Los Angeles Times: Sooner or later, Mike Judge extracts success

By Lisa Rosen
Los Angeles Times
Excerpt
September 3, 2009

Mike Judge has done more than breathe life into his characters -- he has given many of them his voice as well.

Perhaps that's why the 46-year-old writer-director-animator-actor sounds so familiar -- the logy cadence of Butt-Head mixed with the flattened intonations of Hank Hill -- speaking by phone from his home state of Texas about his latest film, "Extract," which arrives in theaters Friday. Starring Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck and Mila Kunis, the shaggy comedy tells the tale of Joel Reynold (Bateman), owner of a flavor extract company, whose plans for success and love go sideways, thanks to an unresponsive wife, a drug-loving best friend, a moronic gigolo, a severed testicle and a beautiful con artist.

Though this story takes a different perspective from his most celebrated film, 1999's "Office Space," sympathizing with the boss rather than the workers, its absurdist observational humor and social satire are certainly from the same family.

"It doesn't beat you in the face, it doesn't beg for laughter," Bateman says of the film...

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