Opening Day: 24 December 2009

Synopsis:

Who is Don Ready? Salesman? Lover? Song Stylist? Semi-professional dolphin trainer? Ready is all of the above, except for a dolphin trainer. When he's asked to help save an ailing local car dealership from bankruptcy, Ready and his ragtag crew descend on the town of Temecula like a pack of coyotes on a basket full of burgers. Selling, drinking, selling and going to strip clubs is their stock and trade. And they do it well. What Don doesn't expect is to fall in love and find his soul (cue heartfelt piano).

Movie Review:

After stodgy 60s news anchormen (2004’s “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy”) and Nascar race car drivers (2006’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”), the Political In-correctness comedic duo of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell have set their sights on used car salesmen as their next machismo profession to skewer. 

This time, their de facto foul-mouthed protagonist is travelling salesman for hire Don Ready, hired over a Fourth of July weekend to help a failing used car dealer move goods off the lot. And who better to play Don Ready than Entourage’s Jeremy Piven? Over six seasons (and running) of HBO’s comedy favourite, Piven has won a loyal following of viewers (and three Emmys back-to-back) for his portrayal of the fast-talking Hollywood agent Ari Gold.

You might be forgiven for thinking that Ari Gold had moved to the nondescript California town of Temecula, since Piven essentially brings the same brash motor-mouthed but oddly charming persona in “Entourage” to Don Ready.  Of course, instead of being a supporting role, now he’s lead front and centre, breezing through gag after gag of alternating inspired and uninspired lunacy.

A lot of whether you’d like “The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard” depends on your likeability of Piven’s fidgety weasel archetype. This reviewer, for one, will admit that he has always had a fond spot for Piven’s Ari Gold character, easily one of the best things about “Entourage”- so really, by extension, Piven’s Don Ready is just as hilarious.

Piven is joined by a stellar supporting cast- there’s David Koechner as Don’s right-hand man Brent, the target of dealership owner Ben Selleck’s (James Brolin) persistent propositioning; there’s Babs, the only girl in Don’s quartet who takes a queer liking to Ben’s son (Rob Riggle), a man-sized 10-year-old thanks to a pituitary condition; and there’s Ving Rhames, the most serious-assuming man in Don’s team and constantly in search for true love. And oh, there’s “The Hangover’s” Ken Jeong, a Korean-American salesman mistaken for a Japanese and blamed for Pearl Harbour by Viet veteran Dick Lweiston (Charles Napier).  

With the myriad of subplots running through the movie, first-time director Neal Brennan keeps the jokes flying fast and furious in your face. Some fall flat (one of them literally, courtesy of a cameo by Will Ferrell), others are mildly amusing and a few are downright hilarious- but “The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard” has enough moving parts that chug at the right speed to keep you entertained. To say anything more however would spoil what fun you may have out of the film.

Yes, McKay and Ferrell’s latest production effort doesn’t have enough of the comedic goods in “Anchorman” or “Talladega Nights” to make it an outright enjoyable romp. But it does make the effort to do a hard sell, and if you like Piven the salesman, then this serviceable effort should be a much easier buy.

Movie Rating:



(Fans of Jeremy Piven’s "Entourage" persona will like this- even though the film’s unabashed lunacy masquerading for comedy doesn’t always work)

Review by Gabriel Chong