, and his home life, into the ground.

Mike Judge has a talent for noticing characters that are absurd but strangely true to life, and this movie takes no exception with the minor roles of this film. If you ever worked in a menial manual labor job, you might recognize quite a few characters in the movie such as: the associate who keeps “voluntarily” soliciting you to go to events you don’t want to go to, the guy who remembers nobody’s name despite how long he’s been there, the musician who seems to be into really obscure musical niches, the gabby old lady who’s always been there and does nothing but gossip and blame the silent and unculpable immigrant worker for everything. There’s a lot there that I have (unfortunately) seen and experienced at one point or another, and I couldn’t help but praise Mike Judge for seeing this.

While it has its share of scenes that are funny just to watch, the humor as a result tends to borderline enough to make it a little too cerebral for the people looking for a quick laugh, and a little too primitive for folks wanting something witty, and I think this will not make it too popular. Still, considering how Mike Judge’s films tend to go cult as time passes, I can see this film’s popularity gaining steam once it hits DVD.

If you do find this film funny, you might also want to check out “The Promotion,” which is also fairly low-key, and strangely true-to-life (that, or my life is very, very, demented).

-Donald Lee

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