Reel Critics:

Director Mike Judge first made his presence known in Hollywood with the cult classic “Office Space” in 1999.

It was a quirky look at white-collar business and life in the company cubicle for several nerds.

They try to overcome the adversity of incompetent supervisors and conflicting demands on their time. The story unfolds with good humor and a measure of insightful sarcasm.

In “Extract,” Judge transfers this same theme to a quirky look at marriage.

Jason Bateman plays a midlife married man who works long hours running the family business making food flavorings.

Every day, he must deal with disgruntled workers on the job and an unhappy relationship with his wife at home. A painfully annoying neighbor aggravates his life on a daily basis.

Ben Affleck plays his flaky bartender buddy who gives him questionable advice at every turn.

A stunning young woman of low moral character enters the picture. Under the influence of drugs and bad judgment, they see several strange events unfold.

Viewers will see some echoes of the Coen Brothers’ films in the strange twists and turns in this plot. But the shocks are mild and the laughs are mostly mainstream for R-rated comedy fare these days. Overall, it’s a lightweight effort that’s amusing but can wait for the video.

Don’t bother hitting continue when ‘Gamer’ gets boring

Even X-Box addicts may find “Gamer” perfectly dreadful.

At a mercifully brief 95 minutes, this futuristic story about real-life video games, with humans controlling other humans, is so incoherent that I was bored after about five minutes.

My mind wandered to the tune of bone-crunching slugfests and deafening explosions. It gave me time to pause and reflect on life’s really big questions: What to have for dinner? What’s on TV tonight?

Insanely grimacing convicts are pawns in an interactive sport dreamed up by Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), who’s like Bill Gates on crack. If the game warrior wins 30 games, he also wins his freedom.

The leading scorer is Kable (master thespian Gerard Butler), whose sweat-stained scowl towers on-screen amid disturbing images and chair-rattling mayhem.

In a mix of “Gladiator” and “TRON,” Kable hopes to locate his wife and daughter once he’s on the outside.

But Kable is a mere puppet controlled by a teenage geek trying to capitalize on his 15 minutes of tame.

Not until the last half-hour does the movie even start to make sense.

Save for a surreal but amusing scene of Hall lip-synching to Sammy Davis Jr., “Gamer” is just plain techno-trash.

JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company.