The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Neal Brennan

Writers (WGA):

Andy Stock (written by) &
Rick Stempson (written by)

Release Date:

14 August 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Used-car liquidator Don Ready is hired by a flailing auto dealership to turn their Fourth of July sale into a majorly profitable event.

Plot Keywords:

Satire | Cameo | Sales Talk | Selling | Racism

Cast

Jeremy Piven	...	Don Ready
Ving Rhames	...	Jibby Newsome
James Brolin	...	Ben Selleck
David Koechner	...	Brent Gage
Kathryn Hahn	...	Babs Merrick
Ed Helms	...	Paxton Harding
Jordana Spiro	...	Ivy Selleck
Tony Hale	...	Wade Zooha
Ken Jeong	...	Teddy Dang
Rob Riggle	...	Peter Selleck
Alan Thicke	...	Stu Harding
Charles Napier	...	Dick Lewiston
Jonathan Sadowski	...	Blake
Noureen DeWulf	...	Heather
Wendie Malick	...	Tammy Selleck

Also Known As:

The Goods: The Don Ready Story (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and some drug material.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44379) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:18A (Alberta) | Iceland:14 | Ireland:16 | UK:15

Company:

Gary Sanchez Productions

Quotes:

Don Ready: Pain is weakness leaving the body.

Movie Connections:

References Total Recall (1990)

Soundtrack:

Luckydutch

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.