Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
September 29, 2010
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
I see The Goods as the Glengarry Glen Ross for the comedy brigade of current times, led by fast talking Jeremy Piven as Don Ready, leader of a pack of used car liquidators with the task of clearing a dying car dealership of its inventory. Every character is played by an established or rising comedian fitting handsomely into the role. This extends to even the inconsequential roles. A small scene inside an airplane, for example, has the uniquely talented Kristen Schaal as the stewardess in whose vocal chords expletives come across as humor of the highest order. Ed Helms and Ken Jeong add further credence to the comic talent part of this movie. Ed Helms plays Paxton Harding, a "Man in a Boy Band" with a vested interest in the dealership, the daughter of its owner being his fiancé. The sincerity with which he embodies the man-boy roles works here as well. Kim Jeong, on the other hand, takes a deviation from his usual aggression and gets a few beatings (for laughs) often triggered by a senile car salesman played by Charles Napier. At the same time a few others like Craig Robinson (The Office) and Tony Hale (Arrested Development) are underused in this crowd.
The movie lets us know that "We are living in the golden age of lap dances." It has the means to become a cult hit but somehow failed to build upon that promise.
Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther series is a one-of-a-kind comedy with a bumbling detective put in his place time and again by intelligent adversaries. The comedy is physical and also draws some sympathy for the lead character that has to fail for the story to succeed. I am quite fond of the original Peter Sellers series. I think there are many more like me and within this is a sub sect that wants the new Pink Panther series to fail in a fashion similar to the hero of the original series.
Steve Martin stays true to form as far as the physical comedy is concerned. The accent is of forced and exaggerated and compliments the comedy at times but fails to impress in other times. In this particular edition, a team of international detectives are brought together to capture a bold and daring thief known as The Tornado. The growing romance between Inspector Clouseau (Martin) and the secretary Nicole (Emily Mortimer) is thrown off track as much by Clouseau’s strict adherence to rules as it is by the interference of the Italian detective Vicenzo (Andy Garcia). Alfred Molina, Yuki Matsuzaki Jeremy Irons, Jean Reno, Lily Tomlin and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan round off the truly international team. Peter Sellers would have succeeded in losing to the Tornado but in the new age version, Inspector Clouseau has to defeat the Tornado. The said sub sect might not appreciate that.
Ended up with…
Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably end up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my Ended up with… list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.
Ironman
One of the titles added to the NetFlix library following the epic Epix deal. I’ve enjoyed the trendsetting superhero in the Cineplex and in home theatre. I still want to see it in the new format.
The Princess and the Frog
A rarity among animation movies, The Princess and the Frog, is a hand drawn animated film introducing one more princess to the already formidable gang put together by Disney.
Kurbaan
Kurbaan is a Bollywood thriller dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 and told predominantly from the point of view of the terrorists although not exactly condoning their actions. I see it as ‘New York’ (reviewed earlier in these columns) but with better actors.
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