MOVIE REVIEW - Extract

The new adult comedy Extract with Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck is out this week. You may not have heard of this movie at all, but it's going to find an audience one way or another.

Extract is a well cast, strange, adult comedy about Joel (Bateman) who owns a factory that makes extract, like for baking. His marriage to his beautiful young wife is in peril. The romance between them is gone, and he works all the time leaving her at home. She (Suzie) has no real interest in sex anymore, and Joel is thinking about straying outside the marriage with a sexy young temp he just hired at the extract factory.

Then the hair brained antics begin. Joel starts taking advice from the local bartender, some crazy drug addict (Affleck). He is also some kind of spiritual far-out "dude" and one night while they are doing way too many drugs, and drinking, they launch a scheme to trap Joel's wife in some kind of affair, so Joel will feel better about his possible affair. Sound strange? It is, but somehow in an adult way this movie stays afloat enough to get it's point across.

This to me, is a "little movie." No big budget, and no real huge stars. Also with a very funny soundtrack and an original idea, and it does deliver a laugh or two. It takes some very weighty adult issues, and finds a funny spin or two. And does it all in an understated style that makes it fun. Somehow through this journey, you forget these characters are going through some real-life serious stuff, long enough to laugh about it.

Bateman is solid as Joel, and Affleck is really funny, and convincing in his small role. I say it's one of the best performances of his career. Affleck can be funny, and very good in some roles, but he's NOT a leading man as Hollywood has tried to make him. Less is more, and here it is certainly MORE. Well done and fun! I think it's his best performance since he broke on the scene with Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting in 1997.

Extract is very adult, and certainly not for everyone. Plenty of language, and recreational drug use to go around. Extract is kind of hit and miss all rolled into one. A big hit with some, and a huge miss with others.