Funny or Die Will Ferrell Song Car Dealership
Plot? Who says a comedy needs a plot?
Plot? Who says a comedy needs a plot? Apparently no one ever told Andy Stock or Rick Stemson, but that doesn't seem to matter much. The Goods is an absolutely hilarious look at the irreverent business of selling used cars that hasn't been addressed this well since "Cadillac Man" or "Used Cars".
They picked the perfect cast for this side splitter. Jeremy Piven is one of those guys who can pull off the two-dimensional character with finesse. His portrayal of Don Ready is the perfect lead for this cast of unlikely car salesmen trying to save the failing dealership. Ving Rhames plays his role with audacity, as do both Kathryn Hahn and David Koechner, all three exceptional comedians in their own right.
Seeing Alan Thicke and James Brolin in the film, along with Wendie Mallck, reminds us that older actors may not take the stage often, but when they do, they know their stuff. While their roles are brief, they are exceptional and add the right amount of balance to the film.
All in all, while I don't see this film walking away with any Oscars, it is an entertaining adult comedy with some great lines and a few scenes so ridiculous they are priceless. The kiddies need to be in bed or out playing in the yard though. Rated a serious R of language and nudity. Oh, don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for a cameo by the ever hot Gina Gershon.
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Perhaps targeted at an over-40 audience?
I gotta say, I was surprised (as I'm sure The Goods' many detractors will be) by how much I laughed during this movie. The jokes were silly and often in the background. And funny.
I am really not sure what made me laugh so hard. I think it boiled down to the fact that The Goods is a good ol' raunchy comedy, but with a twist: It seems to be aimed at adults who have lived life a bit, not the Superbad crowd. (FWIW, I do not see the humor in Superbad. I tried. Twice. Couldn't get all the way through it. But was glad I had tried, because it allowed me to laugh out loud at one of the jokes in The Goods.) I am curious if there are older people (over the age of 40, let's say) out there who also dig the film.
As for Pivens' performance, I thought it was weak in the dramatic parts, but this is a comedy, so no harm no foul, and I understand that the dramatic story is there because producers feel it's necessary.
All the players were hilarious. I thought maybe the psycho WW2 vet was a bit over the top, but he did play that part well.
This is normally not my kind of movie -- cheap, raunchy humor is not my bag. I went on a whim and was pleasantly surprised.
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a true hit and miss comedy, like a dartboard of high and low raunch
It's something to note since not too many other reviews will point it out that the director of The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is Neal Brennan. Who is Neal Brennan? For about the last decade and a half he was the white-guy collaborator, super-close in fact, with Dave Chappelle. Now that their collaboration has fallen apart after Chappelle's walk-away from his show, Brennan is now left to put his own career forward. If The Goods is a sign of where his career might be headed... he still has some ways to go. But it's a decent start: he can definitely let his actors go totally wild and is able to capture plenty of jokes and wacky characters along the way... and also, sometimes, not really at all.
Plot? What plot? It's so thin that you'd need Nicole Richie standing by it for comparison. Oh sure, there's character development, sort of, where we see Don Ready (Jeremy Piven), super hot-shot car salesman and his crew of hot-shot car salesman, come to a small town to help a fledgling car dealership for one weekend to avoid getting bankrupt and/or taken over by the dastardly competition plus a "Man-Band" (over thirty boy band) headed by Ed Helms. The rest of the movie's story focuses on this rag-tag group of characters and their one-track adventures, and Ready's whole "finding-himself" saga which includes facing the fact that he's an a-hole who wanders from town to town without any connections personally or acknowledging that he might have a son (who isn't really, by the way, another 'joke'), and the ultimate goal that you know is going to come around, with a twist or two perhaps.
This is a true throw-a-dart-at-a-board comedy where the filmmaker and writers just keep the gags going and going on. It's not just Brennan pushing it either, since Will Ferrell (who appears in one of the funniest scenes in the movie as an angel visiting Ready to give him a boost as a former salesman) produced it, and it has that crazy anything-goes style. What works? This will be subjective, 100%. You can't go into this knowing what to expect even if you think you'd like 'this' kind of movie, meaning a movie with lots of (very) R-rated comedy and actors that those of us who see these movies recognize (Craig Robinson, ken Jeong, Helms, Rob Riggle). Some may dispute if Rob Riggle playing a 10 year old man-child is funny (or the female salesman who keeps hitting on him) or if James Brolin's gay thing for another salesman is funny, or if Helms as a guy in a "Man-Band" going completely obvious is funny.
Some of this, in fact, is. But if I had one problem really overall it was Jeremy Piven. I have a feeling you either really go with this guys work or you don't. I don't, at least not anymore. To describe his performance as Ready is as simple as saying that he walked off the set of Entorage and didn't get out of character except to switch from talent agent to car salesman. It's old-hat by this point, and it's something that Piven has had for a lot of his career going back to PCU. If someone else had played this character it might have been funnier, or more interesting, but with Piven his obvious streak in this film becomes obnoxious, and even funny lines are overplayed as if "hey, this is FUNNY". This can be a problem sporadically in the film as well (one of the characters, for me, that had this was the WW2 veteran car salesman), but none so more prevalent than Piven.
On the opposite side of this is Ving Rhames, who gives a surprisingly funny comic performance as a mack-daddy who's had sex with hundreds of women... but has 'never made love' and finds his possible match with a political-science major stripping to make ends meet. It's a sign of subtlety that the film lacks otherwise. The Goods is an in-your-face * broad* comedy that keeps the jokes flying like a fast food joint. I don't fault the film for trying, but it will be at best a cult curiosity as opposed to something fans of 'this' kind of comedy fully embrace (the Will Ferrell school of crude absurdity to a tee). 5.5/10
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A good but not great comedy
Warning: Spoilers
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard stars Jeremy Piven as Don Ready, a character not all that different from Ari Gold who he plays on Entourage… but maybe a little more over the top. He's considered a "mercenary" car salesman; he doesn't work for one auto dealership. Instead, he prefers to go from one dealership to another for brief periods of time when one of them is in dire need of a renegade salesman who can turn things around.
James Brolin plays Ben Selleck who owns a flailing dealership and decides to hire Don Ready for his upcoming Fourth of July sale. Don is having his daily breakfast at a strip club when he receives the call. He gathers up his crew who travel with him wherever he's needed. Don even hires the strip club dj and some strippers to liven things up at the big holiday sale. As I was watching this movie, I thought of how cool it would be to actually have a dj and strippers at a car dealership. I'm pretty sure it would get me over there to check out some cars.
The film has some very good jokes, especially in the first half of the film. It wears a little thin in the second half when they get into a slump and Don loses his focus. He even starts to fall for Selleck's daughter although she's already engaged to a grown man who sings in a boy-band. I guess they had to have somewhat of a story arc as there's not any kind of complicated plot here. Overall, most of the gags work because they're pretty over-the-top just as The Hangover was. This even has some of the same stars from that movie in this one. As a small bonus, Will Ferrell shows up for a brief but rather funny cameo. The film clocks in at just 90 minutes which is perfect for a comedy of this nature, any more than that would have been dragging it out.
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Who's got the Goods?
Well the movie is suggesting mostly it's Jeremy Piven. And while I would agree with him having the goods, looking at the cast of this ... it's just wow. I reckon Hangover came after this in the same year and I can understand why it was received better overall. Also this was likely shot a year before or something like that, to be able to include all those names in there. It seems like an all star comedy cast and then some.
Of course that means, there is not too much time for anyone to shine for too much. And yet the movie still manages to show a lot of people in quite the interesting display and with quite the interesting subplot for almost all of them. A lot of innuendos and a lot adult language included. You should not be easily offended if you watch this. Piven seems to be able to play the "loveable" egomaniac (some may disagree with the loveable part). Something he did to perfection in a little show called Entourage. His character here is not too far off of that. Fighting his personal demons (with the help(?) of Will Ferrell) ... There is so much to have fun with here, it'd be a shame if you concentrated on the many flaws this still has - just don't be offended and enjoy if you can
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A Nutshell Review: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Gone are the days when a comedy with a premise as simple as this, would have made me laugh uncontrollably at every instance of humour. It's either I've grown older and more cynical, or have totally lost my funny bone. I'd reckon that it's more of the former, as I still laugh just as hard when I revisit comedies done by the Zucker Brothers time and again, which measured by my personal yardstick, goes to show that the comedies these days lack a certain oomph. Watching this was a reminiscence of an era that I'm still missing, where comedies really gave audiences some bang for their buck with jokes that will send you rip- roaring.
What filmmakers like director Neal Brennan would reckon is funny, is the constant dropping of F-bombs and turning everything possible into a sexual innuendo, be it hitting on the gays, or treading so finely on pedophilia, which I suppose to him is meant to be funny with a female cougar scouring quite unsuccessfully a boy who's trapped in a man's body.
The flimsy plot on which the laughs are built upon, involve a used car business founded by Ben Selleck (James Brolin), who has seen better days, and is now threatened with foreclosure. His sales force, made up of the likes of a senile drill sergeant (Charles Napier) and a madcap korean (Ken Jeong rising to some prominence these days), spells doom especially when they lose customers more than keep and sell them something. Hence extreme times like this meant to engage an external, proved consultant, and that's Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) and his team of Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames), Brent Gage (David Koechner) and Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn).
Part of the fun here I suppose is how each character has to exorcise their personal demons and issues, especially with members of the Selleck family. For Don, it's the prospect of acknowledging a long lost son whom he had unknowingly left behind, and the wooing of Ivy Selleck (Jordana Spiro), who is engaged to boy band leader Paxton Harding (Ed Helms from The Hangover). Then there's Brent who has to keep Ben Selleck himself off his back given the latter's newfound sexual desire. Babs is trying to hit on man-child Peter Selleck (Rob Riggle), a 10 year old trapped in a 30 year old body. And Jibby just wants to make love. Right. Jeremy Piven also lacked that cocky charisma to have carried his character off, and unfortunately for him too that the last act have him moping and whining more than the cocksure seller that he supposedly is.
There's nothing you won't already predict in the narrative as it unfolds and coasts along from joke to joke with its cardboard characters, some of which do work, but most falling flat on its face. Nothing surprising will turn up as you'll see all incoming development from a mile away, right up to the finale. The saving grace may just be Will Farell's uncredited appearance together with two gospel angels who don't mince their lyrics, but other than that, The Goods should have tried harder to live up to its tagline in putting bums on seats - I got an entire hall to myself!
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A WILL FERRELL MOVIE WITH NOT MUCH FERRELL
Warning: Spoilers
Adolescent humor-yes. Bad jokes-yes. Gratuitous nudity-yes. But it all seems to work, perhaps because Will Ferrell didn't star in this Will Ferrell movie. He did manage a small role, which he typically smelled up. The movie is based on an occupation I don't believe exists, which is a crack team of migrant expert car sellers. They get the call to save a dealership. The movie has some laugh out loud lines like DJ Request saying, "Nobody tells DJ Request what to play." Or "Did you ever have a relationship last longer than a lap dance?" Besides the smelly scene with Will Ferrell, Ed Helms was fairly bad. I loved Ed on the Daily Show, but face it, he can't act. Rob Riggle did a good job as a 10 year old. The movie moves along smartly through the first day of sales after which the plot suddenly changes direction. Piven seriously examines his life, the car dealership is being sold, etc etc. At this point the movie goes down hill. This was supposed to be a senseless comedy about selling cars, not a bad lesson on establishing roots. Had the movie stuck to the original formula of car cheats and left out Will Ferrell altogether, I would have gave it 10 solid stars.
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Sell or Be sold.
Warning: Spoilers
Ben Selleck (James Brolin) is about to go down with his business Selleck Motors. He does not have a plan what to do to save his company and decides to hire Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) and his group of professional sellers to help his business stay open. After Ready has his spiel and help sell 71 cars in the first day Stu Harding (Alan Thicke) and his son Paxton (Ed Helms) show up to make a deal with Selleck to buy his lot from him. Before that Ready makes a deal with him to sell the rest of the cars on the lot to save from selling his business he agrees to let it pan out before making any hasty decisions. Ready thinks Blake (Jonathan Sadowski) is his son after hearing how his father left him and his mother and has a crush on Selleck's daughter Ivy (Jordana Spiro) who is engaged to Paxton. This movie is filled with a lot of comedic actors, but also has a great message when you get all the quirks out of it. You even see an appearance from Will Ferrell who is the old owner that Ready worked for. Ed Helms who is currently on the show the Office, plays a funny character and does a great job. He has a lot of things going for him I think. It's funny and I'm sure you will be laughing at most of the jokes in this one.
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Captain Querque
Greetings again from the darkness. Billed as 'from the makers of Talladega Nights and Anchorma', this one doesn't come close to either. Sure Adam McKay and Will Ferrell are as listed Producers, and Mr Ferrell has another of his unending string of cameos, but the film has none of the charm or big laughs that those two far superior comedies offer.
Jeremy Piven just can't carry a film ... and I believe he is a talented actor. But after this one, Smokin Aces and Keeping up with the Steins, he has proved to be much more effective in supporting roles (see Entourage). His career will last much longer if he will just embrace the supporting role. In this film, he is so over the top that his character is neither a parody nor believable nor really very funny. Comedy works best if we feel a touch of empathy or even hatred for the lead. Here, I liked the movie best when Piven was not in a scene (which rarely happened).
The good things about the film are the work of Bab's husband James Brolin, the interesting Kathryn Hahn, the raging Charles Napier, "10 yr old pituitary case" Rob Riggle, and Cameron Diaz lookalike Jordana Spiro. But the absolute best part is the fast rising Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover). He really goes all out in his role as spoiled grown-up in a "man band".
For two better comedies set at a car lot, see Used Cars (with Kurt Russell and the great Jack Warden) and Cadillac Man (Tim Robbins and Rosin Williams). For better comedies ... the list is limitless.
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All the "jokes" are in the commercials. The rest is just badly put together
Warning: Spoilers
Jeremy Piven stars in a film concerning a team of car liquidators who are brought in to help James Brolin's dealership sell 200 cars in three days.
They tell me its a comedy. They might be right since there are laughs in the commercials. Personally I think its a tragedy since this is one of the most unfunny comedies I've ever seen.
The cast is there. I think the script should have worked. Something went horribly wrong when the film was put together. Clearly this was done for reasons other than love, its clear since they kept in shots of the boom mic dropping down. Who ever edited the film understands nothing about pacing. The timing is all off. There is no comic rhythm to any of the film. Its horrible. The jokes just sort of lay there. Then again maybe they weren't really good jokes to begin with since one of the running gags concerns one of Piven's gang wanting to sleep with Brolin's 6 foot tall and very mature ten year old. Its funny once, after the third time it definitely goes into the creepy bin. Actually thinking about it the jokes are pretty bad. I think the lack of pacing just makes them more noticeable.
I sat there with out cracking a smile. No I did smile, and laugh as the technical problem were shouted out by audience members. ("Boom mic!" was followed by cheers). I stayed for the audience because honestly the movie sure wasn't entertaining.
If you must see this wait for cable and remember that I didn't warn you.
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Not much of a story in Hard sell.
Warning: Spoilers
Not much of a story in hard sell. Comedy can not be funny without a good story. Hard sell has no story and just throws in some shock, sex jokes, over the top comments, and sight gags. Funny for a few minutes or a short skit but not a whole movie. The actors did there best with the material they had to work with. The movie has a cameo of Will. Many b actors, some who have not been in movies for years. No stunts or memorable scenes. Rent or video on demand Hard sell. Save your money and see another movie this summer. Soon to be in the 99 cent bin at a Block Buster near you. I give Hard sell a four out of ten. I hate it when they show the best parts on the trailer and make you believe the whole movie is that good.
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Exactly what it should be
njf0 7 November 2009
After reading so many bad reviews and angry critiques by many people who have only heard certain lines out of context and have not actually watched the entire film, I was surprised and thoroughly pleased to be laughing out loud throughout this entire movie. After a slightly slow start with few jokes in the first ten minutes setting up the story and characters, they finally arrive at the car lot and the story then immediately develops into a very funny final eighty minutes. It is a comedy with an ensemble cast of actors featured in numerous Ferrell/McKay movies with plenty of good-natured humorous satire of needless prejudices that will be familiar to anyone who has watched Chappelle's Show and was able to grasp the satire behind it. Rather than setting up one big gag for the end, the movie has countless visual jokes, hidden background details and subtexts, and quotable lines of funny dialogue layered so thick that multiple viewings will still be enjoyable. This is far superior to Brennan's first film, the unfortunately only mildly humorous Totally Awesome, and features significantly better casting, directing, editing, and production skills. I was concerned that it would be another letdown, but this movie far exceeded my expectations and I look forward to watching it again and noticing even more funny things because some of the funniest details are said immediately after another joke and may be missed because of laughter or are humorous small visual details. This type of layered comedy is known from Anchorman, Caddyshack, Step Brothers, Super Troopers, and Chappelle's Show, so if you liked those then you will be able to appreciate all of the funny lines and jokes from the varied and great cast and all of the humorous details carefully interwoven into this film. Will Ferrell was amazing as a character more crass than ever before and veteran actors Alan Thicke and Ving Rhaymes surprise with their character-breaking roles. Ed Helms and Rob Riggle were my main reasons for wanting to see this film and they do not disappoint when on camera, but I was a skeptical viewer pleased to find that the film was thoroughly funny from start to finish no matter who was on camera in a particular moment. This is what Totally Awesome should have been and exactly what a contemporary comedy should be.
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'The Goods,' no cash for this clunker
Warning: Spoilers
Trying to be a raunchy and crude comedy in the vein of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "The Hangover," the newest Paramount Vantage release, "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard," just manages to end up being raunchy and crude.
Directed by Neal Brennan (in his feature film debut, although he has helmed several episodes of the "Dave Chappell Show"), "The Goods" tells the story of a failing used car dealership in Temecula, CA. (I've actually been there) and the efforts of its owner, Ben Selleck (James Brolin) to save it by hiring a group of "mercenary" salespeople.
These include Brent Gage (David Koechner, "Taladega Nights," "SNL"), Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames, "Mission Impossible"), Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn, "Step Brothers," "Revolutionary Road") and the leader, David "The Goods" Ready (Jeremy Piven, "Old School," "Smoking Aces").
Ready is cool, sure and super confident (he even talks a flight attendant into letting him smoke on board an airplane in flight). But beneath this calm exterior, he hides a deep and troubling secret. Ah, the plot complications of a wafer-thin story line.
The current sales staff is so inept, that one wonders why they even got into auto sales to begin with. There's a goofy Korean guy (Ken Jeong, Mr. Chow in "The Hangover"), a wimp (Tony Hale, Emmett Milbarge in the TV series, "Chuck") and an elderly racist who calls everyone a "queer" and punches out customers (Charles Napier, "Annapolis," "The Manchurian Candidate"). It's no wonder the place is going down the toilet.
By holding a special three-day July Fourth blowout sale, though, Ready hopes to sell every car on the lot and save Selleck's livelihood. His group then takes over, orders new TV spots made, sets up an Astro-Jump for the kiddies and brings in a DJ who refuses to take requests (Craig Robinson, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," Darryl in "The Office").
The blitz seems to work and the amped-up staff sells 71 vehicles on the first day, but complications occur and soon the owner of a competing dealership (Alan Thicke, "Growing Pains") is trying to buy Selleck's lot. It seems that Thicke's son, Paxton (Ed Helms, "The Hangover," "The Office") - who is part of a boy band and is dating Selleck's daughter, Ivy (Jordana Spiro, P.J. Franklin in the cable series, "My Boys") - needs a big space to rehearse his group in (a used car lot?!)
Yes, there are F-Bombs aplenty, comic violence tossed about and the sex and sleaze are ratcheted up, but the film really only provides four or five solid laughs and a number of little guffaws.
A small amount of unnecessary pathos is injected and the subplots - Newsome wants to find true love with a stripper, Ready feels guilty about the "Kirkie" and Merrick is horny for a 10-year-old boy (in the body of Rob Riggle, "The Hangover") - are not amusing in the least, and the last one is downright uncomfortable.
One of the funniest sequences, however, concerns a crowd rioting when Eric Bice (brother of "American Idol" contestant, Bo Bice) fails to show up at a concert and Ready tries to take his place.
Basically an updated, dirty version of 1980's "Used Cars" (with Kurt Russell and Jack Warden) with little of the humanity or hilarity of that picture. Too bad there's no cash available for this clunker.
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The Goods sells big laughs
It seems like every week i'm saying there is a new "funniest movie of the year." "Funny People" is my current favorite but "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard" is it's non-dramatic equivalent.
First off this is a great role for Jeremy Piven, very much in Ari Gold-form as Don Ready, a car salesman-for-hire who travels around America with his crew helping out lackluster dealerships. Don is the type of character you immediately love, a born talker who not only manages to smoke on the plane ride over to Temecula, CA, he turns it into an all-out orgy complete with live mariachi band.
Why go to Temecula? The car dealership owned by Ben Selleck (James Brolin) is in trouble, struggling with rag-tag salesman, poor sales returns, and as Babs (Kathryn Hahn), one part of Don's crew points out, the place looks like a "refugee camp for dirty men." Along with his other two sidekicks, Brent (David Koechner) and Jibby (Ving Rhames), Don must sell all the cars off the lot or the dealership faces being sold to Stu Harding (Alan Thicke), another more successful dealer.
His son is Paxton Harding (Ed Helms), a late-30's man whose real dream is for his boy band to finally get off the ground. Paxton is engaged to Selleck's daughter Ivy (Jordana Spiro), who Don also finds attractive. Soon Ivy, plus a long-lost son Don fathered when he was 10-years old, encourages him to think about finally settling down. Wall to wall ridiculousness ensues.
Directed by Neal Brennan (a former writer on Chappelle Show) and written by Andy Stock and Rick Stempson, this is an offensively rude, crude, profane laugh machine from first scene to last. There are a few really good lines and the supporting cast gets some of the most hilarious material i've seen this year. The Daily Show's Rob Riggle as Selleck's son Peter, a 10 year old with a pituitary problem that makes him look 40. Kathryn Hahn as Don's sexually abrasive partner, using porno to sell cars and lusting after the innocent but very hunky Peter. Charles Napier as an older salesman who pines for the olden days and gets crazily angry and offensive to women, gays, Asians, and just about everybody really. Ving Rhames, playing a character who's had sex with thousands of women but has never "made love". Ed Helms, with his pot-belly and spiky hair-do, does nice work with the boy band stuff. James Brolin has a running gay gag with David Koechner that never gets old, and Brolin's car commercial, where he guilt-trips everyone to buy because he is dying of ball cancer, had me in tears. And like I said, I'm trying not to give too much away but Will Ferrell gets a cameo that single-handedly makes you forgive the atrocity that was "Land of the Lost."
This is all just the tip of the iceberg of this insanely hilarious movie. You just want to start listing funny thing after funny thing, its that good.
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Lame Brained Farce Wants To Top "Used Cars" But Doesn't
Warning: Spoilers
Freshman director Neal Brennan's glib, irreverent, R-rated comedy "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard" qualifies as a clunker that delivers little but lame laughs about an arrogant used car liquidator. Nothing in this contrived comedy is a tenth as side-splitting as Robert Zemeckis' "Used Cars" (1980) that co-starred Kurt Russell and Jack Warden. "Talladega Nights" producers Adam McKay and Will Ferrell along with first-time scenarists Andy Stock and Rick Stempson sink their first-rate cast with nothing but stinking jokes and crude routines that flatten on impact. Nevertheless, Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, James Brolin and Charles Napier humble and humiliate themselves without a qualm. Napier is especially militant as a chauvinistic, foul-mouthed World War II veteran, while James Brolin's masquerade as tired hubby gone gay who hits on straight guy David Koechner is more inept than funny.
You know you're in trouble when the best gag has an Asian-American car salesman accepting an official bank money bag as payment for the vehicle as the customer swerves off the lot. No sooner does the salesman pop open the bag than blue paint from a canister inside blinds him. As he staggers away, he shrieks, "I feel like I just got jizzed by a smurf." The next best joke has Piven quizzing an unsuspecting person with: "How much did the polar bear weigh?" As the puzzled respondent shrugs, Piven replies, "Enough to break the ice." This gag gives him the opportunity to introduce himself.
Don Ready (Jeremy Piven of HBO's "The Entourage") makes his living selling cars that nobody else could pawn. He has been selling autos since he was a kid. He knew that he had the knack when he sold his hippity-hop ball with designer handles to another neighborhood kid for the latter's deluxe, low-riding, plastic tricycle with streamers sprouting from the handle bars. Since then Don has been selling and he hasn't looked back. Don has assembled an A-Team of used car sales people that include Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames of "Pulp Fiction"), Brent Gage (David Koechner of "The Comebacks"), and Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn of "Stepbrothers") who can clear car lots with their questionable tactics.
Don receives a call from Benjamin K. Selleck (James Brolin of "The Amityville Horror") who is about to lose his family-owned used car lot to the bank. When our heroes arrive in the small California town of Temecula, Don mobilizes the local strippers, hires an obnoxious dee-jay, DJ Request (Craig Robinson of "The Pineapple Express"), who refuses to play anything that anybody requests, plants a gigantic inflatable gorilla atop the dealership, and a schedules appearance from the brother of a celebrity vocalist. They have to sell around 200 cars during the July fourth weekend. Matters are complicated somewhat by Selleck's family, particularly his daughter, Ivy Selleck (Jordana Spiro of "From Dusk Till Dawn 3"), who is dating another car dealer in town, Paxton Harding (Ed Helms of "The Hangover"). In fact, she is Paxton's fiancée, but this doesn't dissuade Don from going after her and likewise. Meanwhile, Paxton's father Stu Harding (Alan Thicke of "Alpha Dog") wants to buy Selleck Motors so that his son can have a place to rehearse for his boy band. Don persuades Selleck not to sell, even promising him a night in the sack with Brent. Of course, Brent is happy with the prospect of such a rendezvous.
Meanwhile, Don and Ivy hit it off and she wants to learn more about him. Like most movie heroes, Don has a skeleton in his closet and he hasn't exorcised this demon. Don lost one of his best salesmen, McDermott (Will Ferrell), during a car stunt gone wrong. McDermott dived out of a plane dressed like Abraham Lincoln and when he pulled the ripcord to his parachute, dildos flew out. Meanwhile, on the ground in the back of a car, Don is having sex with a woman in the back seat when he discovers that he has the parachute. McDermott dies and Don still feels the guilt. Eventually, Don and the ghost of McDermott with two female African-American vocalists in robes visit him and they straighten everything out.
Meanwhile, Don has abandoned his team because he feels so guilty about McDermott, but Selleck's sales staff pulls together and they manage to sell every car on the lot, except for a sports car that was one of the many used on the "Smoky and the Bandit" movie that Selleck managed to acquire. Stu and Paxton come to take the keys to the car lot because the sports car is still on the lot. By this time, Don has gotten back and manages to sell the vehicle to Paxton after he convinces him he can use it as a prop in his boy band act.
Another subplot concerns one of Selleck's car dealers, Blake (Vince Vaughn look-alike Jonathan Sadowski of the new "Friday the 13th") whose father left his mother and she had to raise him alone. Blake's moves after he makes a successful car sale are an exact imitation of Don's moves. Furthermore, Don hasn't been in Temecula in for more than 20 years and Blake is 21, so Don imagines that Blake is his son. As it turns out, Blake isn't his son, but that doesn't keep Don from adopting him when he marries Ivy at the conclusion of "The Goods." The epilogue informs us that Don and Ivy split up after two years and Blake moved on. Meanwhile, Babs lusts after Selleck's 10-year old son Peter Selleck (Rob Riggle of "The Hangover") who has a pituitary gland problem so that he looks like a 30-year old man with a 10-year old trapped in his body. Babs stops selling cars and goes to work at a boys counseling school where Peter is set to enroll.
If this description of the plot doesn't dissuade you from wasting your time on "The Goods," then you may actually like this numb skull comedy.
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Doesn't have the goods.
"Listen man, I haven't been home in a year and a half... and I'm about 90% sure I left the front door open. Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames)
That's the funniest line in the film.
Selling used cars and love have not always been successfully tandem motifs, so universally derided is that business. In The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard , starring Jeremy Piven as Don "The Goods" Ready, James Brolin as a hoping-to- be-gay car dealer hires Jeremy Piven's A Team to sell the cars off his ailing lot over a holiday weekend.
Piven falls in love while selling the cars to nary a laugh in the house. For this lame comedy he left successful Broadway and TV gigs? F bombs and gay innuendo cannot sell the picture any more than used cars. Try to answer why Piven thinks films are a better venue than TV and Broadway, where he had considerable success despite his leaving his last show under cloudy circumstances.
And that Will Ferrell is a producer of this failure with a forgettable cameo performance is further evidence that comedy is for sale, at least this one. No government help for this clunker.
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A complete BORE
Warning: Spoilers
"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard" could have been a very engaging experience for the art of selling cars. A car salesman, like the trusty insurance salesman and proficient civil attorney, is a hustler in his own right. He or she must convince the buyer of two things: that they're getting a good car, and that they're the right person for the car. If you can win a buyer with your charm, who cares about the merchandise your hoaxing them into getting? And so brings the comedy "The Goods...", with Jeremy Piven as our leading man. The three-time Emmy award winning actor from "Entourage" (and for you hardcore enthusiasts, "Ellen"), he doesn't quite have the Robert Downey, Jr. charm it takes to hold a flaky movie like this together. He's more of a supporting player. He is NO leading man.
The plot centers around him and a group of perverse car salespeople who decide to see if they can sell 200 cars off a lot in a short period of time. The purpose? More complicated then it seems, but really to impress a bunch of old rich white men. And to keep their jobs. Needless to say, we get plenty of scenes involving cars being sold, but not enough realism about the actual job. There's too much unnecessary sex jokes, too much scattered comedy for us to really invest in these characters.
If you want to see a good movie about selling things, rent "Glengarry Glen Ross"- an all-star cast playing sales people who must sell the most leads to keep themselves employed. David Mamet wrote the screenplay based on his play, and the movie stars Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce and Alec Baldwin (in a role he still can brag is his best).
There's a dumb subplot in "The Goods..." involving Piven and some wooden blond female he likes a lot. For what reason, I don't know- she has no interesting qualities other then her sexy lips. The only funny part of the movie involves two scenarios- one has a very old racist man trying to sell a car to a couple, and one has Will Ferrell falling to his death from an airplane. Oh, and two black women telling Piven he's too old to have a facebook account. That's about it. Ving Rhames has a thankless role of a man who is so stupid he has to tell a woman "Yesa ma'am, I do likes me a smart woman." Really? Is this how low the screenwriters have to sink- make the black guy dumb. Of course.
Big time waster.
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The Goods Certainly Aren't Here.
Warning: Spoilers
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009): Dir: Neal Brennan / Cast: Jeremy Piven, Kathryn Hahn, David Koechner, Ving Rhames, James Brolin: Comedy about potential, which is something this film lacks. A bunch of misfits assemble to help a car dealership from going bankrupt. Simple, formula and contains one of those laughless sentimental endings that is enough to make someone dose themselves in gasoline. Directed by Neal Brennan with an ensemble cast that had no better offers so they agreed to this sh*t. The cast includes Jeremy Piven, Kathryn Hahn, David Koechner, and Ving Rhames all wasted. Piven plays the lead and there is nothing likable about the lout he portrays here. There is a car from Smokey and the Bandit featured in the dealership and the film had the potential to provide a cameo by Burt Reynolds to buy the car. Instead it gives in to a turnover scheme that lacks laughs and leaves viewers glancing at their watches. Somewhat resembles Used Cars where Kurt Russell worked at a dealership. Seeing that car will allow viewers to go home and watch their copy of Smokey of the Bandit thus allowing themselves to see a better comedy. There is little to laugh at here accept that somebody green lit it and provided the funds to have it made. The result is a film that deserves to be placed on the ground and backed over with a used car for not delivering the goods let alone selling hard. Score: 3 / 10
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Lighten up--this movie is a spoof of GLENRARRY GLEN ROSS
Warning: Spoilers
We saw this movie at a sneak preview, and the earlier reviewers do not seem to appreciate that this flick is intended as broad satire. As traveling car sales motivational team leader Don Ready, Jeremy Piven is spoofing Alec Baldwin's role in director James Foley\writer David Mamet's hard-hitting 1992 cynical masterpiece about real estate salesmen, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. Imagine Donald Sutherland extending his short bit from THE DIRTY DOZEN in which he is impersonating a general to Sutherland assuming the lead role in a feature-length spoof of George C. Scott's Oscar-winning performance in PATTON, and you will understand the relationship between THE GOODS and GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. Does this mean I think GOODS is as much a "must-see" as ROSS? Heck no. I rated ROSS at "9" of 10, GOODS at 7. But GOODS is pretty funny in an often politically-incorrect manner, and the two lap-dancer ladies offer up a new definition of full-body contact Twister. While I definitely do NOT want to see THE GOODS production team take on SCHINDLER'S LIST as their next project, it would be kind of humorous if they could tackle the challenge of educating today's youth in a school such as Hogwarts.
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The Goods? Buyer Beware
Jeremy Pivin plays Don "The Goods" Ready, a "gun-for-hire" car salesman in this would-be triumphant comedy that falls flat. When business at Sellek Motors is dying, the owner (James Brolin) calls in Ready and his team of crackerjack salesmen to sellout the entire lot on 4th of July weekend. The plot has the makings of a classic, and with the team of Adam McKay and Will Ferril behind the wheel of this vehicle, one would only expect good things. However, the film attempts comedy through exaggerated performances and ridiculously lewd characters, many of the frat pack films from the same people. Only, this is Talledega Nights on steroids. Now, the film is not without positives. This film showcases performances by several veteran actors whom are seldom seen in theatrical films anymore. Also, the film experiences a good twenty minute run of entertaining events and genuine laughs, beginning at about the 30 minute mark, where Alan Thicke is introduced to set things up for the second act. Unfortunately Thicke's character is underused. But, the comedic high point of this film is Charles Napier's portrayal of the tactless, racist war vet salesman. A performance that perfectly hits where the others miss. It's an exaggeration, but not an uncontrollable one. Napier is the hidden gem in this film. As a whole, this movie does not have the goods. Upon paying for this film, I recommend a warranty.
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Not so good its bad, Not so bad its good.
You know, a lot of my friends and work peers think I'm too hard on the movies. Too negative. That I don't just sit back, leave my brain at the door and enjoy the movie, because, you must realize, they've never hated a movie or had a bad experience at the cinema, ever. If they ran their own review site, they'd rate every single movie as 5/5 stars and you know what? They would be the studio's best friend and probably appear on more than a dozen movie posters with their stinking thumbs up. Despite all that, perhaps I might agree with them a little; perhaps it's time to lighten up a bit.
So, I watched The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard and I have to say: why start disappointing my fans now? This movie sucked. It had such talent at hand, so many (enormously missed) opportunities for humor and the number one (Jeremy "Ari Gold" Piven) person to pull off the ultimate sale, not just for the poor car-customers in the movie, but to the audience that this movie is worth its ticket price. Not only could he sell an ice cube to a South Park character in hell, he couldn't even get into the top 5 for its opening box office weekend.
We have somewhat smooth talking Don (Piven) leading a sales team from town-to-town to reenergize failing car dealerships, and since you know he never thinks about settling down, you then know exactly where this movie is headed.
He lands in a no-nothing town in California, falls for an already spoken for daughter and works the closeted father into selling all cars on the lot in order to save the family-run business. Yes, that's right; they actually used a 1970s sitcom idea (mostly used in The Brady Bunch) for the entire movie.
In this economy, say for the past 4 years, this should've been the ideal escapism. Again, they had tremendous opportunities for laughs, and went for either the obvious, juvenile humor or just let the moment pass with my mouth agape at the wasted scene. In addition, the fully booked cast, most of the regulars from movies like The Hangover mostly stood around and looked like they were improvising everything since they basically had no script to go by.
I will admit, there were a few small laughs – mostly with Ferrell's cameo, but with what could've been PIven's huge break-through into starring roles – this role was made for him!! – even he looked bored. Or anxious to leave the lot and go back to HBO.
Skip it. I'd almost rather have the used-car dealer lie to me than attempt to make me laugh.
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The Goods: Suck Hard, Suck Really Hard
Warning: Spoilers
Maybe I'm a bit spoiled because I saw this the day I rented Adventureland and The Hangover.
I don't mind when a comedy uses gimmicks to construct a plot or tell a story but only if they're funny. I enjoyed Anchorman and every other Will Ferrell movie that did that, but the gimmicks in this movie aren't funny. Further more, these bits contradict each other and make the viewer confused. For example: There are 2 introduction scenes for Don Ready. Neither of which are funny but the second does develop his schtick.
Even after it's been reiterated several times, and shown (on the airplane) how good of seller Don Ready is, why does he need a pep talk from his buddy before motivating the sales team? Why did the Ed Helms character come in during dinner and mention that he has to go to practice then leave with his finacee even though he was leaving for practice? I could go on, but let me say that the biggest problem is the movie should never have happened. Why would the owner of car dealership (who wants to get out of the business) make a bet that he could sell all the cars on the lot so that he can keep his dealership? Didn't make sense to me either.
Neal Brennan should never direct again. The only thing I will ever watch that involves Neal Brennan is a new season of the Chapelle show.
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Great Cast & Concept, Poorly Executed
GREAT cast (in addition to the ones mentioned above), with some funny jokes, a solid concept, and great comedic timing (the latter which I expected, since Chappelle's Show, of which Brennan was the co-creator, was extremely good at that)…so why didn't I stay laughing? Why was I ready for this movie to be over halfway through? I think I figured it out: Piven was not a good fit for his role as the namesake and centerpiece of the film. Don Ready is supposed to be a salesman who is confident to a ridiculous and often-oblivious degree. What makes Piven so convincing and awesome as Ari Gold on Entourage is that he is anything but oblivious; he has a great deal of situational awareness, but often acts like an A-hole out of necessity. Piven is a good actor, but is better suited to roles that give off humor as a by-product; he is not a funnyman in the sense that you just place him center stage, let him babble, and watch amazingly-funny stuff roll out of his mouth, like Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy or Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. In fact, I couldn't help thinking during the movie that Piven and Ferrell should have switched parts.
Another thing that killed this movie was that, while many of the jokes were very well-written, the sales speeches themselves, especially Piven's, were average at best. If you're going to present a movie about the best car salesmen in the business, your dialogue during those sales, or the sales methods, better be incredible. I should finish that movie thinking, "Damn, that was a serious speech! I wanted to buy that car!" Instead, I thought the writers got lazy with the speeches; I saw a better car-sale dialogue on Friday Night Lights during Jason Street's brief stint at Buddy's dealership. The Goods's writers should have gone to the best real-life car salesmen in the business and solicited stories about the best real-life sales performances they ever saw. I bet you there are some real interesting stories out there.
All in all, this movie came very close to being worth watching on the strength of the great supporting-cast performance, even the ones who didn't get top billing. Craig Robinson stole the show as D.J. Request; and Ken Jeong, Ed Helms, and Ferrell (as well as the others whom I've omitted for brevity) were also hilarious. I wouldn't recommend you spend time watching this movie, but if you are bored, are doing something else while watching, or go in with low expectations, you will probably get some enjoyment out of it.
For more reviews and a kickass podcast, check out www.livemancave.com
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the goods
well were do i get started about 'the goods'. The goods is basically about a car sales shop which is doing bad so they decide to call in merc car sales men and a girl to help out and thats basically the jist of the story. Boy was it a mistake of me and my friends wasting our money on a linear piece of garbage like this the only good part hint the 3 stars was the intro showing you the vet fighting customers other wise this film could have entertained a bunch of 10 year olds sneeking into a 15 movie.
God do i want my money back for this piece of crap
there's lots of other great films out there but please avoid this stinker.
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Don't waste your time (And don't say you weren't warned)
Warning: Spoilers
This is a poorly written script that was chopped together without any flowing pace. Given the premise and the cast, I really thought it would be a winner, boy was I wrong. The comedy bits are so transparent and telegraphed that when the punchline finally arrives, it's really not funny. The Selleck Sales force is ridiculous...why would a failing business employ so many people especially a prejudiced senile war veteran who verbally and physically abuses both employees and potential customers. I, for one, can only guess that Will Ferrell had a lot to do with the direction this film went as it has his un-humorous fingerprints all over it. Once I recognized this, everything about this movie became clear as to why it was so hard to sit through, and why Forbes.com voted Will Ferrell the most overpaid actor in Hollywood. Save yourself the hour and a half of your life and do something better ...like watch paint dry. (Like I said...Don't say you weren't warned)
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092633/reviews
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