Review: The Goods

Plot: Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) is a legendary used-car salesmen, who, along with his sales team (Ving Rhames, Kathryn Hahn, & David Koechner) is hired by a fledgling auto-dealership owner (James Brolin), to liquidate all the cars on his lot over one long, fourth of July weekend.

Review: Let’s get one thing out of the way: I’m NOT a big Jeremy Piven fan. Sure, I like ENTOURAGE (who doesn’t?), and yes, he’s great on the show as Ari Gold. However, other than that, he hasn’t done anything over the last few years to show any kind of range beyond that show and, there’ve been so many reports of him being a mega-jerk out there that I’ve kind of soured on the guy (although- to be fair to Piven, those reports could be BS, and he may be the nicest guy in the world). Funny thing is, I was a big fan of his circa GROSSE POINT BLANK, and VERY BAD THINGS. The problem is, somewhere along the way he seems to have stopped playing Ari Gold, and rather became the character both on & off-screen.

As his first big, post-ENTOURAGE starring vehicle, THE GOODS certainly isn’t going to win him any new fans. Basically it’s the same old shtick, only instead of being an asshole agent; he’s an asshole car salesman and the character really started to grate on my nerves after about ten minutes. I guess the filmmakers were going for a whole, Burt Reynolds circa SMOKEY & THE BANDIT vibe here (heck the Bandit car is even a major plot point), but Piven lacks the good ol’ boy charm Reynolds had, so the character gets old FAST.

Piven aside, the rest of THE GOODS doesn’t fare much better. There are a few good jokes here and there, and some solid work by veterans Charles Napier, Ving Rhames, and James Brolin (his crush on Koechner is especially funny), and a nice turn by the always funny Ken Jeong (although most of his good bits are spoiled in the trailer). There’s also a funny cameo by Will Ferrell who produced the film with Adam McKay. Other than that, the film just drags on and on, with jokes repeated over and over again until they aren’t funny anymore (like Ed Helms’ boy band fixation, or Hahn’s crush on Brolin son). At ninety minutes, the film feels long, which is saying something right there. Also, the whole thing feels a bit familiar- and I’m sure that the folks behind THE GOODS must have seen Robert Zemeckis’ USED CARS, as quite a few jokes (such as strippers being used to sell cars) are lifted from that film.

Suffice to say, if you LOVE Jeremy Piven, you may well enjoy THE GOODS. I wouldn’t call it a complete disaster, as there are a few good jokes, but for me a few laughs here and there aren’t enough, especially compared to something like THE HANGOVER, which managed to be consistently funny throughout.

Grade: 5/10