The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Review
Its the final stretch folks, the end of the summer season, and every one of the films that jump out in August tries to walk out over the others. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard achieves a quick advantage with the look of its comedic cast. Despite having that kind of star power, however, this flick roars along for the first hour but with no pit stop runs itself right into a ditch by the third act.
Jeremy Piven stars as Don Ready, the sharp-tongued egotistical liquidator who sells cars with the help of his all-star team: quick-thinking Jibby (Ving Rhames), the charismatic Brent (David Koechner) and the seductive Babs (Kathryn Hahn). They get the call from failing used car owner Ben Selleck (James Brolin), who has to rally to sell off all the cars on his lot during a Fourth of July sale in order to stay afloat. Right out of the lot, all the stereotypical comedic hijinks ensue, with interesting results.
First off, lets get at the actors in question. Of course, it’s really easy to target Jeremy Piven who is nothing more in this film, and many other projects in which he’s appeared, than a one-trick pony. He just plays the same character over and over, and believe me, there’s not much progress in his comedic acting ability to report in this one. Seeing him in the lead role, though, you have to thank the Lord that he had a somewhat strong supporting cast keeping this thing afloat. Kathryn Hahn was one of the funniest lifeguards of this film, constantly trying to seduce the man-child Peter (Rob Riggle) and brazenly using her good looks to sell cars. Ving Rhames was funny, not really more or less, just …decent. His side story was a fleeting thought but I was slightly disappointed not to see him break out into an R&B song by the time he finally gets a hook-up of sorts. The rest of the cast was mainly forgettable, except perhaps Ed Helms, the immature fiance/lead singer of the BigUps alongside the racist Dick Lewiston, played by Charles Napier. Will Ferrell is the one that has to be explained, and (for the last time!) his screen time is as little as it is in The Wedding Crashers, so do not expect him there for half of the film.
Camera work was nothing special and neither was the directing of Neal Brennan. The story was ridiculously loose and predictable. Only someone who’s rarely seen any form of comedy feature would not know what was going to happen at the end. The jokes are pumped out too fast in the beginning by the writers, and that made the latter half of the film falter.
People claim this to be the next funny film, along the lines of The Hangover, but this film just does not reach that kind of standard. You can throw in every predictable gag in the book, but it won’t save you if it isn’t funny. A note to viewers: if you want to be ridiculously annoyed, stay for the ‘musical riff’ of sorts at the tail end of the credits. If not, I advise you to leave right away.
★☆☆☆☆
