After watching Mike Judge's Office Space, those of us who go to the same job in the same cubicle with the same stereotypical office zombies surrounding us every day felt as though there were finally someone else in the world who felt the pain of the excruciating, never-ending daily routine. Now Judge returns with Extract, a film much like Office Space with similar characters, but one that changes gears and this time sees work from the point of view of the overworked boss rather than the underappreciated employees... and pokes fun at life in the middle.

Joel is the man who seems to have it all. He's a purveyor of his own brand of patented culinary extracts who runs Reynold Extract, a factory he built from the ground up. He drives a nice car to his big house in the suburbs and has an absolutely beautiful wife named Suzie waiting for him at home. By all counts, Joel lives the life that is to be envied. For Joel, however, this life is anything but paradise. If he's not home by eight o'clock every evening he finds his beautiful wife, a graphic designer who once upon a time dreamed of becoming a great artist but now designs supermarket coupons, tightening up her sweatpants and more interested in Dancing with the Stars than in going to the bedroom. Standing in the way of him getting home before the eight o'clock deadline every evening is Nathan, Joel's extremely irritating neighbor who frequently speaks to Joel for what seems like hours completely oblivious to the fact that Joel has no interest whatsoever in any of the words coming out of his mouth.

Life at work is no better. Being the boss at the factory is far from the dream job Joel once envisioned. He is plagued by employees like Step, a regular doofus with delusions of grandeur and aspirations of one day becoming floor manager; Rory, a metal-head who boasts of being a member of not three but four trash rock bands destined for nowhere; and Mary, an embittered line worker who is more interested in pointing out the shortcomings of her coworkers than in keeping the line moving. With all of his misery at work, Joel longs for the day when he can sell the company he's worked so hard to make and retire to a life of playing golf and enjoying his money. He is overjoyed, then, when corporate giant General Mills comes through with an offer for the plant, provided Joel can keep things running smoothly until the offer is finalized which, with his array of quality employees, is much easier said than done. He witnesses his own demise as Mary, uninterested in lifting a finger to aid in fixing the mistakes of others, allows the line to back up resulting in an unfortunate series of events that end up costing Step part of his manhood.

Fed up with it all, Joel heads to his best friend Dean's hotel bar, the only place in the world he can seem to find peace anymore. As he recounts his problems at work, including the apparent interest a new hot young "temp" named Cindy seems to have in him, and his sexually nonexistent relationship with his wife, Dean hatches an elaborate plan to make it possible for Joel to cheat on Suzie guilt-free. Stating, "What's morally appropriate is doing what she does to you back to her," Dean suggests hiring a gigolo named Brad to seduce Suzie, therefore allowing Joel to sleep with Cindy since his wife has already cheated on him first. Joel, extremely high on any number of illicit drugs that Dean has also convinced him to take, agrees to the plan.

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