Piven plays Don Ready, the world’s best car salesman, in a role that was undoubtedly written for him. He’s a hired gun, moving from town to town with his crack sales team of Jibby (Ving Rhames), Brent (David Koechner), and Babs (Kathryn Hahn). When Ben (James Brolin) Selleck’s car dealership is at risk of failure, Don is the man who answers the call. The challenge is set for Don and his crew. Sell every car on the lot of Selleck Motors, or the company will go bankrupt and the Hardings will take over and Don will be forced out of town. Don is up to the challenge, but the problem is Ben’s sales force. They’re terrible, and the bad economy hasn’t helped them. Can Don do it? That’s what we’ll find out. If I were a trendier critic (or a real critic), I’d complain that Piven only gives us one performance in every role he plays. However, I’m not that guy. So long as the act stays fresh, I don’t mind it. It’s not time for Piven to go off and play Norman Bates in a remake of Psycho yet, nor would I ever want that. For right now, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The script, from the basically unknown Rick Stock and Rick Stempson, plays out pretty well. The jokes come heavy and hot in the beginning, as Don and his crew integrate with the Selleck team, and the movie stays pretty consistently funny thanks to Charles Napier’s wonderfully angry and outburst-prone Dick Lewiston. Also stealing scenes is the wonderful DJ Request played by Craig Robinson, who is all over the place lately and consistently putting in funny work. Once Jeremy Piven’s character starts to undergo the required change of heart that all movies tend to force on crass pricks, the film does lose steam joke-wise. Will Ferrell’s inevitable cameo doesn’t really help, either. He has a few decent moments in a thankfully limited role, but… yeah, I’m done with him, and I know I’m not the only one who is getting a bit sick of him. At least it moves fast, thanks to director Neal Brennan, who cut his teeth on Chappelle’s Show and is making his feature film debut. As such, there’s not a lot of fancy camera work to be seen, but the movie moves quickly and even when jokes thud the movie doesn’t linger long before throwing something else amusing in your general direction. US correspondent Ron Hogan is in the market for a good used car and a copy of the movie Used Cars. Find more by Ron at his blog, Subtle Bluntness and daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.