Another great installment from Director Mike Judge (Office Space, Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill).
Joel (played by Jason Bateman) is the founder and owner of a small business factory called Reynolds Extract. He is hoping to sell to General Mills so he can retire and rekindle the flame with his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig). Joel’s employees seem to take advantage of him daily by bickering with one another and causing problems. This kind of behavior continues until Joel’s soon-to-be floor manager “Step,” gets hit in the crotch and ends up loosing a testicle. After reading this freak accident in the paper, Cindy (Mila Kunis) comes up with a plan to become a new employee at Reynolds Extract and use her looks to persuade Step to hire a lawyer and sue Reynolds Extract for millions of dollars so she can get a cut of it. She tries to act as his girlfriend but he doesn’t have the slightest clue what’s going on. Joel also seems to have an attraction to Cindy that he tries to look past.
While all of this is going on, Joel is still frustrated with his home life. He has recently hit that point of his marriage where it’s beginning to get stale and he’s trying to avoid it anyway he can. One of the lines in the movie said it best… Jason Bateman: “I don’t want to be one of those brother-sister couples.” I thought that was hilarious. The only person he seems to open up with is his pill poppin’ pot head friend Dean, played by (Ben Affleck). After months of sexual frustration, Joel is tired of being rejected and would like to know if Suzie would ever cheat on him or vice-versa. After a few drinks and the wrong kind of drugs, Dean convinces a drugged up Joel to hire Brad, (Dustin Milligan) a young fake pool cleaning gigolo to seduce his wife. The whole idea was if this worked then it would give Joel clearance to get with Cindy. The next day Joel realizes what he had recently agreed upon and tried calling the deal off but by the time he called it was already done. After finding out that it actually worked, Joel is amazed that it was that easy and becomes even more frustrated with life.
From this point on things just keep adding up for Joel and it’s quite humorous to watch. You’ll have to head out to a theater new you this weekend to find out how this all unfolds.
Keep an eye out for Joel and Suzie’s pesky neighbor Nathan, played by none other than David Koechner. This is somewhat of a different role for Koechner but he plays it well. He’s that kind of person that you just can’t get rid of. Kristen Wiig’s character is different as well. I’m so used to seeing her act the exact same way she does on SNL but in this film she simply acts normal. As for Jason Bateman, I’ve only seen a few episodes of Arrested Development but from what I’ve seen, it’s like his character was pulled right out of it and placed in this movie. I was okay with this move though cause I’m not a hater.
The highlights of the film are definitely the witty humor and my favorite character would have to be the annoying neighbor because it’s very realistic and it’s just flat out funny.
This movie is a good one time see in theaters. I recommend that you and your significant other head out and see this movie when it’s released Friday, September 24. It’s no Office Space, but it’s still worth watching.
