Extract

Average comedy starring Jason Bateman as the young owner of a thriving extract company (meaning a small factory that churns out bottles of almond, cherry, root beer, and vanilla extracts) who feels that his wife (Kristen Wiig) has lost interest in sex, and so he starts to fixate on his company's hot new temp (Mila Kunis), who is in reality a con artist.

On the advice of his moronic bartender friend (Ben Affleck, in the kind of minor comedic supporting role he should have been doing throughout his career), Bateman hires an even more moronic "gigolo" to seduce his wife, so that he won't feel guilty about potentially cheating on her.

This weak premise results in an agreeable but forgettable comedy, with few laughs but a good cast and an inoffensive tone. For me this is typical of Judge's work. I've seen his two previous features, Office Space and Idiocracy, and as with Extract, they are likable movies that don't try too hard. Extract is even less successful, because unlike its predecessors it doesn't even have a point.

Obviously, Judge can be funny, but he seems content with first drafts and first takes instead of pushing the jokes further and adding more strength to his story. This is the sort of movie that will play great on cable, where you can start watching at any random point and stop watching at any random point without feeling like you're missing out on anything. Not a bad film, just an unremarkable one.