‘The Goods’ is… Just Okay (***)
Kathryn Hahn in The Goods
There’s plenty of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s DNA in their Gary Sanchez Productions film The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. In addition to a vast cast of familiar faces, there are plenty of hilarious lines in the film, some appearing randomly not unlike past efforts including Anchorman. Anchored by a strong leading man in Jeremy Piven, The Goods unfortunately has too many things going on to be considered to anything but an interesting and amusing effort.
Piven plays Don “The Goods” Ready, the leader of a diverse and ragtag group of mercenary car salesman. Also part of the team are David Koechner who plays a numbers man, Ving Rhames who is the tough-but-sensitive guy, and Kathryn Hahn as the girl-with-guy attitude. The early scenes with this group featuring profane dialogue is effective and funny. Ready is similar to Piven’s Ari Gold on Entourage, effectively able to talk anyone into anything as evidenced by a good early scene aboard an airplane.
James Brolin plays a Temecula, CA used car dealer who has a staff of misfits including Ken Jeong, Charles Napier (hilarious as a pyschotic WWII vet), and Tony Hale. Rob Riggle is hilarious as his ten-year old son in a thirty-five year old body (the object of Hahn’s advances). Less interesting is Brolin’s daughter Jordana Spiro who doesn’t bring any spunk or spirit in a role that really needed it (Christina Applegate, where are you?). Brolin also has a running gag where he very obviously hits repeatedly on Kochner’s character.
Also in the picture is Ed Helms as a spoiled brat son of Alan Thicke’s rival car dealer. He’s engaged to Spiro and has dreams of being in a “man band” (a boy-band with men). Throw in Craig Robinson as DJ Request (who does not take requests) and we easily have dozens of interlocking characters and storylines. For example, Ready thinks one of Brolin’s salesman played by Jonathan Sadowski is his long-lost son. And, predictably, Ready starts to crush on Spiro’s character too.
The mercenaries are brought in to clear all 211 cars from the car lot over July 4th weekend, and there are some funny sequences to see how this group will do anything to make the sale. Hahn and Ian Roberts (Talladega Nights) have an erotically-charged scenes, and Koechner is about as effective as we’ve seen him since Anchorman.
Finally, Will Ferrell shows up in both a flashback and also within the context of the story to help shepherd the conclusion of the third act. He’s funny but this is only a cameo, not an extended supporting turn as was rumored.
For all of the funny parts of The Goods, there’s simply too much going on. There are too many characters to try and give screentime to, resulting in storylines such as Hahn and Riggle’s that don’t really pay off. That said, Hahn is the standout here. After stealing the show in Step Brothers, we get to see Hahn paint on a larger canvas and her stuff is comedy gold.
The same cannot be said for Piven’s material. The early stuff works great, but the family and love storylines are not interesting or effective. And they derail major sections of the storyline. It’s not so much Piven’s fault but the lazy writing and ineffective acting from costars Spiro and Sadowski. And the less said about Rhames’ storyline the better.
Frat Pack fans will enjoy much of the movie thanks to great performances from Kathryn Hahn, David Koechner, and Rob Riggle. The Will Ferrell cameo is a hoot and if you enjoy Jeremy Piven chewing the scenery there’s a satisfying meal here. But don’t set your expectations too high.