goods

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

U.S. Release Date: 8/14/2009
Running Time: 1:29
Rated: R (sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and some drug material)
Cast: Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, Ed Helms, Jordana Spiro, Tony Hale, Ken Jeong, Rob Riggle, Alan Thicke, Will Ferrell

Director: Neal Brennan
Screenplay: Andy Stock, Rick Stempson
Music: Lyle Workman
Studio:

From the producers of Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, comes The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard—a meandering sales comedy that is funny in spurts, but largely dumpy and dull.

Selleck Motors is a rapidly failing used-car dealership in Temecula, CA. In a desperate attempt to sell cars over the Fourth of July weekend, owner Ben Selleck (James Brolin) calls on go-to sales superstar Don “The Goods” Ready (Jeremy Piven) and his crack squad of a sales team—consisting of Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn), Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames), and Brent Gage (David Koechner).

Once on the scene, Ready and his team strive to sell over 200 cars in three days. However, there’s only one problem—in falling for the boss’s daughter Ivy (Jordana Spiro), Don seems to have lost his sales “mojo.” Having his hustling tactics and confidence shaken, Don must regain his composure, sell like never before, and save the family dealership.

While Piven gets by in rehashing his role of Ari Gold from “Entourage,” his instantly recognizable co-stars eclipse him with ease. It’s not only the big names of James Brolin, Alan Thicke, Will Ferrell, and Ving Rhames that overshadow Piven, but also the familiar faces of David Koechner (Champ Kind from Anchorman), Kathyrn Hahn (Alice from Step Brothers), Ed Helms (Andy Bernard from “The Office” and Stu Price from The Hangover), Ken Jeong (the doctor from Knocked Up and King Argotron from Role Models), Rob Riggle (from “S.N.L.” and Randy from Step Brothers), Craig Robinson (Darryl from “The Office”), and Tony Hale (Buster from “Arrested Development”) that steal the show.

With so many strong supporting characters, The Goods’s storyline gets crippled in both developing its lead and trying (too hard) to make him happy in life and love. For instance, the love story between Don and Ivy falls flat on its face before it blossoms. The possibility that one of Don’s coworkers could be his son is ridiculous, and Don’s back-story is just plain stupid.

More than anything, The Goods is overly crass and vulgar. Heck, even a baby and two African-American angels end up spitting profanities. Yet, with both a director who is used to directing TV’s “The Chappelle Show” and writers who take their first stab at writing a major motion-picture comedy, what more would you expect from unproven cinematic rookies than foul-mouthed, anything-goes type humor?

The Goods is not necessarily why the “lemon law” was invented, but it just isn’t enough to close the deal. It opens the call by asking “How much does a polar bear weigh? - Enough to break the ice.” It probes and discovers a need in producing a sales comedy that provides an in-depth analysis of the car-salesmen selling model and contains consistently funny banter. However, the picture bottoms out in delivering its message and convincing viewers that it is high in quality and value.

Nonetheless, dismissing the stupid set-up and the sub-par screenplay, The Goods is watchable because of the quirky physical comedy of its many characters. It’s is an okay option to sit down, turn off your brain, and turn on your DVD player to have a few laughs. However, just consider yourself warned that The Goods is not a glamorous fast-paced sports car that sells itself; it’s more like a cruddy 15-passenger jalopy that deserves to sit in the back of the lot.