Well, of course it’s a Mike Judge movie, so attention must be paid, if he is your cup of tea, directorially speaking. Be warned that this is more of an amiable and character-driven movie than a manic and plot-driven movie, so the humor (well, with the exception of an assembly-line accident with painfully embarrassing results to one character) is fairly low-key. It’s more a gentle ramble along a scenically convoluted path, rather than a high-speed chase.

The plot, such as it is, involves Joel (Jason Bateman), the manager/owner of a small but profitable flavor-extract enterprise, on the verge of selling the company on favorable terms, and retiring to a life of leisure and luxury. He is the linchpin; around whom revolve and occasionally frustrate an assortment of characters – including but not limited to – his bored wife (Kristen Wiig), a deadly boring neighbor (David Koechner), a new employee (Mila Kunis) of dubious ethical principles and a taste for dressing down (way, way down!), old employees of varying degrees of ineptitude, and a best friend (Ben Affleck) with a penchant for offering really, really bad advice – like hiring the pool-man to test his wife’s virtue. How life unravels – and then ravels again for Joel and the factory is unfolded in a series of quirky and humorous tableaux. It’s all very genial, occasionally pointed, and very, very Mike Judge.

Having been occasionally afflicted with a neighbor who always managed to appear at the most inconvenient times, with the most pointless conversation, and being almost oblivious to indications that – look, I wasn’t interested and had things to do! I laughed the most at the scenes with Joel’s neighborhood nemesis – does everyone but the viciously anti-social hermits have one of those sorts of neighbor?

The extra on this DVD is basically a documentary about the making of – which did have some interested tid-bits; such as being filmed on location in an actual bottling plant.

Extract is available through Amazon.com and other retail outlets.

Sgt. Mom is a free-lance writer and member of the Independent Authors Guild who lives in San Antonio and contributes to the on-line literary magazine, The Deepening. Her current book project, “The Adelsverein Trilogy” is also available at Amazon.com and selected local outlets. More about her books is at her website www.celiahayes.com.

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