In honor of Jason Reitman’s third feature, “Up in the Air,” opening today, I wanted to use the “F.I.L.M. of the Week” for the first time in correlation with the release of a movie in theaters.  This week’s “F.I.L.M.” is Reitman’s first feature, “Thank You for Smoking.”  A satire that bites with the sharpness of piranha’s teeth, this look at the lobbying industry is absolutely brilliant.  I have come to expect nothing less from Reitman, but he exhibits the deftness of an old pro as a newcomer.

Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) has the gift of oratory and the art of spin, making him the perfect person to argue on behalf of the tobacco industry.  He never tries to justify himself or tobacco; he simply uses the rationale that by proving the other person wrong, you must be right.  Affectionately titled a “Merchant of Death,” he often meets for lunch with his respective counterparts in the alcohol and firearms industry (Maria Bello, David Koechner).  The film follows Nick after the announcement of a proposed Congressional measure to put a “POISON” label on all boxes of cigarettes by a peevish Vermont senator (William H. Macy).  However, Nick’s main struggle is not the label that threatens to destroy the product he promotes, but rather the struggle to balance the job he does with his requirement to be a good father to Joey, his budding adolescent son.  The film is at its best when the contrast between the two is evident: Joey has very black-and-white morals and can’t seem to understand why Nick has such grey ones in lobbying for an industry that kills millions of people each year.

Reitman also penned the screenplay, which is packed to the brim with piquant wit and exciting characters.  He also gets the best out of his actors, and the performance on celluloid matches their panache on the page.  Especially exciting to watch is Aaron Eckhart as he really gets to the core of Nick Naylor.  We really see what makes him tick, and as the story progresses, Eckhart really wrestles with his demons.  He gives us one of the most full and electrifying characters that comedy has ever seen, a true sensation.  ”Thank You for Smoking” would be a crown jewel for an accomplished director, but as a first feature, Jason Reitman has set the bar extremely high for his masterpiece.  And if “Up in the Air” is as good as I hear, that bar is up in the atmosphere.

I don't care WHAT you say...I will continue to do the same shtick in every tv show and movie I do...so get used to it!

R

Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, Ed Helms, Jordana Spiro

Paxton: Hey everybody, I’m Ivy’s fiance!
Ivy: Paxton…such a weird thing to say when you enter a room…

A used car lot owner, facing foreclosure, calls in an expert team of salesmen to sell all their cars before it’s too late.

I’m not going to spend much time talking about this movie.  It doesn’t really deserve it.  Comedies should be funnier than this.  Much funnier.

Every actor is just playing the same kind of role they’ve played many times in the past, and none of them have much of anything funny to say.  Craig Robinson is humorous as the DeeJay that gets offended whenever somebody makes a request (and then plays the exact opposite of what they want to hear), but other than that character, I think I may have laughed about 3 or 4 times, at best.  Only Ed Helms and Ken Jeong made me cringe with their antics, but otherwise at least nobody was really hateful to watch.  It was all just boring.

And boring does not equal funny…

Apparently selling all the cars on your lot and being left with no merchandise whatsoever is the best way to run your used car business.

10 – 4.5 for being not funny most of the time – .6 for some annoying performances = 4.9

For Ricky Bobby, winning isn't just the only thing, it's something else entirely.

(Columbia) Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Leslie Bibb, Michael Clarke Duncan, Gary Cole, Amy Adams, Jane Lynch, David Koechner, Greg Germann, Molly Shannon, Andy Richter, Houston Tumlin, Grayson Russell, Pat Hingle, Ted Manson. Directed by Adam McKay

I will admit to not being much of a NASCAR fan. The thrill of auto racing is something that has never really wrapped itself around my spine. I do get why people go gaga over it but it’s just not my thing so when I heard that Will Ferrell was making a NASCAR-themed movie, it wasn’t something I was particularly excited about.

Ricky Bobby (Ferrell), however, would undoubtedly be absolutely smitten with a movie about going fast. He was born in the back of a car doing 100 MPH with his ne’er-do-well drug dealing dad (Cole) at the wheel. The one bit of paternal advice he would give his son before disappearing out of his life entirely is this – if you don’t finish first, you’re last. They would be words that would drive Ricky Bobby his entire life.

It’s no surprise, then, when he becomes part of a pit crew for a sad-sack NASCAR racing team that has become the laughing stock of the circuit, with a driver who stops mid-race at the concession stand to enjoy a chicken sandwich. When opportunity knocks, Ricky Bobby leaps into the drivers seat and his innate ability to go real fast – and drive without fear – makes him the hottest thing in NASCAR, with the help of his best friend Cal (Reilly) who is content to play second fiddle to Ricky Bobby’s diva.

He marries a hot-looking NASCAR groupie named Carley (Bibb) who gets his attention with a timely boob flash, and the two create a family with two demonic kids named Walker (Tumlin) and Texas Ranger (Russell) who torment Carley’s dad (Manson) and everyone else. He wins race after race, but irritates the head of the race team (Germann) because he never wins the points championship because he gets penalized for unsportsmanlike-like conduct so often, but that’s just Ricky’s obsession with winning – anything else just doesn’t occur to him.

Bobby’s on top of the world, but it begins to unravel with the arrival of French Formula One driver Jean Girard (Cohen), who wants to prove himself better than his cocky American rival. Girard turns out to be even more ruthless on the track than Ricky Bobby, and the inevitable happens – Ricky Bobby gets into a crash. He walks away from it, convinced at first that he is on fire but later on, convinced that he is paralyzed. Neither is true, of course, as Cal and Ricky’s harried crew chief (Duncan) try to convince him. The truth is, Ricky Bobby has lost his nerve.

He winds up losing a lot more than that, as his sponsors drop him, the race team fires him and his wife leaves him for his best friend. Ricky Bobby is reduced to moving in with his mom and delivering pizzas on a bicycle. Fast is a distant memory.

That’s when Ricky’s dad re-enters the picture, and if ever he needed a father figure it’s now. Of course, Ricky’s dad is something of a whacko, so battling the fear that still lives inside him is no easy task. Everyone he’s ever counted on has left him – can he ever count on himself?

I have to admire the instincts of Ferrell and McKay, who also co-wrote the movie. This movie plays to Ferrell’s strengths without getting so over-the-top that the audience gets lost. Ricky Bobby is not unlike Ron Burgundy had Ron been born in an Alabama double-wide.

Also wisely, the movie never makes fun of racing itself, only some of the things that go on within it – the bitter rivalries, the pressure brought on by corporate sponsorships and the sometimes eccentric personalities of the drivers, crew and fans. NASCAR fans will probably not take too much offense, although there might be a few who find the movie crude.

This is as good a cast as you’re going to find in a comedy, with Oscar-nominated actor Reilly once again playing second banana, but doing it as well as anybody. Baron hams it up as the nearly indecipherable Frenchman and Cole shows a surprising comic talent in his part as well. Blink and you’ll almost miss Amy Adams’ turn as a loyal assistant, although she figures much more in things near the end of the movie – and she does a great job in a role which others might have phoned in.

The laughs are plentiful – if I’m laughing out loud during a movie when I’m supposed to, I figure the filmmakers are doing their job. While you don’t need to be a big NASCAR fan to enjoy the movie, a lot of in-jokes undoubtedly went whizzing by me. I liked this movie a bit more than I thought I was going to – which is turning out to be a theme in this week’s newsletter and that is the kind of theme I can get into.

WHY RENT THIS: It’s laugh-out-loud funny, certainly one of Ferrell’s better efforts to date. Some of the most iconic comedy sequences of the decade can be found here.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Like most comedies, it can be pretty scattershot. Those who really cannot stand NASCAR or auto racing in general may not find much in the movie to grab onto.

FAMILY VALUES: Some of the jokes are a bit on the crude side and the language occasionally drifts into the foul lane but by and large reasonably acceptable for younger crowds.

TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Blu-Ray Discs of the movie were included with the first 400,000 PlayStation 3 units sold.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: As you might expect, there are a plethora of them including a gaggle of fake interviews with the cast members in character, the now-standard Line-o-Rama feature that is included with most Judd Apatow-produced DVDs as well as a commentary track that is a spoof of DVD commentary tracks with the director acting pretentious and giving out facts that are patently untrue.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Muddled and terrifically unfunny, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is a completely inconsequential comedy with little redeeming value other than to prove that Jeremy Piven can, in no way, carry a movie. Directed by Neal Brennan, The Goods is an ode to capitalism and obnoxiousness with a nice slice of Americana on the side. Its reliance on outdated “shock” comedy doesn’t score it any points, either, and it lumbers through its relatively short runtime despite the appearance of some truly unique comic talents.

Brennan is the latest in a line of bland comedy directors, confirming with The Goods the notion that a handful of sketches tied loosely together by a core plot doesn’t make for a good complete picture. Brennan is entirely useless as a director, as anyone could have been behind the camera and produced the same results. It’s a mishmash of sideplots and lines, many of which have cruel foundations in homophobia, racism and rah-rah American jingoism.

Piven stars as a slick car salesman named Don Ready. He has a team of salespersons and they’re like nomads in that they cruise around from town to town trying to sell cars for dealerships that really need it. (Plots don’t get more captivating than this, do they?) Ready and Co. wind up taking an assignment in a small town in an effort to save Ben Selleck (James Brolin) and his family dealership.

Along the way, a series of entanglements attempts to interest us in the respective plights of the characters. Selleck, for instance, has a crush on salesman Brent Gage (David Koechner) while saleswoman Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn) chases around Selleck’s young son (Rob Riggle). Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames) is looking for love, too, and Don’s also dealing with his own romantic complications with Selleck’s daughter Ivy (Jordana Spiro). There’s also a boy band and an old racist guy in the mix, just for fun.

Now, right out of the gate it’s hard to imagine that a flick with the plot of The Goods is going to be any, well, good. It’s a plot that doesn’t really sell itself. Watching a bunch of car dealers finagle various customers using cheating and deception is, after all, supposed to be hilarious given the economic condition the world is in at the moment and, don’t forget, we’re supposed to also care about the con artists selling these vehicles. On top of it all, we’re supposed to respect them a lot because, hey, they really like America.

It’s all a little much to begin with, but then writers Adam Stock and Rick Stempson pack things with a whole whack of homophobia, racism and weird twists on other crap nobody but 13-year-old wrestling fans are interested in anymore. Of course, that’s probably the target audience for this hard R-rated comedy anyway, but I digress.

I can’t say that this movie fails because of the cast because everyone actually does do what they’re asked to do. Piven does about all he can to pull off a big screen version of his character from Entourage and the other actors do what they’re supposed to do too, but that’s part of the problem: what they’re “supposed to do” just isn’t funny. Jokes feel forced and idiotic, with a lot of mean-spirited and misplaced crassness highlighted all the angles.

Look, one expects a movie like The Goods to be rude and crass. But most films, like this year’s I Love You, Man, manage to balance the crassness with a little something those of us over the age of 13 like to call “substance.” The Goods not only flounders in delivering any significant laughs, but it also fails to deliver any sort of reason for its existence. It’s an entirely meaningless, ultimately forgettable comedy.

0.7/10

Trailer:

NOTA : 6

Download subtitrare My One and Only

Trailer My One and Only :

I can’t understand, why ABC orders a comedy series, recorded in front of a live audience, and puts it on the comedy Wednesday without any other live audience comedy. Hank is pretty much the weakest comedy at this day. And not only was the pilot episode under average, I didn’t have any interest in the show, I don’t like Kelsey Grammer (this guy is overrated) and the first 21 minutes were pretty much boring and not funny.

Another family comedy – well, this is what I was waiting for all my life (caution: ironic meaning). All in all, Hank is pretty much like every other family comedy as well. We have the “bossy” father Hank, who is in the center of the show, the humor and everything else; the good-heart mother Tilly (Melinda McGraw), who is always behind her husband and never gets a storyline of her own; the daughter Maddie (Jordan Hinson), who doesn’t listen to her family and is short before starting her own life (but still hangs at home, never moves out, instead brings everything home – real life, anyone?); and the little son Henry (Nathan Gamble), who is starting to learn the life and is… the little one in the family. And in addition, we have uncle Grady (David Koechner), the funny man outside of the family home, always with a joke on his lips. Well, everything is not even a cliche, but totally uninteresting and nothing new.
I don’t know what everybody has with Kelsey Grammer – for me he is not funny, his acting skills are above average at best (in some scenes he reminded me of Michael J. Fox trying to hide his Parkinson attacks – not that he ever did that, just sayin’), and I think this goes for guys in exactly my generation as well (please inform me when it ain’t so), so isn’t ABC practically trying his comedy luck outside of the important audience? So, why cast an “obviously” big name for an average show like this? Why not casting somebody new in the business? John Noble got his name out with Fringe, and he is old, too (and better)…
Yeah, I didn’t really like it very much. There were a few smiling moments, but these moments belonged to Jordan Hinson (even though her laughter, after her dad sang the Star-Spangled Banner, was so fake, it was funny again, and awkward). Maybe the show would be better suited in companion with Accidentally on Purpose (if ABC would airing the show, or if Hank airs on CBS, or whatever), but not with Modern Family, Cougar Town and the fairly acceptable The Middle.
3,5 out of 10 points.

(Season 1, Episode 1)

When Eureka left, Jack lost his daughter and his girlfriend. It looks like both of them defected to ABC. Tess wound up on Eastwick, while Zoe (Jordan Hinson) can be seen earlier in the night. Now she’s Kelsey Grammer’s daughter Maddie.

Another series responding to the current economic climate, Hank Pryor is a former CEO who lost everything and wound up back in his wife’s hometown in Virginia. It’s been done before and while it’s fairly bland, it’s certainly not bad.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that Grammer is a master at this form of television. On Hank he plays again someone who’s pompous and arrogant, but this time he’s lost everything.

It’s interesting that ABC has chosen Hank to launch their new Wednesday comedy block. It’s the only multi-camera format series of the bunch (complete with a laugh track). I expected it to stick out like a sore thumb in the lineup, but it really doesn’t.

At their core, all four of these comedies are about families, it reminds me a lot of the TGIF lineups of the ’90s. It’s too bad Friday has become a wasteland on television, because I think this would be a pretty solid lineup. It’s got star power throughout and lots of strong messages about different kinds of issues familes are facing today.

We saw the giggles as Hank and Tilly were forced to sleep in a fire engine bed because their huge mattress wouldn’t fit up their narrow stairs. Oh, and because this is a television family, they have a teenage daughter who’s distracted by her cell phone and boys, and they have an even younger son who’s weird. Weird sons are so trendy.

It seems to be the thing to trash Hank as a terrible crappy generic comedy, and it is nothing groundbreaking. But it’s not lacking in charm, either. Of course, the real test will be to see what happens next. We got the laughs as the Pryors lost everything and we’ve now seen them trying to discover this new life with less money, but you can’t ride that to syndication.

God damn it, they really did it this time! You know, for every great big pat on the back I give alt comedy, there are shows and movies out there featuring the genre that make me wonder why I even like it at all. Today’s feature is certainly one of those movies that just makes me feel like all this time I’ve been championing something really stupid. I’m ALWAYS telling people about strange alt comedy and how funny it is, holding it up like a gleaming sapphire and attempting to get the people of America to lay down their awful, awful sitcoms and niche webcomics. Most of the time it doesn’t work, and it’s terribly disheartening, so when a movie like today’s comes out, featuring the two men who I respect as the Godfathers of my favorite comedy styling, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, and it sucks this bad, I look at my brilliant sapphire and wonder if it isn’t just a shiny toilet tablet. Because Run Ronnie Run, the infamous film buried by New Line due to the creators publicly disowning it, is a laughingstock and a personal besmirchment to my sense of humor.

Based on one of my favorite shows of ever and ever, Mr. Show with Bob and David, it showcases frequent recurring character Ronnie Dobbs in the starring role. Ronnie is exceptional for two reasons; he’s an extraordinarily white trash loser, and he finds himself being arrested on a ridiculously consistent basis. He’s always on some sort of Cops-like program, making a scene, causing a fuss, fucking goats, attacking officers with lobsters; you know, the usual. He’s incredibly entertaining in a drunken, rowdy kind of way, and TV personality Terry Twillstein sees some serious potential in him. He tracks down Ronnie, and offers him the chance to have his own TV show, in which he would get arrested all around the world. Ronnie, takes him up on this offer, seeing as he didn’t have anything else going on at the time. And not only do they film the show about Ronnie getting drunk and doing stupid shit and getting arrested, but it is a hit! A bona-fide cultural phenomenon, Ronnie becomes a household name, and his life changes drastically. He gets the money, the fame, the fancy lifestyle, and at first it is sweet. But blah blah blah he starts missing his old life blah blah blah it’s more fulfilling to be a redneck blah blah blah you know this story by now.

Run Ronnie Run is that movie where a handful of extremely funny moments punctuate long moments of tame, banal comedy that would do better in a sucky early 00’s Rob Schneider comedy. It’s embarrassingly uncharacteristic of these two to make something so sophomoric. I’ve read many, many possible explanations as to why two of the funniest men in the business delivered such a dud, and I’ve come to the conclusion that while the idea was conceived in a haze of building bridges to the general audiences, which is a major mistake in and of itself (Bob Odenkirk, in a critique of the film, likens his vision to a mixture of genuinely funny material mixed with big-budget, Sandler-esque ventures in order to acquaint people with he and David’s style of comedy), the fault lies in the incapable hands of the director, Troy Miller. He actually had the gall to take the final cut for himself (!!!!!) when the whole damn thing was written by and acted out by Bob and David, and based on a show that was similarly created by the duo. In a situation like that, a director should be there to ease the strain on the two making all the funny happen, but Troy “King of the World” Miller decided that despite not doing a whole lot in the big picture, he felt that this was a perfect opportunity to use his clout as director and make his own movie. The result is a disjointed exercise in Hollywood movie-making that almost expunges the inherent awkwardness that any Bob and David creation.

It’s well acted by the leads, Bob and David, but I have rarely seen worse cameos. And there are a lot of them! Brian Posehn comes down from the cave he lives in and gives what must be the least inspired thing I’ve ever seen him do, which is a shame because he is a damn funny man. Same goes for Jeff Goldblum, who plays himself in a scene that I suppose could have been funny at one point in its conception. Ben Stiller, John Stamos, and Rebecca Romijn pass through the film like a cameo machine gun and are equally unimpressive. Sarah Silverman (!), Andy Richter (!!), and my main man Dave Foley (!!!) are in this movie, but even they are no match for this hatchet job from the ninth circle. It almost seems like they thought cameos were going to carry the movie, and it’s not a bad lBut Jack Black deserves a fucking Oscar for his cameo, which involves him doing a little chimney sweepin’ and singing a lovely song about how to treat women. It goes a little something like this:

Good job, Jack, but it’s a case of too little too late here.

It’s just not very funny. In the end, everyone’s a little to blame, though. Troy Miller should never have taken final cut away from the people who came up with all the funny (How hard is it to direct comedy anyway? You’re not second unit on a Tarkovsky film, fellows, so cut the ego!), Bob and David should never have compromised their vision for the mainstream, and the studio should have backed up the creators in the first place so that they wouldn’t have had to bury this film on DVD as a result of its poor quality. But what can you do in hindsight? Bob and David have both gone on to brighter, funnier pastures, and I still enjoy both of their endeavors, so I have no hard feelings against them, but Run Ronnie Run will always be a reminder that perhaps it’s not a good idea to build bridges to places where people won’t understand what you have to offer. So, with a heavy heart, I solemnly give Run Ronnie Run 3 chubby chimney sweeps out of 10.

I have been given a special request by a couple newcomers to watch one of my favorite movies from my childhood tomorrow, Tremors! I can’t wait! Until then!!!

I want to write this review as fast as I can, before anything is forgotten about this movie. I want to tell you as much as I can about Extract, because as soon as I do, hopefully I’ll forget I ever watched it. There are very few movies that make me feel as if money was completely and utterly wasted; like I should get a refund. This is one of those movies. The jokes were dull and repeated over and over and over again. There was little creativity, and a supreme waste of talent.

The storyline was simple enough, but floundered in executing anything worthy of a good laugh. (Miramax/aceshowbiz.com)

The main complaint people might present who defend this movie is the whole “they’re just comparing it to Office Space” argument. That the bar was too high and my expectations weren’t met because of that – this was not the case. Now let’s get something straight…Office Space is one of the best comedies in the past number of years. It’s a classic. Before it was a cult classic, I actually saw it in theaters – I was one of the very few. But I didn’t compare this movie to Mike Judge’s masterpiece, no, I viewed it as a clean slate. Comparing this effort however, to Office Space or any good comedy…you can see the vast differences in quality.

Before I touch on the actually quality of the movie, the humor and storyline itself, the waste of extreme talent has to be touched on. The cast for Extract is pretty extraordinary: Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, J.K. Simmons, Ben Affleck, David Koechner are all hilarious in their own rights. They have all been hysterical in past movies and shows and the thought of rolling all that up into one movie seems impossible to harness the humor. Well, it was impossible, and it’s a shame. None of the actors were really given any “breathing room” outside of this dull script to show their acting and comedic chops. None of them could improvise it seemed, and none could save it. The characters themselves were unique and original, but what came out of their mouths didn’t match their appearances at all.

J.K. Simmons and Jason Bateman: two great comedic talents that were wasted in this movie. (Miramax/aceshowbiz.com)

What makes a good comedy? Is it the ability to quote it, line for line, months after? Think The Hangover for a recent example on that. Is it the chance to view the outlandish or absurd? Or is it unique joke after unique joke, never repeating something, and staying true to the story? Perhaps it’s one of those. Perhaps it’s all of the above. What Extract failed to do is create a cohesive storyline, one that grabbed my attention and baited me to crave more. It failed in leading me on with anything special or out of the ordinary. The jokes were, in a word, awful. I hate to lay into it this much, but I remember laughing twice…the entire time. It was a broken record, and the original spin wasn’t that good to begin with anyway.

I give it one star, instead of 1/2 of a star because I’m holding out hope that one day, maybe, I’ll look back and rediscover humor I didn’t see. But for now, this ranks as one of the worst movies of the year.

EXTRACT: (out of 4)

by Andrew Bowcock

Mike Judge’s latest film has hit the box office, and has been receiving moderate critical praise.  Being a fan of Judge’s previous two films (Office Space and Idiocracy) I’ve had a decent anticipation for this film. However, after seeing the trailer I can’t say anything brought me to believe this film was breaking any kind of ground or offering anything too original. That’s okay though, if I’m just expecting a few laughs, I can probably at least get my fix of humor. That’s the least this film could offer me…but I’m sad to say it barely delivered.

The scenario revolves around the 30-something Joel (Jason Bateman), owner of a factory that creates a fairly profitable brand of food extract. When one of his employees gets involved in a freak accident in the factory resulting in the loss of one of his testicles, he is persuaded by the scheming, gold-digging criminal Cindy (Mila Kunis) to file a lawsuit, and the lawyer he gets is played by none other than famed KISS frontman, Gene Simmons.

Meanwhile Joel is facing marital troubles with his wife, Suzie (Kristin Wiig) and gets advice from his ill-advising druggie bartender Dean (Ben Affleck).  Among Joel’s other white-picket-fenced frustrations are trying to ward off his annoying, nagging neighbor Nathan (David Koechner) and the fact that his sex life with his wife seems to be almost dead.  On top of this, Joel finds himself attracted to the new worker Cindy (who at this point we know is bad news), and is persuaded by Dean to hire a male prostitute to pose as the new pool boy and sleep with his wife, making it okay for him to have a “guilt-free” affair with Cindy.  As we all can imagine, these events cause a few problems to accumulate.

The story is simple, the characters are many and they interact fairly realistically…but that’s really where it stops for Extract.  Unfortunately I wish I could be more enthusiastic in describing my grievances with this film, but I’m afraid a lot of it is simply due to blandness.  It felt like Mike Judge was trying to be more understated and “true-to-life” than usual so we could find humor in the little things…but it really feels like the only times we lend a chuckle are when the illusion of reality is broken and we have to be reminded that we’re watching a comedy.  The story is written in such a way that this could have been a brilliant dark comedy but the comedy here relies so much on character humor and yet we don’t have enough dynamic to depend on to make us laugh.  The instances that I did find the most amusing were the moments where I thought “this couldn’t ever happen” – and that’s when I realized that this comedy should have lent itself more to something a bit more over-the-top instead of half-assing itself to the point of being the epitome of the term “uneven.”

Comedy is a subjective craft; so most of these complaints could possibly be countered by people who actively work in this kind of scenario (though on the converse, I found Office Space hilarious and memorable without ever working in an office before).  Many of my complaints about this film are similar to my feelings about Pineapple Express; another film I thought had incredible potential but couldn’t decide what it was trying to do.  Both that film and this one are films are essentially about nothing…and that’s not always an issue unless you don’t have something (like great characters or an entertaining gimmick) to compensate.

It feels like Mike Judge might be losing his touch, at least with cinematic comedy.

Office Space was a fantastic comedy…it may not be all around groundbreaking but it keeps the humor up, has memorable characters and knows its limits.

Idiocracy has a brilliant premise and starts out great…the gimmick may have gotten old and lost momentum after about halfway through but there are still enough laughs to keep it afloat as a watchable comedy.

Extract starts off like it’s warming you up for something good, but it never really grounds you in anything…leaving you feeling like you’re hearing a joke without getting a punch line.  Risks are taken (as they should be) in comedy, and I always expect hit-and-miss…and weighing the two for me determines what I think is good comedy.  In this case I’d say the Hit-Miss ratio is Two-Eight (meaning 80% of the time I was scratching my head wondering how they didn’t make that part funny).

This movie isn’t devoid of merit: Jason Bateman does a fine job in his role (though if it doesn’t seem terribly challenging and out of character for him).  Ben Affleck does a pretty decent job of his hippie- esque bartender role, but again, nothing he does is particularly funny for a role that seems like it would be so simple to make amusing (maybe Charlie Day could have done something more with it).  Kristin Wiig: boring (sadly).  David Koechner: a tad too dry.  J.K. Simmons: a few good lines, sometimes funny but mostly bland.  The rest of the cast is fairly hit or miss – they do what they can, but there’s only so much they can do.

My advice?  At best, rent it on DVD someday…but only after seeing Judge’s aforementioned previous two films.

Extract is rated R by the MPAA for language, sexual references and some drug use.

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The best way to get a promotion from the boss (Jason Bateman)? Become, ahem, half a man (Clifton Collins Jr.) due to a horrendous plant accident.

In another life, Mike Judge must have been a reporter. Every one of his movies has an angle designed to sway our sympathies in the exact direction he wants. In “Office Space,” we felt for put-upon cubicle drone Peter Gibbons, with his eight nagging bosses. With “Idiocracy,” it was Joe and Rita, average people submerged in a sea of grunting buffoons, who won our hearts (sort of). How, we wondered, would we react to a world where Starbucks sells handjobs, not venti chai lattes?

Judge’s latest comedy, the warmer, gentler “Extract,” spurs us to feel sympathy for Joel (Jason Bateman), who built his flavor extract company from the ground up and believes in treating his employees with kindness. He’s the kind of boss who knows not only his employees’ names but what their purses look like. He cares enough to pay attention when other people don’t.

In this case, those ”other people” are Suzie (Kristen Wiig), Joel’s bored wife who uses sweatpants to fend off his increasingly desperate sexual advances; Brian (J.K. Simmons), Joel’s sarcastic second-in-command who calls everyone “Dinkus”; and Nathan (David Koechner), Joel’s Bob Wiley-styled neighbor who materializes daily at his car window like the pop-up book from hell. The only people who seem halfway interested in Joel are Dean (a nicely low-key Ben Affleck), an old bartender buddy who pops Xanax for head colds, and Cindy (Mila Kunis), a flirty temp a little too interested in extract to be totally genuine.

Since this is a Mike Judge movie, there are elements of the fantastic — in the form of crazy twists and ideas — lurking in all this banality, little schemes that Everyman uses to distract himself from the disappointment that fills his life. (These are Judge trademarks. Learn to love them.) Cindy’s “job” at the factory is a direct result of a freak accident that leaves Shep (the ever-subtle Clifton Collins Jr.) minus one testicle. A dumb-as-a-stump gigolo (Dustin Milligan) becomes part of a trap to entice Suzie to cheat. And there’s a bohemoth bong and a horse tranquilizer thrown in for good measure.

All this tomfoolery, however, doesn’t disguise the flaws inherent in Judge’s design. The endless plots start piling up on each other and strain the bounds of credibility. (Viewers can suspend disbelief only so far, really.) After awhile, they start to feel scattered and haphazard and a little too out-there. Maybe the reason for that is that there is no clear villain in “Extract,” no Bill Lumbergh, to focus our distaste on. Instead we’re given people like Brian, whose worst quality is disdain for his underlings, and Cindy, who knows her way around long and short cons but truly likes Joel. Judge seems careful not to demonize anyone, and he makes sure we laugh with, not at, them. Where’s the spirited satire, the biting, savage wit that made Judge a household name?

Still, that’s not to say “Extract” is a complete letdown. Far from it. There’s care in the performances, and the key players are anything but one-sided. Kunis continues to prove that she’s too good an actress for television, giving Cindy a shrewd ability to find and exploit people’s weaknesses as well as a measure of unexpected kindness. That Simmons, he has a way with withering one-liners. He’s become the go-to guy for snark. Affleck continues his recent career upswing, underacting wonderfully in a way we haven’t seen since his “Chasing Amy” days. Collins gives Shep more depth and sad pride than he ought to — what a fine actor, too fine for all these teensy parts.

At the center of all this is Bateman, who couldn’t play mean if his life depended on it. Too vulnerable and empathetic, that one. He’s so earnest a guy it’s impossible not to like him, though he may make you wonder if Judge’s gone all smooshy. I know I did. But then I looked closer, and I realized Judge’s always had a soft spot for the common man. Couldn’t villainize him if he tried. And in that light, “Extract” is the kind of humane, softer-edged comedy this average guy director has been waiting to make.

Grade: B-

We so often find humor in the ridiculous and far-fetched, and Hollywood serves it to us (actually, more like force feeds) at a rate that is more than we can digest.  But Mike Judge has a unique ability to find humor in the mundane, especially in the work place.  His 1999 film “Office Space” has become a cult classic over the past decade thanks to its smart satire of the workplace atmosphere.  However, his latest film, “Extract,” is really lacking flavor (pun fully intended).  It is too caught up in banalities to really succeed and perhaps even too lifelike for its own good.

The humdrum happenings center around Joel (Jason Bateman), the owner of an extract factory trying to sell out to General Mills.  However, the deal is threatened by a workplace accident in which a worker loses a part of his “manhood.”  To top that off, he has to deal with constant unrest among the workers, thievery, and a very attractive new temp (Mila Kunis) who becomes an object of lust.  But Joel has many problems outside of work to deal with, including his wife’s (Kristen Wiig) elastic sweatpants chastity belt, a pill-popping friend (Ben Affleck) intent on proselytizing, and an incessantly blabbering neighbor (David Koechner).

We get the distinct pleasure of watching an ordinary man, with problems not so far removed from our own, see his life spiral out of control.  Some argue that pain is humor, but not here.  Pain is pain.  There is nothing fun about watching Joel agonize over adultery or deal with the consequences of taking drugs.  If he had woken up with a tiger in the bathroom and a baby in the closet, I would have been all for the ride.  But instead, he wakes up with a cheating wife and a beleaguered conscience.  Where’s the fun in that?  We expect these honest portrayals of boring life in a drama; the great Alfred Hitchcock once said, “Drama is life with all the dull bits cut out.”  To Judge, comedy is life with a good portion of the dull bits left in.  It is a marvel to see him reconstruct a few dreary lives, but it is truly disappointing to see how he fails to infuse much humor into any of them other than Ben Affleck’s Dean.  For me, the only fully realize character was Koechner’s obnoxious neighbor, who was portrayed with such subtle brilliance that it forces everyone to reminisce about that person we all know who refuses to take our hints to shut up.

If writing a movie review is a science, then I need to incorporate the uncertainties into my report (at least that’s what my physics teacher would argue).  I know that I am not the target audience of “Extract.”  I have never worked in a dead-end job that I loathe, nor have I ever experienced sexual frustration with a spouse or had to deal with the effects of decision made while under the influence of narcotics.  Obviously, Judge did not tailor the movie to appeal directly to me, and I understand that.  I would much rather him make an honest movie that hit home for those who can relate to the central conflicts than to the teenage blogger naïve to what he will have to face in the working world.  For all I know, there could be a lot of humor that flew right over my head.  I doubt it, however, because I heard little more than mild chuckles from my theater, which was compromised of mainly adults.

With “Office Space,” Judge showed us that he is capable of producing a movie that resonates even to those who can’t relate to it, and it is painful to watch “Extract” fail to clear the bar.  I think that the key differentiator between the two movies is that “Office Space” manages to incorporate a bit of absurdity into the plot, making it ridiculous yet plausible.  ”Extract,” on the other hand, paints a portrait of a stale life without leaving any room for humor.  Maybe it was Judge’s vision to show the working world with unabashed honesty that he did not want to misrepresent it by adding some belly laughs.  But if it was, he should not be masquerading it as a comedy.  C- /

Mike Judge is the king of the annoying minutiae of the every day. Extract never takes off, because it stays far closer to conventional comedy than his previous two films, which isn’t Judge’s forte. However, there is one brilliant, purely Judgeian creation– Nathan, the nosy next-door neighbor, played with glee by David Koechner. In a cast where most actors are in familiar territory or aren’t as comfortable with Judge’s humor-in-repetition comedy style, Koechner excels and elevates the comedy to brilliance every moment he scampers onto the screen. When a character earns every one of the film’s biggest laughs, you know it’s inspired writing. The downside is that you know the rest of the film is uninspired, creating mere smiles and chuckles where Koechner gets guffaws.

Joel (Jason Bateman) is a bartender turned extract plant owner who seems to have it all. Except his wife (Kristen Wiig) hasn’t had sex with him in months. And his workers fight with one another constantly. And his #2 man (J.K. Simmons) can’t remember anyone’s name. And his best friend (Ben Affleck) has no good advice except for “Take drugs.” And Lord knows his neighbor Nathan (the aforementioned Koechner) won’t leave him alone. Things look up when General Mills expresses interest in buying out the company, but when an accident leaves a floor worker named Step (Clifton Collins Jr.) without… one of his nether region organs, everything threatens to fall apart. On top of it all, Cindy (Mila Kunis), the sexy new temp, is attempting to convince Step to sue so that she can get part of the cash settlement.

There’s a lot going on, but it never really meshes. There are individual scenes that are inspired– a sequence involving marijuana takes off, and the opening scene with two guitar salesmen sets a great tone– but the film doesn’t flow together well. Plus, Judge’s trademark humor disappears for scenes at a time, while he tries moving the plot forward and establishes a conventional buddy repor between Bateman and Affleck. These scenes lacked the same sort of off-the-beaten-path humor that Ron Livingston and Diedrich Bader shared in Office Space, or that Luke Wilson and Dax Shepard shared in Idiocracy. It felt all too… normal.

Certain characters shine for moments. Affleck’s marijuana-owning friend Willie (Matt Schulze) is intense, frightening, and unique. J.K. Simmons plays the gag about never remembering anyone’s name perfectly, though I wondered if in a previous film, the gag would have needed to be pointed out by a character– it would have been funny on its own. Clifton Collins Jr. is a terrific character actor who brings some earnestness to what could have become a typical redneck stereotype. Bateman does his usual straight man routine, and because he’s naturally funny, he earns some chuckles just from a few deadpan stares. And Affleck… well, he relishes these goofy character bit parts in films, and digs his teeth into the idiocy that Dean provides.

One of the big problems with the film is Joel’s wife, played by Kristin Wiig. Wiig does well, gets a couple laughs, and actually shows some potential to play real, three-dimensional roles in the future, something she hasn’t really done in any films yet. However, her character does something that is so totally out of touch with everything we know about her that not only do we lose sympathy for her and her husband, we wonder why in the world the movie would have gone in this direction. *slight spoilers to follow, stop now if you’re not interested in learning* Joel hires a male prostitute (Dustin Mulligan) to try to seduce his wife so that he won’t feel guilty if he has an affair… and it works, despite the fact that the male prostitute is a one-note unintelligent buffoon. Judge even sets the film up so that Joel thinks she has cheated, but we are reassured by the way the scenes between Joel and his wife play out that she didn’t, and we await the reveal that he’s wrong. However, the way Judge reveals that she did cheat is treated so casually, it’s as if no one in the film realizes how dumb this plot twist is. *end spoilers*

Luckily, there’s Nathan. Nathan belongs in the pantheon of great annoying characters in film history, like Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day and Bill Lumbergh from Judge’s own Office Space. Everyone knows someone who simply doesn’t take a hint. Nathan wouldn’t take a hint if you fired it in his face with a cannon. Koechner nails the Judge comedy rhythms, the pauses, the repetitions, and the little tiny nuances in his face that make him extra annoying. He gets about 90% of the film’s biggest laughs (including the biggest one, near the end), and the conclusion of Nathan’s quest to get Joel and his wife to come to dinner is a classic. If the rest of the movie had gone for that level of off the beaten path, then Judge would have had a huge hit. Instead, it’s a mildly funny comedy that extracts more smiles than actual laughs.

Dean gives Joel some bad advice in "Extract".

(Mike Judge, 2009)

September 4, 2009

by Joel Crary

In “Extract”, Mike Judge takes some funny people and gives them things to do that aren’t particularly funny, or offensive -  or much of anything, really. The film proceeds at a leisurely pace with dialogue that keeps us waiting for the punchline, but the punchline rarely comes. As a whole, it feels like a lazy afternoon spent in a gallery: The conversations and situations hang like paintings to be considered for a moment before moving on disinterestedly.

“Extract” is being billed as Mike Judge’s “return to work”. Ten years ago he built a cult following with “Office Space”, his first live action film after his work on “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill”. That film spoke to my generation about the way that having a career for the sake of a having a career can crush a soul. Its main character, Peter, was tortured by the tedium of his job as a computer programmer for the most generic of corporations. “Extract” presents us with Joel (Jason Bateman), who has founded and established a company that manufactures flavouring extracts, all based on a scientific discovery he made in university.

Joel’s goal is to sell his company to General Mills. It will allow him to retire young. The people who work for him range from elderly racist women with an overinflated sense of entitlement to the brand of white-trash hick that Judge has so lovingly showcased in his work on “King of the Hill”. Their collective incompetency results in an accident on the factory floor that nearly castrates an employee named Step (Clifton Collins Jr.).

New to the factory is Cindy (Mila Kunis), who is actually a hustler looking to cash in on Step’s potential lawsuit. Joel sees Cindy as an opportunity to rediscover a sex life, since his wife (Kristen Wiig) seems far more willing to watch “Dancing with the Stars” in her tightly knotted sweatpants. On the advice of his friend Dean (Ben Affleck), Joel hires a male prostitute named Brad (Dustin Milligan) to seduce his wife in order to justify the affair he wants to have.

There’s about one too many plot currents here, all whirlpooling around the fact that Joel is unsatisfied with his life. In “Office Space”, Peter is hypnotized into not caring about work, affording the script some hilarious moments as the people he works with are jolted by his new attitude. In “Extract”, Joel is drugged into going along with the male prostitute scheme and finds it impossible to reverse once his head is clearer. “Office Space” worked because the imposition of the ordinary mundane world was suddenly disrupted – “Extract” can’t hit that note because Joel isn’t suffering in the same way. He kind of likes what he does. He’s just looking to get laid more often.

There are certain moments of character observation that are clearly yanked from Judge’s head, such as Joel’s neighbour (David Koechner, playing refreshingly against type), who just can’t take the hint that Joel despises him. Affleck’s Dean is also a high point as he tries to convince Joel that he’s in need of a higher consciousness attained through drugs, yet abandons him to an ass-kicking once Joel is at his most vulnerable. A cameo from Gene Simmons as a lawyer is also inspired casting, though I couldn’t help thinking he might have been far more interesting as the gigolo.

“Extract” isn’t so much a film about the pathos of being a working stiff as it is about finding ways to pull ourselves out of the daily grind. I would think it unfair to compare the film so thoroughly with “Office Space” if I didn’t think that Judge was trying for a similar vibe. The character blueprint is certainly there, but a lot of the simple observational humour that made his first film funny is lacking in “Extract’s” script. There is a great dark comedy boiling under its surface, but its characters are too light and bland to drill for it.

“Extract”
a review by Darby O’Gill

The king of blue collar movies is back, and this time Mike Judge brings us the tale of Joel, played by Jason Bateman, whose life just seems to be going nowhere fast. Joel’s small extract company is doing very well, but his employees never quite seem to be satisfied. Their hours are too long, their pay is never enough, and when rumors of Joel selling the company hit the floor, what little moral they had left goes right out the window. As if that wasn’t enough trouble for poor Joel, his marriage and sex life seem to be nonexistent, and when there’s an accident on the factory floor that causes one of the workers to loose a testical, things go from bad to worse. The incident not only threatens the buyout, but also catches the eye of a local grifter, played by Mila Kunis. Add to all this, a pain in the ass neighbor, brilliantly played by David Koechner, and a best friend bartender, played by Ben Affleck, who gives a surprisingly funny performance. This only seems to add to Joel’s troubles, when he suggests that Joel hirer a ringer to test his wife’s fidelity, so he himself might feel better about his thoughts of having an affair. Take all that and mix in Mike Judge’s unmistakable brand of comedy, and you have a bonafide hit.

Nobody can play an everyman quite like Jason Bateman. His timing is always just dead on. I could watch him all day, and I think I have on a few Arrested Development marathons. The entire cast does a phenomenal job, and Mike Judge’s writing/directing takes an average story and makes it something extraordinary. Just like Office Space, you’ll be quoting this movie in no time. Just ask ingus or dingus.

It’s not a bad way to start the fall movie season. After this past summer, we desperately need some good solid movies in the fall, and not just Oscar good movies either. No, we need fun, entertaining, and most of all funny movies. You know like… Extract. I can’t think of a better way to spend your Labor Day, than watching a bunch of people hate their jobs. It might even be safe to say that, Extract is so funny, you’ll bust a nut.” Too corny? Just go see it.

Rating:

The movies of the American workplace would be worse off without the skeptical empathy of writer-director Mike Judge. It’s not that Judge is necessarily any kind of labor-relations expert, or even a cinematic genius. It’s just that he knows what it’s like to have to work for a living, and how that knowledge might well be channeled into diverting entertainments. Whereas his cult favorite Office Space looked in on life among white-collar worker bees in the ’90s, Judge’s new film, Extract, is about being the boss of blue-collar rubes today. It’s not a pretty picture. But it is pretty funny.

Joel Reynold (Jason Bateman) is a mild-mannered man on the brink of personal and professional catastrophe. Joel owns a midsized flavor-extract factory in a midsized American city. He came by it honestly, we suspect, through enough hard work that his marriage has suffered. If Joel’s not home by 8 p.m. on any given weeknight, and he’s usually not, he’ll have missed the sweat-pant deadline. That’s the moment in the evening when Joel’s wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), who works unfulfillingly as a designer of coupons, slips into sweat pants and cinches up the waistband so tightly that she might as well be putting on a chastity belt.

Now, because the people who work for him tend to be idiots in need of frequent assistance, and his numbskulled neighbor (David Koechner) tends to ambush him with inane conversation in the cul-de-sac, Joel just never seems to make the sweat-pant deadline. That’s why, as he so woefully puts it, “We’re turning into one of those brother-sister couples.” It’s why his manners are becoming less mild. So what’s a sexually frustrated flavor magnate to do?

Let’s hope that what Joel does is not what most of us would do. What Joel does is let his wastrel hotel-bartender friend Dean (Ben Affleck) dope him up with horse tranquilizer and talk him into hiring a flaky gigolo (Dustin Milligan) to seduce his wife. If Suzie takes the bait, they figure, it’ll give Joel license to go after Cindy (Mila Kunis), his hot new factory temp, with impunity.

Speaking of dubious plans, Joel also has been thinking about selling his company to General Mills and retiring early. For this he has full support from his second in command, Brian (J.K. Simmons), who can’t even be bothered to remember their employees’ names. But there are obstacles — like the fact of Cindy being a gold-digging con artist, who slyly encourages the hapless victim of an entirely preventable assembly-line accident to retain an aggressive personal-injury lawyer, played by Gene Simmons of Kiss.

These facts may incline you to suppose that Joel isn’t much more than a rube himself. But in the live-action Mike Judge movie continuum — a drolly drab universe of regular, decent-enough dudes getting so bogged down by lives of quiet desperation that they go numb and act dumb — he’s about average, actually.

Extract is about average too: not as timely and exact as Office Space, nor as creaky and imprudent as Judge’s Idiocracy. As a sketch-like trifle built from well observed details, it even splits the temperamental difference between Judge’s cartoons: The comedy is subtler than Beavis and Butt-Head, but broader than King of the Hill. Which isn’t to imply that Extract is too generic to be entertaining. But it is so easygoing that sometimes it can seem aloof.

What matters most, as always with Judge, is characterization. Here, it’s as much a function of casting as of writing and direction, and all the actors — principals and supporting players alike — make their little bits of business go a long way. Without them, the movie’s ecology of inanity might not have enough power to propagate itself.

And isn’t that just how it is in most American companies nowadays? That Extract exaggerates should go without saying, but we say so anyway, perhaps to reassure ourselves. Sure, there are flashier, more adventurous movies out there, but this one puts in a honest day’s work.

]]> http://jacobzinn.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/comedians-want-four-more-years-in-the-frat-pack/ Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:22:42 +0000 Jacob Zinn http://jacobzinn.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/comedians-want-four-more-years-in-the-frat-pack/

This weekend, I watched Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy for the first time in a while. Until now, I hadn’t realized how many Frat Pack comedians were members of the Channel 4 news room.
Comedians such as Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller and Jack Black have always been Frat Pack members, but some supporting actors in Anchorman five years ago are now topping the box office. Paul Rudd’s bromance films with Jason Siegel are popular, David Koechner has had several roles alongside Ferrell and Seth Rogen is arguably the biggest draw with films including Superbad and Knocked Up tied to his name.
Here’s a run-down of the comedians who made fictional ’70s news hilarious.

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Channel 4 News

Will Ferrell as Ron Bugundy – anchorman
Christina Applegate (not considered a Frat Pack member) as Veronica Corningstone – co-anchor
David Koechner as Champ Kind – sportscaster
Steve Carell as Brick Tamland – weatherman
Paul Rudd as Brian Fantana – field reporter

Fred Willard as Ed Harken – news director
Seth Rogen as Scotty – cameraman

Cameos

Vince Vaughn as Wes Mantooth – lead anchor (Channel 9 Evening News)
Luke Wilson as Frank Vitchard – lead anchor (Channel 2 News)
Ben Stiller as Arturo Mendes – lead anchor (Spanish Language News)
Jack Black as Motorcyclist

The involvement of a plethora of well known comedians isn’t enough to save The Goods:  Live Hard, Sell Hard, a comedy directed by Neal Brennan.

The Goods revolves around a failing used car lot in California owned by an aging salesman played by James Brolin. The lot is staffed by a group of unsuccessful salespeople played by Tony Hale, Charles Napier, Ken Jeong and Jonathan Sadowski.

While Jeremy Piven seems like the perfect choice to portray Don Ready, the fast-talking traveling car salesman called in to turn things around, he comes up very short on laughs.

His cohorts, played by David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn and Ving Rhames, don’t fare any better.

It’s not that Piven and company don’t try. The film is littered from beginning to end with punch lines and gags. The problem is that they just aren’t funny.

Most of the “jokes” come at the expense of workers, women and homosexuals.

In what has to be the most difficult to watch scene, the staff of the car lot is provoked by a nationalist “inspirational speech” and anti-Japanese slurs to carry out a mob attack against an Asian-American salesman. After the attack comes to an end, the perpetrators admit to committing a hate crime but plan to defend themselves with the false claim that the Asian-American came at them with a samurai sword. For his part, the victim of the attack (Jeong) agrees to dismiss the whole thing, saying, “Actually, I’m Korean.”

A cameo appearance by Will Farrell and a boy band spoof by Ed Helms add little.

Similarly, the obligatory love interest that arises between Ready and the daughter of the car lot’s owner (played by Jordana Spiro) fails to rescue the film in any way.

Watching The Goods, one gets the feeling that the writers may have intended the film’s more over-the-top aspects to serve as some form of social commentary. If that is indeed the case, they definitely missed the mark.

But even if, on the other hand, their goal was simply to illicit a few cheap laughs, they still fell short.

The Goods could have been something much more. There was no lack of comedic talent and the used car business, marked as it is by fierce competition, predation and deception, is ripe for parody.  Unfortunately, The Goods simply doesn’t deliver.

Raunchy used-car comedy isn’t a classic, but it’s not a clunker either.

When we previewed this movie a few weeks ago, we talked a lot about how The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard might – if it was good enough - become more than an end-of-summer diversion, how it might make itself a touchstone for America circa 2009, when the car industry and local dealers nationwide are literally begging for customers. Though the film never quites reaches that level of relevance, first-time director Neal Brennan and second-time screenwriters Andy Stock and Rick Stempson manage to create a reference point for something else: the archetypal adult comedy of the late 00’s. Because of that, and sometimes despite it, the film is often riotously funny.

Like Talladega Nights and seemingly dozens of other Will Ferrell movies (Ferrell and frequent collaborator Adam McKay co-produced), The Goods puts an alpha dog personality in a working-class situation for trashy comic effect, relying on a barrage of potty language, sexual innuendo and slapstick violence to crowd-surf the audience from one gag to the next. Thrown in for good measures: a cast of misfits, some lovable but most weird; an improbably warm-hearted romantic interest; and a shaggy plot hinging on either family or personal honor. In fact, the film doggedly follows that blueprint, moving its characters from one gag or situation to the next while barely slowing down to establish context or meaning to the jokes. You laugh a lot while it’s happening, even as you’re aware the film could be doing better.

The saving grace is that most of the jokes are funny – sometimes very funny, with at least three extended gags that detonate with explosive comic payoff.  ”Used car mercenary” Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) and his team of high-pressure sales experts are hired by failing Temecula, California car patriarch Ben Selleck (James Brolin) to get rid of 200 cars over the Fourth of July weekend. Because the process of inventory liquidation only has so much comic potential, the script comes fully loaded with character baggage: Ready is haunted by a previous failure that ended in the death of his best friend. His teammates are bizarrely distracted by various sex-charged problems: oversexed  Babs (Kathryn Hahn) lusts after Selleck’s man-child son (Rob Riggle); sensitive Jibby (Ving Rhames) longs to “make love” to a woman (as opposed to just having sex); financial wizard Brent (David Koechner) finds himself the reluctant object of Selleck’s homosexual advances.

Ready himself woos Selleck’s daughter Ivy (Jordana Spiro), despite her engagement to weaselly import car salesman/boy-band vocalist Paxton (Ed Helms). The film knows – and we know it knows – that the two are going to end up together, and their courtship has a going-through-the-motions quality despite Spiro’s effortless charm. Ready also finds a potential son in Selleck’s youngest employee Blake (Jonathan Sadowski), a junior salesman with all of his signature moves. While the potential in that setup abounds with character and gag potential, the film never really gets the story thread moving. As with the other plotlines, it’s one more thing in the circus of the film’s action.

But despite all the characters and the bevy of jokes the film still somtimes manages to lose its momentum, especially during a plot twist late in the second act that feels forced to the point of snapping. Amplifying this problem is another issue, one of comic pitch: rather than lose additional time by going for depth, director Brennan chooses instead to make the movie louder, ever louder. When Ready has his most sincere moment, it’s at the top of his lungs; characters incessantly shout at one another. Such zeal works in skit comedy, but repetitive scenes in a 90 minute film drag on the audience’s patience, raising the bar for the next gag to regain the comic momentum.

Piven charges Ready’s character with sleazy confidence, probably the only way to play such a outsized-by-design personality. Yet he sometimes stumbles giving Ready vulnerability or warmth. Hahn, Rhames and Koechner all make the most of their parts, each of which comes down to a single character point: the horny one, the sweet one, the smart one. Charles Napier, Tony Hale, and Ken Jeong are all endearing as Selleck’s beleaguered employees, while Craig T. Robinson steals his scenes as a defiant disc jockey in charge of music for the three-day sellathon. By contrast, Helms plays the smug Paxton as a variation of Andy Bernard, his character on The Office, while Riggle xeroxes Steve Carrell’s turn in Anchorman to play the childish Steve Selleck.

Ultimately, reviewing the theatrical release seems an almost academic exercise, given the inevitable unrated DVD version that’s sure to arrive mere months from now. The Goods is that kind of film, and when watching this current iteration you can often pinpoint which edits trimmed additional material from various scenes. That’s not entirely a bad thing. Like Anchorman with its companion movie and the “unbearably long, self-indulgent director’s cut” of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, an enlarged Goods is probably a better film all the way around, with greater character development and more patience at developing its setups. Which is not to say you should wait for the rental so much as consider this release a demo for the souped-up version still to come. America has a love affair with cars and movies both, and unrated editions and director’s cuts have become just next year’s model of the same make. Still, this version of The Goods is good enough to deserve seeing now.

- Michael Kabel

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