The always naughty, sometimes nasty and completely transgressive comedy The Goods is already stirring up trouble.
Politically incorrect jokes -- including an apparent Asian hate crime that, out of context, was stupidly included in the trailer -- will do that for a movie.
But The Goods is also hilarious.
The full title is The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard. It comes from the same Hollywood troublemakers who generated Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers.
That means Adam McKay and Will Ferrell are co-producers, with Ferrell appearing on-screen in an unfortunate cameo as a dead guy returning as an annoying angel. Like their previous movies, this one flaunts notions of taste and mucks about with stereotypes, including race, for satirical purposes.
The Goods features Jeremy Piven in a rare lead role. He stars as a maverick used car salesman who heads a freelance team of sales specialists. They are so good (or so bad) they can sell a junker to a blind man. This sales team is insane. But, as Piven's edgy character announces with bad grammar and big bravado in the opening scene: "I'm Don Ready. I got the goods!"
Struggling dealerships hire Piven's crew to save their businesses.
James Brolin's nearly bankrupt car lot in Temecula, Calif., does just that to keep himself afloat and his property out of the hands of his hated rival. A July 4 American holiday weekend is chosen for the big sell. The goal is to clear the lot of every crappy car. The game is on.
Piven displays some of the edge he has as Ari Gold in Entourage.
But he also shows a softer, more vulnerable and romantic side.
Even if his Don Ready is self-delusional, he is charismatic and has an off-kilter leading-man appeal. Piven is excellent. He also has a real-life background as a used car salesman, so he knew his stuff.
The support cast is also good, among them Brolin and Jordana Spiro as a daddy-daughter combo.
The spunky Spiro provides romantic frisson for Piven's cowboy character. Ving Rhames, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Koechner, Tony Hale, Ed Helms, Dick Lewiston, Alan Thicke also generate laughs.
The comedy comes out of situations. Everybody plays it straight, as in a serious drama. Even the one-liners are droll asides, not outright jokes.
Under first-time director Neal Brennan (who co-created the acclaimed Chappelle's Show), the comedy also has an undercurrent of social commentary.
That is mildly surprising, given that it was co-written by Andy Stock and Rick Stempson, whose prior was co-writing Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach. Clearly, they had more to say.
That is the good stuff in The Goods. Now to the controversy. In the scene in the trailer, a car salesman played by Ken Jeong is jumped and beaten when Don Ready invokes Pearl Harbor and shouts, "Never again!" What you don't see is Ready breaking up the fight, Jeong announcing he is Korean, not Japanese, and all of the racism in the movie being satirized as barbaric.
That makes it funny. Start laughing.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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