Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Goods - C-

In theaters. Rated R, 89 minutes. Trailer.

What a cast - Jeremy Piven, Ed Helms, Buster Bluth, Kristen Schaal, Ken Jeong, Will Ferrell cameos, Craig Robinson, Ving Rhames, and more. How they signed onto this movie, I'll never know (but it probably has something to do with producers Adam McKay and Will Ferrell). Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) is a mercenary car salesman with a team of salespeople that travel the country as free agents helping car lot owners sell their cars. Ben (James Brolin) is the aging owner of a family dealership in Temecula, California who calls in the team to save the dealership. There are about 20 funny minutes enveloped by another 69 minutes of cinematic throw-up. Click below for more on the funny stuff:

The film's plot plays out as you would expect, with a small dramatic arc related to selling all of the cars on the lot and then one of the dumbest, most ridiculous 'romantic' subplots in cinematic history between Piven and Ben's daughter.

Remembering that the film is terrible, there are some really funny parts: Brolin's running gay comments are all hilarious, the old racist veteran is funny, Ken Jeong is really funny (watch out for his eyes during the Japan talk), Ed Helms as a member of a 'manband' called BigUps is great, nice cameo from Alan Thicke, and Rob Riggle as a 10 year old with a pituitary problem is funny. Piven was almost visibly struggling with several of his lines (they were so stupid) and his character is nothing but a dumbed-down Ari Gold. The film has several witty one-liners that must have been ad-libbed because the script is horrific. Should be a D, but I laughed too much, so it got bumped up.



3 comments:

Lawyer said...

Priest- Saw and really liked Adventureland - comment is on that review post.

Doctor said...

Re: The Goods, great cast - love Rob Riggle in Step Brothers and The Hangover. I'll check this one out on cable. Riggle needs his own movie.

Re: Simon Pegg, he's only 1/4 as good without Edgar Wright. Writing a script with Nick Frost may be OK, we'll see.

Priest said...

watched adventureland again last week and it fell to a B, but a very enjoyable B. It's just too slow at the end and the ending is by the numbers. Still, I love pretty much everything about that movie. btw, counselor, happy bday manana.