Jason Bateman (Couples Retreat, Arrested Development, Juno) plays Joel, the sexually frustrated owner of a flavor extract plant he started, owns and operates. Why is Joel so frustrated, despite being married to the lovely Suzie (Kristen Wiig of Adventureland and Saturday Night Live note)? The problem is that Joel's heavy responsibilities have left his home life at a bit of a standstill and at first, Joel simply does whatever had can to get home before 8:00 PM every day, because once Suzie puts on her sweat suit, there is no getting it off again.
Joel's life seems to be a mixed bag. Sure his plant is a success, but its stress is driving him crazy, but when he gets word that a bigger company is looking to buy his business, he starts seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Too bad for him an employee accident involving a character named Step (Clifton Collins Jr.) becoming only half the man he used to be has caused the bigger company to back off some until the issue is resolved. Things change even more when local con artist Cindy (Mila Kunis from That 70s Show and Family Guy) hears about Step's impending fortune, starts dating him and becomes a temp at Joel's company. Cindy ends up playing everybody. Not only does she convince Step to not just take a settlement, but also to hire a sleazy accident lawyer (played by Gene Simmons), but she also has Joel thinking impure thoughts and considering cheating on Suzie. To top it all off, she is stealing from half of the employees at the plant and they all think it is another new hire.
Joel's best friend, Dean (Ben Affleck), isn't much help either. As a "spiritual advisor," it seems most of his solutions involve one kind of drug or another, and as much as Joel tries to back away, Dean seems to constantly put him in strange situations that either lead to him being beaten up, or to making really, really bad decisions. One such bad decision is a way to have Joel cheat on Suzie in a guilt-free way. The idea is to hire a gigolo, Brad (Dustin Milligan), to act like Joel's new pool cleaner and attempt to seduce his wife. If they sleep together, then Joel can cheat as well. Let's just say Joel's plan, well... actually it's Dean's plan, works ... all too well, and Bateman's ability to play an insecure character shines. This, coupled with Milligan's stupendously stupid character makes any scene with the two of them laugh-out-loud funny.
Besides the desire to have the film on the next-generation media, there isn't a whole lot of need to have the film on Blu-ray. There isn't anything spectacular about the visuals (certainty no awe-inspiring computer graphics) and while the surround sound is nice, it isn't required to fully enjoy the experience. Even the release's three special features, while enjoyable, aren't anything special or Blu-ray exclusive, so unless you are just trying to buy everything under the new media, Extract is a smarter purchase on DVD, but it is definitely worth the purchase, especially if you like Judge's other works.
