The End is Nigh

As if things weren't generally bad enough in the world right now, this season's movies didn't do too much to lift my spirits. Aside from a financial crisis that is two years old with no end in sight, a ever increasing presence of global warming (especially this past week in California) and the end of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, the dearth of exciting movies (not including Sherlock Holmes, BUT totally including Avatar) has been almost too much to bear. But, a duo of dreary, washed out films about the end of humanity left me with very different feelings and those movies were The Road and Book of Eli.

The Road stars Viggo Mortensen as the father of a young boy, wandering through a world in which some unexplained event has wiped out most of humanity. His wife, played by Charlize Theron, is unable to cope with the agony of knowing the fragility of her humanity decides to leave her family behind. Viggo travels with his son south, towards the coast, towards nothing in particular, but a hope for someplace warmer and safe from the roaming cannibal raiders that haunt the scarred landscape. Viggo struggles to protect his son and teach him to take care of himself until he is older and strong enough to protect himself.

Armed with nothing more than a down jacket and two bullets in a revolver that looks like it might fall apart after one shot, Viggo (his character has no name) tries to hide his fears from

his young son and attempts unsuccessfully to convey a convincing portrait of strength and courage. But, as the film progresses, and his health deteriorates, he becomes more manic and less of a loving father than a overbearing, overprotective father. His son takes on the traits of the nurturer and caregiver, not only caring for his father, but helping out a few of the lonely souls they meet along the way. By the end of the film, Viggo can only hope that he has taught him son well enough and the final scene leaves the audience with the belief that he has and actually provides a rather bittersweet ending.

The Road conveys a strong enough sense of plausibility that you can believe that this might actually be what the end of civilization will look like. I walked out of the movie thinking about what really mattered in life and what would be important to me if everything was lost. Who would I save? Who would I want to spend my final days with? However, in Book of Eli, the movie fails to bring across any of the emotion or levity of The Road.

Book of Eli begins with Denzel Washington as Eli, wandering through a world in which some great war has wiped out most of humanity. He hunts, scavenges and kills cannibalistic raiders in a search for fresh water and a charge for his iPod. When he happens upon a small town, it comes to light that he carries a book that self appointed mayor Carnegie (Gary Oldman) is desperate to get his hands on and Eli is steadfast in his refusal to give it up to him. The hunt begins again as Carnegie and his men chase Eli and Solara (Mila Kunis) across the sun drenched landscape of New Mexico. In the end, while Carnegie manages to get his hands on the book, a telegraphed twist renders the book useless to him and allows Eli the comfort of knowing he has completed his quest.

The film is paced poorly, uses unnecessary camera tricks to highlight otherwise pedestrian action sequences that carry no real weight and is chock full of odd cameos (Tom Waits? Michael Gambon? Malcolm McDowell as Einstein?) that pulled me out of the film, although I know the audience I was with had no idea who they were. If you make it all the way to the end and are at least mildly amused by the Zatoichi allusion, then you will probably appreciate Book of Eli for what it is. But, I got distracted by all the religious themes being thrown around and while I understand what was intended, I felt that a little more or a little less would have helped to serve the film better than the awkward medium it found itself in. And honestly, by the very end, I wished that I had just sat through Book of Mila, which looks like a far more interesting post-apocalyptic revenge action movie than the film I has just watched.

Extract is 100% Pure Comedy

Extract is Mike's Judge's third film after Idiocracy and Office Space. Following in the vein of Office Space, it is the natural progression of his work as a filmmaker and as someone who identified so strongly with Office Space as a teenager, Judge was able to tap into that same sense of humor and frustration as he did ten years ago and make a movie that I related to just as well now, working in a management position. While he was fighting the establishment and rallying for the freedom of the working man before, here he gives us a likable man who has worked hard for everything he has, only to see his world unraveled by bickering, lazy employees and a bored wife.

Jason Bateman, as extract creator Joel Reynolds, finds that everything he values is about to be lost to him, until he decides to get off his ass and do something about it. Bateman's dry, straight man delivery, perfected in Arrested Development, is on display as he carries this movie almost single handedly. Not to take away from the rest of the cast as everyone is excellent, but aside from Bateman, everyone else seems like they are barely in the movie. Even the gorgeous and comedically talented Mila Kunis is wonderful, but she has only a handful of scenes. Which, I believe, makes Bateman's performance that much more remarkable seeing as how he gives everyone in the cast so much of himself to work with. From Kristen Wiig as his distant, adulterous wife, J.K. Simmons as his number two man at work and David Koechner as his far too familiar obnoxious neighbor, everyone plays what would normally be very one note roles, very different and they do it all around Bateman. The dude should've popped way before this, AGAIN, but it will probably take audiences awhile to catch up.

Ben Affleck is hilarious as his pusher friend Dean. The Fleck hasn't had this great a supporting role since Boiler Room.

In the same way that you have to had worked in an office to appreciate Office Space, so too do you have to had been in charge of increasingly insipid subordinates, been in a dull, listless relationship with someone you truly care for and made some bad decisions under the influence to understand Extract. Judge's humor comes not from over the top set pieces or irrelevant, gross out gags, but from common situations that occur far to often to not take notice of. The jokes don't come rapidly, but are measured and methodical in delivery. For someone looking for another Apatow/Kev Smith type film, you're likely to be mildly unimpressed. But for fans of Arrested and terrific actors and dialogue, Extract is your best bet for weeks to come. Mike Judge has grown up to find that working for the man is just as maddening as being the man, but just as funny as well.