The things men do for women. Isn’t it bizarre? Friendships get ruined. Marriages get destroyed. Lives are forever altered. What is it that makes us trample others to reach the female object of our desires? It’s like a shark to chum, flies to poop and Cookie Monster to vegetables (he’s a vegetarian now). We’re so quick to abandon all hopes and dreams just for a chance to be with perceived beauty. Never is it thought out clearly what consequences lay ahead, especially if things don’t work out exactly the way they were planned. In Extract, consequences are considered, but perhaps not enough sober thought was put into what they’d be.

Joel is an entrepreneur who decided his niche in the world was to manufacture extract and market it to the masses. His entrepreneurial attitude causes him to work long hours, but it’s also afforded him a huge home in a nice suburban neighborhood with a wife situated to the lifestyle. Aside from suffering from sexual frustration when he arrives home too late from work and the overlong conversations with his talkative neighbor, Joel’s life is a comfortable one. That is, until one of his loyal factory worker employees, Step, loses a testicle in a Rube Goldberg-like cacophony of events that leads to the accident. Workers’ compensation only covers so much and Step still has the option to sue.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, a young woman named Cindy uses her flirtatious beauty to maximum effect, shoplifting items and exchanging them for cash at pawn shops. A professional con woman, this is her only means of getting by. She’s constantly on the lookout for her next scheme and notices a story about Step’s possible seven-figure insurance settlement in a newspaper. In effort of garnering Step’s contact information, Cindy joins Joel’s extract factory workforce and charms him instantly with her sparkling features and personality.

Joel is instantly smitten with Cindy and confesses his carnal desires to his friend Dean, a bartender and advocate of recreational prescription drug use. Dean convinces Joel to pop a few Xanax in order to relax from his stressful state and concocts a scheme worthy of George Costanza in order to allow Joel to sleep with Cindy without feeling guilty of cheating on his wife. The plan is to hire a gigolo to pose as a pool boy at Joel’s residence while he’s at work and seduce his wife. If she’s cheating, he shouldn’t have any qualms about doing likewise. With the gigolo attempting to seduce Joel’s wife, so Joel can feel free to seduce Cindy who’s currently pursuing Step, a Catch-22 forms and where it’ll spit the primary players out is up to the consequences involved.

Giving up...so easy, Ben Affleck can do it.

Mike Judge makes his third live-action directorial effort here, after the cult-followed Office Space and the non-theatrically released Idiocracy. He seems to have a surer hand here, maintaining a nice balance between the intricately woven storylines. He retains some familiar archetypes from Office Space, with the excruciating drawl and conversational habits of Bill Lumbergh transferred to Joel’s neighbor and the long-haired slacker portrayed by Diedrich Bader now belonging to Ben Affleck’s Dean. Judge’s directorial style is largely unobtrusive and he seems content to let his actors and the dialogue he’s written carry the scenes. This style suits the subject matter of the film of an ordinary life taken to wacky heights with the appearance of the femme fatale, lighting hearts on fire.

Jason Bateman is only required to play the Jason Bateman character he’s inhabited since “Arrested Development.” However, it’s befitting of the role and makes Joel’s attraction to Cindy all the more desperate. Mila Kunis embodies Cindy with her natural sexualized verve, but truly only needs to show up in front of the camera in order to do so. Not much of a stretch is required of either of the two leads, whereas Ben Affleck transformers into something we haven’t seen from him before. His long-haired, pill-popping, bong-ripping Dean provides Affleck with a new outlet he isn’t given enough time to craft into the comedic highlight character Dean is supposed to be.

Most of the humor from the film is derived from the gigolo hired by Joel and Dean in order to put their plan in motion and how it goes horribly awry. The story is the star of the film and the actors merely there to carry it out. Lucky for Judge, it’s a strong enough story and concept to survive the somewhat staid characters he inserts into the action. It’s unfortunate he’s recruited a cast of solid and established performers for the first time, which will lead to the film’s appeal, but certainly not to its ultimate success.

Judge has succeeded in making a likeable film with a “Seinfeld”-ian hook, that although not riotously funny has enough amusing identifiable traits to keep the laughter rolling. It’s not the greatest work by any of its all-star cast, but their mere presence helps to elevate the content. Like straying from one’s partner to another object of lust, the film may not pay off the dividends you would like it to, but sometimes it’s the journey and adventure itself that makes it worth the effort.