Review of The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009) by Walter M — 06 Nov 2010

"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard" is a moderately amusing comedy that works at cross purposes. On the one hand, you have Don Ready(Jeremy Piven, who I would definitely buy a used car from), master salesman, who is so good at his job that he convinces a flight crew that smoking is okay in violation of half dozen federal statutes.(Smoke 'em if you got 'em. I don't fly. I don't care.) Even though they have not been home in over a year and a half, he accepts another job on behalf of his crew(Ving Rhames, Kathryn Hahn & David Koechner) to save a failing car dealership owned by Ben Selleck(James Brolin) in Temecula, Ca. For which, Don also requires strippers and a DJ.

But something has been gnawing at Don since Albuquerque which does not inolve a wrong turn. And beneath the movie's silly veneer, it tries to work in some serious stuff about staying on the road too long but it should not matter if you are enjoying yourself. And since everybody is too busy at the party, they do not have any time to think much of anything. It is the morning after when you have a moment and a huge headache, that the reflecting can kick in but the characters are not quite there, yet. So, while the movie might have ambiguous feelings about its traveling salesmen(never a good sign), it harbors little ill will towards its small town characters, as many a familiar face shows up. And then there is Alan Thicke playing the villain of the piece.