The number of remotely chucklesome jokes in Neal Brennan’s comedy is way too low, and the stuff in between them is grimy and depressing.
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:93
Fresh:24
Rotten:69
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Despite the talent in front of and behind the camera, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard largely misfires, proving a squandered opportunity for all involved.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and some drug material.
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Aug 14, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $15,000,327
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... 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). “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” stars Emmy Award-winning actor Jeremy Piven (“The Kingdom,” “Entourage”) and Ving Rhames (“I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” “Mission: Impossible III”). The film, from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions, is directed by Neal Brennan, co-creator of the hugely successful Comedy Central hit “Chappelle’s Show.” --© Paramount [More]
Starring: Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner
Starring: Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, Ed Helms, Jordana Spiro, Craig Robinson
Director: Neal Brennan
Director: Neal Brennan
Screenwriter: Andy Stock, Rick Stempson
Producer: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Kevin Messick, Chris Henchy
Composer: Lyle Workman
Studio: Paramount Vantage
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Reviews for The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Like a dodgy old motor, this smutty comedy about car salesmen roars with life to begin with but putters to a stop all too soon.
Sometimes this kind of comedy just goes too far into rubbishness to make it back.
A throng of outrageous supporting characters do little to salvage this stalled effort.
These jokes are fired out like one of those ball-throwing machines used for baseball practice - sometimes they hit and they hurt, sometimes they miss, and sometimes they meet the bat.
It isn’t merely bad, it makes you want to clamp your hands to either side of your face and do an impersonation of The Scream.
This film is so crass and so lowbrow its hairline is level with the carpet underlay. And yet, and yet, I must hang my head and confess I did laugh a fair bit.
They look as if they could provide more laughs but are defeated by bovine gags retrieved from a trashcan full of out-takes.
That mainstream cinema continually serves up such offensive offal is one thing, but the fact that the boundaries of taste are challenged with such regularity is made all the more alarming when passed off as harmless fun.
On paper, The Goods had the potential to be The Next Anchorman, but unfortunately somewhere in the drawing room, someone decided to pursue cheap laughs over something more substantial.
Jokes only get you so far, and The Goods gets increasingly bogged down in its uninspired plotlines. Ferrell's cameo is a particular lowpoint.
Picture a knackered jalopy misfiring on all cylinders, lurching from one pile-up to the next and spewing foul fumes as it lumbers inevitably to the breaker's yard. Then think of the cinema equivalent.
Some of the talent – like The Hangover’s Ed Helms – manage to escape with their dignity, just about intact, but the film’s attempts to justify its adult rating become increasingly desperate.
Nothing important is at stake. The characters are detestable, the jokes crude, the language foul. The attitudes towards homosexuals, the disabled and paedophilia are horrendous.
This scattershot comedy hits a few targets but is so desperate to amuse it feels more like a series of rejected TV sketches than a movie.
A dull idea to start with and packing it out with tasteless, unloveable characters doesn't help.
The film is randy and rough-hewn even by the standards of its genre. I could claim to have found it tasteless and mirthless, but that would be a lie.
It sounds a passable premise but what we get is a toe-curling disappointment that wastes the talent of some familiar television faces. No sale.
[It] squanders its potential with hard-to-like characters and a largely unfunny script that relies too heavily on unnecessary crudity.
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May 29, 2009:
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