Movie Review

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009)

Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Aug 20, 2009

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

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EW's GRADE

C+

Details Release Date: Aug 14, 2009; Rated: R; Genre: Comedy; With: Ed Helms, Jeremy Piven and Ving Rhames

THE CAPTAIN HAS TURNED OFF THE NO-SMOKING SIGN Jeremy Piven violates some FAA protocols in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell... The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Image credit: Sam Emerson

THE CAPTAIN HAS TURNED OFF THE NO-SMOKING SIGN Jeremy Piven violates some FAA protocols in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

The comedy concept is solid: Jeremy Piven plays a hard-driving used-car salesman — not such a stretch, right? — brought in with his freelance team to save a failing small-town dealership. It's the execution that's out of alignment in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, a slightly dinged endeavor from the makers of Talladega Nights: Barely controlled scenes of genial, scattershot political incorrectness (sexual, racial, you name it) bump up awkwardly against a soft, sad story of economic downturn. Ed Helms and Ving Rhames score laughs. But the breakout is Step Brothers' Kathryn Hahn as the tough (sales)girl who keeps up with the boys. C+

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Originally posted Aug 12, 2009 Published in issue #1061-1062 Aug 21, 2009 Order article reprints

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