Extract

Take one part "Office Space," one part "King of the Hill," and throw in a little stoner comedy for flavor and you get a bland comedy from Mike Judge (creator of the two items above) called "Extract."

Unlike "Office Space" that focused on an office with its meaningless TPS reports and jammed printers, "Extract" focuses on a factory.  As the title suggests the company makes flavor extracts that are used in cooking.  Reynold's Extract was founded by Joel (Jason Bateman) who has since become bored with dealing with his unruly employees.  His partner Brian (JK Simmons) doesn't even bother to remember their names, referring to most of them as Dinkus.  Lucky for both of them, General Mills is ready to swoop in with an offer to buy the company.

But then an accident (in a very sensitive location) to an employee named Step threatens everything.  A con woman named Cindy (Mila Kunis) convinces Step to hire a sleazy ambulance chaser (Gene Simmons) to sue for big money, which in turn threatens the General Mills deal.

At the same time, Joel is facing a marital crisis.  After taking some drugs supplied by his friend Dean (a long-haired Ben Affleck) Joel decides the best way to deal with the situation is to hire a gigolo to tempt his wife and thereby gauge her affection for him.

The way this all plays out isn't as funny as it could be.  It's not as funny as the best parts of "Office Space" or even the best episodes of "King of the Hill."  For my part I think I could just relate to TPS reports and jammed printers better.  Also, there's not really much funny about paying someone to cheat on your wife.

While it's not a terrible movie, it's not a great one either.  Most everyone involved has done better work than they've done here.  I wouldn't even recommend it as a rental; wait for it to come out on cable.

Here are some fun facts relating to the movie.

Mike Judge (King of the Hill), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), and Mila Kunis (That 70s Show/Family Guy) have all starred in comedies on the Fox network.

Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck also appear together in the 2009 thriller "State of Play" while Bateman and JK Simmons were both in the 2009 comedy/drama "Up in the Air."

Though he isn't credited, Mike Judge plays one of the workers named Jim (which is easy to tell because you can hear shades of Hank Hill in his voice)

Really, with the right clothes and hair Beth Grant looks just like an older Sarah Palin

That is all.

My score:  62/100 (2.5/4 stars)

Metacritic score:  62/100 (2.5/4 stars)