Neal Brennan, the creator of the Dave Chappelle Show, makes his feature film debut with The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. The not always likable Jeremy Piven stars as used car fixer Don Ready summoned for a huge sell off event during fourth of July weekend in order to save the family run lot owned by Ben Selleck played by James Brolin. Piven brings his three veteran cohorts along and it's soon apparent they've been doing this kind of thing for years. Kathryn Hahn as Babs borders on manic depressive/bi-polar/sexual deviant, trying to get it on with the man/child son of Ben Selleck (Rob Riggle). Ving Rhames as Jibby Newsome is a stud who wants to be in love with a woman, not just just have sex with them. Right! Later on he may get his wish with a student stripping her way through college (Noureen DeWulf). David Koechner as Brent Gage may have to get cozy with Ben Selleck. Piven supposedly may have a long lost son working on the lot, but otherwise he's a womanizer who meets his match in Jordana Spiro as Ivy Selleck, daughter of Ben.
As is usually the case in these kind of films, the gags/jokes are hit or miss, like the Will Ferrell cameo role (which seems to serve no other purpose besides Will looking at the audience and saying "hey audience, look, I'm Will Ferrell and I'm doing this cameo!). Many of them do miss, but several of them hit high enough to make the film consistently entertaining. The plot involves the Sellecks trying to enlist Piven's crew to save a hostile takeover of their used car lot. The opposition is Alan Thicke as Stu Harding. With tongue in cheek, Thicke tries bulldozing his way over Brolin to obtain his car lot. Thicke's son, Ed Helms playing Paxton Harding, is an obnoxious jerk who intends to marry Ivy Selleck. Paxton Harding and his two cohorts form a grossly overage version of a boy band called The Big Ups, which is absolutely hilarious.
Once the film settles in on the used car lot survival story, what follows is predictable enough. Viewers watch simply to see how things arrive at the predictable end result. From the outlandish pep talks to the incredibly diverse group of salespeople, especially Charles Napier as a crusty old veteran who doesn't belong anywhere near a sales job, the gags and jokes come at a frenetic pace. All of the gags involving Napier are very funny. The commercial Brolin makes as a last ditch effort to save his lot is a scream. Much of the humor is crass, irreverent, raunchy, vulgar, and politically incorrect. However, there are far too many other "comedies" out there that simply can not elicit chuckles from the audience like this can, much less real laughter. Viewers who enjoy this should see Used Cars from 1980, a very very funny film about the same topic. Viewers near 40 and over will recall it well. Look fast for Gina Gershon in a bit part. *** of 4 stars.
As is usually the case in these kind of films, the gags/jokes are hit or miss, like the Will Ferrell cameo role (which seems to serve no other purpose besides Will looking at the audience and saying "hey audience, look, I'm Will Ferrell and I'm doing this cameo!). Many of them do miss, but several of them hit high enough to make the film consistently entertaining. The plot involves the Sellecks trying to enlist Piven's crew to save a hostile takeover of their used car lot. The opposition is Alan Thicke as Stu Harding. With tongue in cheek, Thicke tries bulldozing his way over Brolin to obtain his car lot. Thicke's son, Ed Helms playing Paxton Harding, is an obnoxious jerk who intends to marry Ivy Selleck. Paxton Harding and his two cohorts form a grossly overage version of a boy band called The Big Ups, which is absolutely hilarious.
Once the film settles in on the used car lot survival story, what follows is predictable enough. Viewers watch simply to see how things arrive at the predictable end result. From the outlandish pep talks to the incredibly diverse group of salespeople, especially Charles Napier as a crusty old veteran who doesn't belong anywhere near a sales job, the gags and jokes come at a frenetic pace. All of the gags involving Napier are very funny. The commercial Brolin makes as a last ditch effort to save his lot is a scream. Much of the humor is crass, irreverent, raunchy, vulgar, and politically incorrect. However, there are far too many other "comedies" out there that simply can not elicit chuckles from the audience like this can, much less real laughter. Viewers who enjoy this should see Used Cars from 1980, a very very funny film about the same topic. Viewers near 40 and over will recall it well. Look fast for Gina Gershon in a bit part. *** of 4 stars.