In 2009, a comedy film without Judd Apatow in the credits is anything but a sure thing. With that being said Jeremy Piven stars in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. This scarcely promoted film was drastically overshadowed by the weekend’s other releases District 9 and The Time Traveler’s Wife though it proved to be a fairly strong comedy. The deep cast of comedy regulars helps bring the laughs much easier and faster than Apatow’s Funny People, but these two movies landed on opposite sides of the comedy spectrum.
Piven guided the film between cocky entitlement and idiot humor and to be honest I thought it worked. Taking the emphasis off of his own supremacy in the second half of the film allowed for Piven to gain some sympathy from the audience and opened the door for the film’s funniest moments. In a move that was probably bad for marketing Will Ferrell’s character was not shown in the trailers or commercials. So when he comes on screen prepped to jump out of an airplane in an Abraham Lincoln outfit and bushy mustache the theater was surprised and thrilled. While practically every one of Ferrell’s lines was laugh out loud funny it did shed some light on how the film was missing something. I guess that something was just the anticipation factor that the American public and I both lacked leading up to the release.
Unfortunately, the majority of America missed out on one of the summer’s best comedies. The Goods showcased a strong script with laughs from all of the movie’s big players. It kept my attention with the multiple subplots based around Ving Rhames, David Koechner and others. I don’t think the story has enough depth to last past one or two views on DVD like The Hangover, or Superbad does but that’s not for every comedy. It definitely was good enough to get Jeremy Piven some more film parts. Hopefully that’s true. (7.5 out of 10)
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