As lewd as those of the Apatow oeuvre but vastly less concerned about connecting emotionally with audiences, the comedies made by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay will do anything for your gratification and not ask you to respect them in the morning. Like "Anchorman," which was actually produced by Apatow but carries the genes of this shameless brood, they toss out every pickup line in the book and give you just enough plot to justify their production budget.
"The Goods," written by newcomers Andy Stock and Rick Stempson, comes with a story line so standardized it might as well be one of the dull assembly-line autos sitting on the lot at Selleck Motors, a car dealership on the brink of bankruptcy when its desperate owner decides to bring in a "mercenary" salesman to run a Fourth of July weekend sale and move some product off the lot.
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That dealmaking hustler is played by Jeremy Piven, a no-brainer bit of casting even if the role doesn't supply the level of misanthropic juice that makes his character on "Entourage" unforgettable.
Piven runs a team of do-anything salespeople who hop from town to town selling cars for dealers who've lost their touch. Together, they spend the long weekend shocking the local sales staff with their ability to seduce unwilling customers.
The inevitable romance between Piven and the Selleck family's daughter and his efforts to put a confidence-shattering tragedy behind him are barely worth mentioning, but they carry more of the narrative weight here than usual, with the screenplay offering fewer of the surreal touches ("Daily Show" manly-man Rob Riggle playing a 10-year-old boy) and gag cameos (Ferrell, of course) than is usual in these films.
Everything else is just strippers, tasteless jokes and guilty pleasure. "The Goods" is a plain car adorned with just enough cheap options to attract a customer's attention and hold it until buyer's remorse sets in at home.
