REVIEW: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

STARRING: Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 08/14/09 DATE SCREENED: 07/27/09 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for cable

I began to lose interest in the show Entourage a couple of seasons ago, but Jeremy Piven’s portrayal of foul-mouthed super agent Ari Gold still manages to keep me tuning in. Piven’s portrayal of Ari has made him a multiple Emmy winner and turned him into the most popular actor on the show. Movie studios have taken notice. They have been trying to come up with the right role to capitalize on Piven’s television success. Some studio executive got the brilliant idea to make a movie featuring Piven as a sleazy car salesman. After all, if he can play a sleazy agent, then playing a sleazy car salesman should give his fans exactly what they are looking for, right? Well, not exactly…

When a failing auto dealership needs a big 4th of July weekend of sales to avoid going out of business, they call in the best team of used car liquidators that money can buy. Led by Don Ready (Piven), this team of used car salesmen promises to train the current staff and sell every single car on the lot by the end of the weekend. They sell cars by day and party at strip clubs by night. They use every dirty trick in the book to sell cars. While Don Ready and his crew are ripping off the public and selling cars, there are also subplots involving possible romances between Don and the auto dealership owner’s daughter, a female member of Don’s crew and the owners’ 10 year old son that looks like an adult, and the owner himself and another one of Don’s male crew members. The latter two subplots are particularly awful.

The only good thing this movie has going for it is the cast. Piven is basically playing Ari Gold selling cars, and he’s good at that character. Ving Rhames, David Koechner, and Kathryn Hahn make up his crew and they do the best they can with the material. They take a lot of bad jokes, and at least deliver them in a way that makes you smile. Otherwise, this movie is easily forgettable. It’s filled with gay jokes, pedophile jokes, racial stereotypes, and general silliness. They must have spent the entire budget on the cast, and nothing on the writing. This film is further proof that you can’t simply take a popular TV character and basically throw him into a movie and it will turn out good. If Piven wants to be a big movie star he is going to have to step out of his comfort zone a little bit and look for a good script. Wait for cable to watch this sorry movie.