The Goods, Live Hard, Sell Hard

When times get tough in this economy for a car dealership, they call on Don Ready (Jeremy Piven), who's a fast-talking closer who gets the job done. He brings his team of crack commandos with the intention of clearing the lot over the 4th of July weekend.

Ready has his plans in order and everything goes well until he is blindsided by love. Unfortunately, his love interest, Ivy Selleck (Jordana Spiro) is engaged to competing car dealer super dork Paxton Harding (Ed Helms) who is out to destroy the dealership, which is owned by patriarch Ben Selleck (James Brolin).

Don Ready's crew consists of Brent Gage (David Koenchner), Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn), and Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames). Fortunately for Ready, he also has the spirit of McDermott to help guide him in his troubled times. McDermott is a former team member who died in a plane stunt. In the grain of Ron Burgandy, the movie has its totally goofy parts and potty humor.

Also staring in the movie is Alan Thicke as Paxton Harding's father, and Will Ferrell as McDermott. I think you'll get a good kick out of the two of them.

The Goods, Live Hard, Sell Hard is Rated R for sexual situations, language, violence, and nudity, though the nudity, be forwarned, consists of them watching porn on television. The movie is 90 minutes long.

Overall, I had several good laughs, but thought the plot a bit thin and drawn out. If Redbox doesn't have any new releases available, this one's not too bad. I give it 3 stars.

Last Chance Harvey

I kept my expectations in check with Last Chance Harvey, staring Dustin Hoffman, one of the most formidable actors of our time, as the quirky Harvey Shine and Emma Thompson as shy but strong Kate Walker. My latest Netflix movie didn't get great reviews and some of Hoffman's movies can be a bit bazaar.

Harvey is a jingle writer and his daughter is getting married. He hasn't seen her much because she lives in London and, coincidentally, the wedding is in London. Upon arrival he passes one of those people that tries to gather information by conducting a survey. He's not interested and brushes off the lady. Once in his hotel, he learns of the wedding plans and starts to realize that he's not really welcome there. At the rehearsal dinner that night those feelings are confirmed.

At this point in the movie I was ready to kick his daughter's ass. His ex-wife wasn't much better. I could not believe how rude both were being to him and he coiled in defeat and surrendered into seclusion. I felt horrible for him and almost felt like I was there with him.

And then things got worse. Fortunately for Harvey, the lady that he shunned at the airport on his inbound flight shows up again and it goes from being that awkward obnoxious guy to that feeling of fresh sunshine and thinking that things can get better. Will Harvey be able to make good on his relationship with his daughter and find happiness again?

The movie is mostly predictable and quite short. It's only an hour and 30 minutes long. Though the reviews that I read were mostly disappointing, both Hoffman and Thompson both won Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

Last Chance Harvey also stars Liane Balaban as Susan, Harvey's daughter, Eileen Atkins, Kate's mother, Kathy Baker as Harvey's ex-wife, and James Brolin as Kathy's new husband.

The movie was directed by Joel Hopkins, a relatively unknown director who's only other direction came with Jump Tomorrow.

Last Change Harvey is rated PG-13 for some brief strong language and an attempt at boosting ticket sales because PG movies usually don't bring in as much money.

While the beginning of the movie was much more powerful to me than the end, I still thought the movie was decent and give it 3 stars.