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The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Rating:

Movie: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009)

Studio : Gary Sanchez Productions

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 90min

Website : None available

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9wjeq

Review:

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is a briskly paced, vulgar comedy that’s sure to offend. If you’re the right mindset, it’ll also entertain. I do urge conservative, PC-types to stay away from this movie, as there are quite a few moments that border (or more accurately, embrace) bad taste.

Jeremy Piven plays Don Ready, the charismatic leader of a sales team who travels to different car dealerships in order to help move their merchandise. At the beginning of the film, we’re introduced to Selleck Motors, a failing dealership that employs characters like Dick, a World War II veteran who spouts racial and homophobic epithets as if they were second nature, and Teddy Jang, who falls victim to Dick’s prejudices in an uncomfortable but hilarious scene. The owner, Ben Selleck, hires Ready’s team to help them move 200 cars over the Fourth of July weekend.

Piven’s sales team is the backbone of the movie. His staff includes Babs, a vixen who becomes infatuated with Selleck’s 10-year-old son, who looks like he’s 30 thanks to a genetic disorder. This infatuation provides some of the movie’s funniest moments. Ving Rhames brings a lot of his dry humor to the table as Jibby, a 42-year-old man who’s had a lot of sexual experiences, but has never “made love” to a woman (it’s only natural that he’ll find it in the movie). David Koechner fumes more and more as Selleck makes repeated passes at him.

In addition to providing laughs, the quick movie actually makes the sales process looks exciting. There is a virtuoso sequence as we watch the salespeople in action, using underhanded techniques such as the “Nigerian buyback” and there’s a sexually charged scene involving Babs and a male customer that must be seen to be believed. The reason I mention this is I sold luggage in a department store every summer while I was in college, and I found the job boring and the customers annoying, and I approached the job like it was something I “had” to do in order to make spending money. Had I seen this movie while in college, I may not have fallen in love with the job, but I may have been inspired to work a little harder at the process of “selling,” as opposed to just “making the sale.” All I can say is this movie sold me.

-Craig Wynne

Comedy Comedy

Adam

Rating:

Movie: Adam (2009)

Studio : Olympus Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 99min

Website : foxsearchlight.com/adam/

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9zn4g

Review:

Adam is 29 years old, living in an apartment he once shared with his father, and is a relatively good-looking man. He gets blatantly affectionate looks from women, is well-dressed, and is a hard worker at his job as an engineer at a local toy firm. With his awkwardness towards the opposite sex and his tendency to ramble about his passions, you would initially think he had the makings of a 40-Year-Old Virgin, but chances are you would never imagine he had something like Asperger’s Syndrome unless he said so.

When Beth, a budding children’s author and daughter to an influential executive accountant, moves in and meets the awkward fellow by chance, she finds herself entranced by him and, like the very satellites Adam rambles on, they begin to push and pull against each other in an orbital dance with each other that leads both into a predictable trajectory and impact you expect from a romance film, but with the trappings of a convincing relationship between a woman finding her own way in her world and a man learning to understand his own.

I have to say that the acting throughout the film is really good. It seems that every character with more than one dialogue in the role has at least one moment to pull out at least one good scene in the film (Frankie Faison steals quite a few as Adam’s mentor-like friend, Harlan). While Rose Byrne does not seem to shine as well as her counterpart Hugh Dancy, she more than makes up for it in the later half.

Kudos should also go to the cinematography for the film, where you can tell care was placed in shooting the location and getting the most visually-appealing scenes and compositions you could hope for in a film of this nature.

-Donald Lee

Comedy, Drama, Romance adam, Comedy, Drama, Max Mayer, Romance

Bruno Rating: 3.5 stars

Rating:

Movie: Brüno (2009)

Studio : Everyman Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 81min

Website : thebrunomovie.com

Trailer :

Review:

Camper than Liberace in hot-pants, Brüno is Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest “undercover” comic creation and controversy = cash generator. The movie focuses on the crass antics of Brüno Gehard, a fictional Austrian fashionista with a penchant for both Adolf Hitler and evermore extreme forms of anal intrusion. Fired from his job as host of Funkyzeit, Brüno sets his sights on conquering the dizzy heights of American celebrity culture.

Once this obviously frivolous story has been set up and the action moves to America – via a brief trip to the Middle East to meet some alleged terrorists – the fun really begins. There are many hilarious set-piece scenes throughout Brüno, including the breathtaking cage-fight finale, but the standout scene for me has to be Brüno’s parading of his adopted African baby on some sub-Jerry Springer talk-show. As we are in on the joke, our immediate temptation is to howl with laughter as Bruno shockingly informs the predominantly African American audience that he gave the baby a “traditional African name – OJ”. In fairness to the audience though, their outrage was actually proportionate (given that they thought they were witnessing someone who genuinely treated his baby as a fashion accessory). This audience, however, were never the true intended targets of Cohen’s satire, rather, it was the celebrity adoptions of Madonna and Angelina Jolie – and the ensuing media mayhem – that he was gunning for.

That is a trend that exists through all of Cohen’s work: he delivers the maximum amount of outrage per a square satirical inch both in the foreground of the action and also in the background, where the bigger picture lurks. He gives the bigots what they want on camera (which is to re-affirm their petrified world view), and in doing so he reveals their absurd and isolated thinking. Yet lest you imagine this is a movie with a cause in mind, you better think again. Cohen does not deliver the certainties that causes require, instead choosing to walk along a cinematic tightrope of chaotic comedy on one hand and stage-managed cynicism on the other. Sometimes he does stumble and leave you yearning for the sight of Borat in his slick green Speedos. Such feelings quickly pass however, as the prospect of Brüno spreading more of his hot comedy seed across your face keeps you glued to your seat throughout.

-Paul Meade

Comedy, In Theaters, Reviews by Genre borat, bruno, Comedy, sacha cohen

Funny People - Adam Sandler

Rating:

Movie: Funny People (2009)

Studio : Columbia Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 140min

Website : www.funnypeoplemovie.com

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8fy1t

Review:

Funny People is the third directorial effort from Judd Apatow.  While this movie has the same amount and degree of laughter as Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, I felt this one was a lot deeper and darker than those two efforts.
 
Adam Sandler stars in this movie as George Simmons, a Sandleresque comedian who has achieved fame and prosperity, but is essentially a lonely man.  He begins to reevaluate his life when he’s informed that he is dying of a rare blood disorder.  Seth Rogen is Ira Wright, a struggling comedian who writes good jokes, but whose awkward on-stage delivery keeps him from progressing to the big time.

Simmons’ disease prompts him to return to his roots by performing at one of the clubs where he got his start, and by chance, he happens to catch Wright performing.  Seeing some potential in the young comic, Simmons decides to hire Wright as his joke writer/assistant.

The routines performed by the comics are hilarious, and the interplay between the two leads is fantastic.  Rogen slimmed down for this role, and he’s not playing the usual slacker he normally embodies.  He’s passionate and determined in his ambition to make it to the next level, and we root for him to do so.

I’ve always been a fan of Sandler’s work, and he conveys the same darkness and complexity that he brought to Punch Drunk Love.  His character has made some bad decisions in his life and is not a very nice person as evidenced by the way he treats his new assistant.  Still, we identify with his pain and loneliness, and we root for him to get what he wants.

His driving desire is to get back together with Laura (well-played by Leslie Mann), his ex-fiance whom he still loves, but lost several years earlier due to his philandering ways.  The final act of the movie involves Simmons and Wright driving up to San Francisco, where she’s settled into the domestic life with an absent husband and two daughters.  Her marriage has been tumultuous for years, and the arrival of the two comedians brings this tension to the surface.  At the risk of spoiling a plot point, I’ll say that this subplot ends on a surprising note, but one that’s entirely fitting to the behavior of these characters.

Funny People has a number of laughs, but the script also makes us think about human nature, mortality, and the essence of friendship.  It’s Apatow’s (and Sandler’s) best work yet. 

-Craig Wynne

Comedy, Drama, In Theaters, Reviews by Genre adam sandler, Comedy, Drama, funny people