The Goods Review
This summer, studios have expanded the reach of the typical “guy comedy” movie. Movies such as The Hangover have broad appeal due to the affability of their characters, which allows an advertising executive to spin the movie as being about friendship, thereby overshadowing some of the movie’s raunchiest bits. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard does not fit in with this expansion. This lack of conformity is why I enjoyed the movie. It is rude, crass, and ultimately hilarious.
Before this review progresses any further, a word of warning: if you do not enjoy blue humor, you will not enjoy The Goods (the title is abbreviated from this point forward in this review because the full title is absolutely asinine). Many people do not enjoy blue humor, which is why The Goods currently has only 27% favorable reviews according to internet aggregator Rotten Tomatoes while the Disney Channel teen comedy BandSlam is “certified fresh” at 80%. Many people are morons as well, all making the same cash for clunkers joke while calling the movie offensive.
Jeremy Piven portrays Don Ready, a fixer for used car lots that have fallen on hard times. His job is to sell cars by any means necessary, and those means increase in absurdity and hilarity as the movie progresses. Assisting him in his goal are Brent Gage (David Koechner), Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn), and Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames). Headlining his first film since 1994’s PCU, Piven uses the overconfident personality that he has developed as Ari Gold on Entourage to ensure a fair amount of laughs. Rhames is on a quest to “make love” (but make no mistake, he has had sex) and consistently delivers some of the best lines in the movie (you’ll never think of James Van Der Beek in the same way again). Unfortunately, Koechner and Hahn fade to the periphery. While each of them deliver quality comedic moments, they either come too infrequently in the case of Koechner or the character disgusts you so much that you don’t want to see her on the screen in the case of Hahn.
They've got The Goods.
Aside from Ready’s team, the movie presents a supporting cast of ridiculous characters, including a xenophobic World War II veteran turned car salesman (Charles Napier), a dealership owner with homoerotic tendencies (James Brolin), the leader of a boy band for men who wants to see the dealership fail so that he can have more rehearsal space (Ed Helms), an unfortunately named DJ who does not live up to his name (Craig Robinson), and his former car sales partner (Will Ferrell in an outstanding cameo role). Piven plays the straight men to these characters and others that I did not mention, and much of the movie’s humor comes from the interaction between them. It is in this regard that I must compliment Neal Brennan, co-creator of Chappelle’s Show and the director of the movie. Because most of the movie is based upon interaction of a plethora of characters, it is essential that there is quality direction. Otherwise, the movie would have meandered through its own jokes.
The best way to describe this movie would be to call it a mile a minute comedy. There is a plot, but the real fun comes from the rapid-fire pace of the one-liners scattered through the movie. In this regard, The Goods resembles last year’s summer breakout comedy, Tropic Thunder. However, while Tropic Thunder only connected on about roughly 60%-70% of its jokes, The Goods connects on 90% of them. While there are many scenes that could be considered extraneous, you don’t mind viewing them because they keep you in stitches.
Was this scene unnecessary? Yes. Did it stop me from enjoying the movie? No.
The only cringe-worthy moments of this movie were when Hahn interacted with Rob Riggle’s character, a ten-year old boy who has a forty-year old’s body due to a pituitary problem. She obviously lusts for him, which is okay in real life, but not when he is supposed to be a ten-year old. Thankfully, this subplot is not pursued for more than five minutes. Otherwise, the movie would have been turned from a comedy to a bad episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
In this era where romantic comedies and bromances have become top earners, I’m glad that there are movies that can deliver the funny from beginning to end. The raunchy comedy is an art form and there is more potential to miss the mark and create a bad film, because there is little story upon which to fall back. For every Old School, there is Miss March and a Meet the Spartans. The Goods definitely belongs with the former, and not the latter.
Man, did this movie just get trashed at the box office. Five million and at fifth place.