EXTRACT - Blu-ray review

Mike Judge, best known for his television series "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "King of the Hill," is the son of an anthropologist. Maybe that explains the apparent fascination he has with simply documenting the humor and odd situations that are a part of everyday life in certain segments of society--whether it's a couple of teen-age burnouts, a small, redneck Texas town, or the cubicle crowd from "Office Space" (1999).

The most over-the-top humor has the most truth in it, usually, though Judge's live-action work is dominated by central characters who are a little more on-the-ball than everyone around them--not unlike an anthropologist who finds him or herself plunked down in the middle of a culture. They observe, they disbelieve, they react, and in the gulf that's created between them and the rest of the cast, humor bubbles away. In this respect, "Extract" is very much like Judge's previous work. But it's more subtle and more driven by situation, much as "Ruthless People" was quite the departure from Jim Abrahams' and David Zucker's usual "Airplane!" insanity.

Of course, subtlety is not the same thing as shallowness, and I suspect that the college crowd will find plenty of things to write about "Extract" in their critical papers and books.

There's the title, for one thing--a pun that refers not only to the root-beer extract that Joel (Jason Bateman) turned into a big-factory business that General Mills is interested in buying, but also the main plot threads. A drop-dead gorgeous new temp named Cindy (Mila Kunis) is really a petty thief and con artist who's out to "extract" what she can from the workers and boss. But the world being ironic and all, she's so darned good looking that she proves a costly distraction, and (I'm not saying how) one of the workers loses a testicle indirectly because of her. Soon, with a little prodding, that not-so-bright employee (Clifton Collins, Jr.) gets the idea to sue the company for his loss, and extract compensation. And in the strangest, most Beavis and Butt-Head-like plot thread, Joel isn't getting any at home from his wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), and so he plots to figure out how he can have guilt-free sex with Cindy, who seems to be flirting with him. The bizarre part comes when a bartender/friend named Dean (a very long-haired Ben Affleck) has the idea that Joel should hire a gigolo (Dustin Milligan) to pose as a pool boy and seduce his wife so he can pursue Cindy without any protestant guilt tagging along. And sharing Joel's bemusement over every little cultural thing is his right-hand man, Brian (J.K. Simmons).

If there a surprises to be had, they're not in the plot, which itself unfolds with predictability once you buy into the premises, and they're not in the jokes, which are subtler than most of what we get from Judge. It's from the genial tone of this comedy, which somehow makes that gigolo business seem as common and everyday as the well-meaning but annoying neighbor (David Koechner) that everyone has. And it's from the performances themselves, with Bateman drawing upon his "Arrested Development" character to access this wise-but-befuddled well-off boss who's not as in control as he'd like to be. The satisfaction that "Extract" provides comes from that sense of life as it's really lived--an anthropological study--that shows what type of people we've evolved into in the 21st century. I did a stint as a factory worker at a Pepsi Cola bottling plant and at a Del Monte cannery, and I worked alongside the kind of people we see in "Extract."

There are, in fact, laugh-out-loud moments, but if you go into "Extract" expecting them you'll probably be disappointed. This is a low-key comedy of situation and character that depends upon the solid performances that the cast delivers more than the written material.

Video:
"Extract" comes to Hi-Def Blu-ray looking a little flat, both in the 3-D department and color-wise. The colors are natural looking, but not richly saturated by any means, nor are black levels as strong as we're perhaps used to seeing in Blu-rays these days. But I can't say that it's the fault of the AVC/MPEG-4 transfer, because I didn't see any haloing or evidence of DNR. There's a nice level of detail, but the overall look isn't impressive at all. Just average--the kind of look you'd expect from an early '80s catalog title rather than a recent film. Was this by design? Quite possibly. But if that's the case, I'm not sure what it adds to the overall package.

Audio:
Dialogue is prioritized in this film, and since there's a lot of it, we end up watching a movie that doesn't involve the surround-sound speakers as much as you'd expect-especially when we're inside the factory. I mean, we had to shout when I worked at Del Monte and Pepsi, it was so deafening. Bass notes seem a little muffled on this soundtrack, and the highest notes don't sound as bright as on the best audio presentations. And yet it's a DTS-HD MA 5.1, which Disney has been using with great success, so it must reflect the way that Judge filmed it. Compared to what Steven Soderbergh did in "Bubble" to capture the ambience of a doll factory, the audio in "Extract" is much more of a studio sound. Maybe a certain flatness in sound and picture was designed to serve as video-audio complements to the deadpan tone, but judged on their own merits they seem lacking.

Extras:
And speaking of lacking, there's not much in the way of bonus features. "Mike Judge's Secret Recipe" runs just eleven minutes and delivers a pretty standard behind-the-scenes making-of narrative. Five extended scenes run under five minutes total and aren't worth watching, and one deleted scene runs another minute. The Blu-ray exclusives? Only the extended and deleted scenes

Bottom Line:
If you pop in "Extract" expecting another "Office Space," you'll be disappointed. "Extract" has a different kind of energy, and an even more low-key style of humor. But taken on its own terms, "Extract" is enjoyable.