Film Reviews

The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: David Koechner
• Details: US/TBC (16)

Piven may not be his usual acerbic self, but he's still funny. If the script was better with this cast, who knows how good it could've been; as it is, though, there's still enough here to cheer up your evening.
Jeremy Piven has taken a long time to become a leading man again,after appearing as the best friend/sidekick in a barrage of films throughout the 90s. But his consistently brilliant performances as Ari Gold in Entourage, and three subsequent Emmy awards, have seen him deservedly thrust into a position of comedic leading man. Here he's surrounded by equally gifted comedians, Ed Helms, Katherine Hahn and David Koechner, who all offer their talents in supporting roles. While definitely not the laugh-riot it could have been, The Goods throws enough abrasive gags out there to make the production as a whole feel worthwhile.
Don "The Goods" Ready is a mercenary car salesman who can shift a whole heap of cars in days, if you pay him the right amount of money. He and his dedicated crew of sales experts have been on the road constantly for years, and when a call comes in from Temecula to save a family lot there, his team of hard-drinking, foul-mouthed wrong sorts hit the first strip club they can find and brain storm on how to go about staging a massive four day sale. Naturally, there is a nemesis in the form of Ed Helms smarmy car salesman, who wants to buy the space the lott is on, to use as a rehearsal space for his man band.
The gags are all fairly juvenile and silly, with little context, but when delivered by this calibre of cast it's often hard not to laugh. Katherine Hahn is fast establishing herself as a talented comedienne, while Craig Robinson has one of the biggest laughs of the entire movie, as the DJ who refuses to play anything that is requested. The romantic subplot feels like a gesture, and a lot of the gags don't work at all - James Brolin's constant propositioning of Koechner is just stupid - but, despite all of this, anyone who likes their humour raunchy will still find stuff here to chuckle at.

Review by Mike Sheridan