The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

  

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Written by Chris YogerstcloseAuthor: chrisyogerst Name: Chris Yogerst
Email: chris@parcbench.com
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About: Editor for Parcbench and NewsReal Blog as well as contributor to Big Hollywood.See Authors Posts (88) on August 14, 2009

After seeing the horrendous GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I was ready for a good comedy.  However, I may need to look elsewhere.

Director Neal Brennan, who used to write for the Chappelle’s show, brings us The Goods.  The film takes place for the most part at Selleck Motors, a used car lot that faces bankruptcy.  The lot owner, Ben Selleck (James Brolin), brings in a team of used car salesmen to save the lot.  The team is lead by Don ‘The Goods’ Ready (Jeremy Piven).

The team also includes Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames), Brent Gage (David Koechner), and Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn).  They travel the country selling cars for lots who need assistance.  An event is planned at the lot, with a DJ (who didn’t fit well at all), false television spots, and “celebrities.”

Besides selling cars, Don falls for Selleck’s daughter, Ivy.  Don is wary about falling for girls on the road as we are taught about a bad experience he had.   Ben Selleck takes a liking to Brent in an ongoing, and tiresome, gay joke.

Ivy’s fiancé, Paxton (Ed Helms), is in an aspiring boy band.  Since the ‘boys’ are so old, however, it is now called a ‘man band.’  The footage of their group (Big Ups) performing is probably the best part of the film.  The rest if full of awkward moments brought on by not quite funny dialogue.

The set up was good; over the top salesmen who are looking for the next sale, who take everything too seriously.  However, we never get to see many close up (or even funny) sales.  There is mention of their tactic to “confuse, confide, and conflict,” but we don’t see enough of it in action.  The premise was there, but it did not dig deep enough.

The basis of this film sounds like the perfect vehicle for Will Ferrell.  Much of the supporting cast has appeared in his recent films.  Ironically, Ferrell does make a cameo in the film, but would have been better for the lead.  This film would have played more like Anchorman or Talladega Nights had it been done differently.

Jeremy Piven is a good actor, but this type of film is not for him.  We have seen him for years on Entourage, and this is too much of a contrast right now.  He is a great Ari Gold, but a less than stellar Don Ready.  This may have been a good Piven vehicle following PCU, but those days are long gone.  This film needed to be lead by someone who has a built in following for being over the top.

Overall this is a forgettable film.  There is not much to say about this film besides, “eh.”  It is only bad because the execution was horrible.  Promising elements were there (the man band, funny selling tactics), but they did not utilize them enough.  There was too much of the weird DJ and not enough of the sales encounters.  It was simply an unbalanced film.  Skip it.

Film Grade: D

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