6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
Joel Reynolds (Jason Bateman) is sitting pretty. With a beautiful wife, a comfortable home and the almost finalized acquisition by General Mills of the culinary extracts business he has built with his loyal lieutenant Brian (J.K. Simmons), Joel seems to have it all. Except his wife is about as interested in him as she is in her career (supermarket coupon design), his employees want a piece of the pie and the sweet young thing with designs on him (Mila Kunis) is really a wily con artist. On the advice of a drug-addled confidante (Ben Affleck), Joel cooks up a scheme to cheat with impunity by hiring a gigolo to seduce his wife—only to discover the young object of his affection is behind a lawsuit by longtime employee Step (Clifton Collins, Jr.) that will scotch the General Mills deal and leave Joel penniless. The best-laid plans unravel with hilarious results in this off-the-wall comedy about life in the not-so-fast lane.
Starring: Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck, J.K. SimmonsComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
While my top five comedies of all time have been in a constant state of flux over the years, one film has consistently held its own atop my list: Office Space, writer/director Mike Judge's second stab at everlasting pop culture life (after Beavis and Butthead all but guaranteed his name would forever be linked to MTV's oft-forgotten glory days). Sharp, irreverent, and unexpectedly relevant, it set Judge's bar so high that he's been forced to compete with his own work. Idiocracy, an inane, somewhat reckless bit of satirical drivel released in 2006 to little acclaim, disappointed critics and audiences alike, emerging as a front runner for worst comedy of the decade. Extract, Judge's supposed return to his roots, has been greeted with equally subdued fanfare, and for good reason. It isn't as mind-numbingly stupid as Idiocracy, but it is just as shallow; it isn't as dull, but it isn't nearly as infectious as Office Space; I chuckled here and there, but rarely felt connected to its characters, humor, or story. In fact, the only thing that pulled me from scene to scene was sheer, detached curiosity.
The best thing about 'Extract' is that it's better than 'Idiocracy.'
Extract hobbles onto Blu-ray with a stilted 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that, while presumably faithful to Judge's intentions, turns out to be as unremarkable as they come. Colors are strong and skintones are passable (albeit a bit too orange), but black levels are rarely resolved, contrast flutters frequently, and detail is terribly inconsistent. Textures come and go as they please, and clarity ranges from somewhat revealing to downright soft. Some scenes look as if were ripped off a standard DVD (worst among them Joel's meeting with Joe Adler), undermining the integrity of the entire presentation. It doesn't help that the image resembles something that's been fed through an industrial press; one tasked with cruelly pummeling the print and stamping out any semblance of depth. Sadly, a two-dimensional picture isn't the only cause for alarm. Crush, mild ringing, and faint source noise are persistent issues, and a touch of telecine wobble -- a slight shakiness usually associated with poorly remastered catalog titles -- introduce instability into the proceedings. Again, it's clear Judge's vision is being honored to some degree, but it's difficult to tell which problems are a direct result of his hand and which are signs of a sketchy transfer. I would suggest dialing down your expectations significantly.
Flat and front-heavy, Disney's underwhelming DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is a slave to its flawed source; sound design so sterile that renders Reynold's Extract the quietest bottling plant in history. Dialogue is generally clean and intelligible -- despite the fact that some scenes (chief among them Joel's first encounter with Cindy) struggle with muffled voices -- but little else makes a lasting impact. Rear speaker activity is sparse, ambience seems to be an afterthought, acoustics are unconvincing, and LFE support is weak in the knees. Yes, patrons of Dean's bar offer up thin background chatter and aging factory conveyor belts sound reasonably dilapidated, but the film's lazy score is the only element of the mix that remotely takes advantage of the full soundfield. Everything else is merely passable. Directionality is spotty, pans are fairly smooth, and dynamics are adequate (particularly considering the track's aforementioned issues). Although I have no doubt this is probably the best Extract will or could ever sound, it doesn't take away the sting of a mediocre mix. Newcomers will yawn, fans will shrug their shoulders, and audiophiles will simply shake their heads.
The Blu-ray edition of Extract includes three blink-and-you'll-miss-em special features: a decent behind-the-scenes featurette called "Mike Judge's Secret Recipe" (HD, 11 minutes), five decidedly bland extended scenes (SD, 4 minutes), and a lone deletion (SD, 1 minute) that isn't worth the forty seconds it takes to watch. No more, no less.
Unfocused and unfunny, Extract mills about without ever actually going anywhere. It's certainly a better film than Idiocracy, but that isn't saying much. Unfortunately, Disney's Blu-ray release is just as problematic, arriving with an underwhelming video transfer, a disappointing DTS-HD Master Audio track, and a paltry fifteen minutes of special features. It seems Judge acolytes will need to stick with Office Space, a richer, more satisfying comedy that delivers a superior high definition experience.
Enlarged Edition w/ Extended Cut
2011
2011
2011
2011
2013-2014
2019
2006
Unrated
2015
1976
2015
2017
2017
2009
The Don Knotts Collection
1969
1996
2013
2004
Nine to Five | Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1980
2009
1977-1980