The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

A cheerfully energetically and very vulgar comedy.

The movie doesn’t even try to break new ground–it’s shot entirely on location in familiar Ferrell-McKay territory.

A comedy without a shred of obvious filmmaking and an endless stream of good, bad, sometimes terrible, often absurd jokes.

The escapades are tossed off and fall flat, all products of the business-as-usual template created by the film’s producers, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell.

About Piven: When did it go wrong? When did the caustic character actor guaranteed to liven up even the dullest movie turn into a walking black hole of smarm from which no joy can escape?

If you are a fan of brainless comedy that willed with bits that seque magically into some semblance of a plot…then The Goods is for you.

Tediously one-note comedy.

One of the funniest flicks I've ever seen... can't believe I waited so long to watch this... a heavyweight & hilarious comedic cast.

The movie made me laugh through most of it but with the cast and writers it had I really did expect more out of it. I was also kind of disappointed with the end of the movie. It's not as good as the Hangover but it is a funny movie and worth checking out.

Simple fun, with a few legitimately hilarious moments, but never quite manages to become a complete film. A thin plot routinely sets the place for great payoffs, but each punchline misses ever-so-slightly, like the film knows how to be funny but is afraid to fully commit. The Goods boasts a tremendous cast of supporting actors, drawn from no less than a dozen genuine classics, but Jeremy Piven once again fails to graduate into a reliable leading man and that front-office vacancy leaves the picture feeling hollow. A grab bag of potentially funny ideas and situations that don't always deliver, it's the kind of flick you might expect to see on Comedy Central at 3AM every other weekend. Very similar to Wet Hot American Summer, come to think of it.

I'm a huge fan of both Piven (Entourage) and Jeong (The Hangover), but "The Goods" were as bad as Employee of the Month or any movie that stars Dane Cook on it. They made an appearance on WWE Monday Night RAW to promote the movie. Unfortunately, they met a friendly John Cena and they'd payed the price. That's because they're were the worst guest hosts in RAW 's almost-20-year-old history. After the film was released in August 2009, the film was a flop at the box office. So I suggest they can't make an appearance on the 1000th episode of RAW next month.

Don Ready does have potential. He does see that his life is devoid of love and meaning. He does see that things in his world must change. And he even tries to make those changes. But his changes are 180 degrees away from what would truly help him. And that's really what makes The Goods tragic. Not in a Shakespearian sense by any means, but in an irreverent, dumbed-down, 21st century Hollywood sense.