Sol Goode (2001)
Directed by Danny Comden
Written by Danny Comden
Starring Balthazar Getty, Jamie Kennedy, Jason Bateman, Cheri Oteri
Release Date March 11th, 2003
Published March 11th, 2003
When we were kids, my sister had a huge crush on Balthazar Getty. It was based on Getty's one big role in Young Guns 2. Since Young Guns 2, Getty has seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth, save for a cameo in Natural Born Killers and his supporting role in the dopey 50's gang flick Deuces Wild. Well as it turns out Getty has actually had quite a lucrative career starring in a few direct-to-video movies. His latest non-theatrical movie is called Sol Goode, a comedy about a slacker actor who skates on his looks while awaiting his next acting job. One wonders if there isn't an element of self-parody.
Sol Goode is a good-looking young wannabe actor living off the good will of friends and family. The film's opening credit sequence includes a montage of bimbos who are asked what they think of Sol, some like him, some loathe him. It doesn't do the picture much good that the women who loathe him come off better than the ones who like him. As we meet Sol for the first time, he turns to the camera to talk to the audience about what he likes to call P.O.D, or post orgasmic disgust. P.O.D, describes a man's feelings when he wakes up next to a woman he wishes weren't there. Charming.
What does one do when suffering from P.O.D, well of course you do the classy thing. You call a friend, in Sol's case his narcissist best friend Cooper (Danny Comden), and have that friend come over and make you believe your house is on fire and run the girl out of the house quickly. Once again, charming.
Sol has other problems, rent is due and he hasn't worked in a couple of months. His roommate Justin (Jamie Kennedy) can't afford to cover him again and Sol's unemployment benefits have run out. With no other options, Sol is forced to once again ask his parents for money. In a scene that I wish I had never seen, Sol accidentally catches his parents (Robert Wagner & Christina Pickles) having sex with his Dad dressed as a baseball umpire. Eeewwww.
From there we move from there into the film's plot which involves Sol realizing that his womanizing ways are unfulfilling as is not having a real job. So Sol decides to change and figures he is in love with his other best friend Chloe (Katherine Towne). Unfortunately for Sol, she has a crush on his cousin Happy (Jonathan Schaech). Whether Sol will convince Chloe he's changed and win her heart is the center of the plot.
From beginning to end, Sol Goode is a picture that is desperate to be considered cool. Director Danny Comden, who also wrote the screenplay and plays Cooper in the film, throws in catchphrases and gross out humor in an attempt to make the film seem edgy and hip. Unfortunately, every decision he makes is wrong.
None of the catchphrases, like P.OD, or Cooper referring to his hair as his salad(?), none of it is funny. Throw in an extremely slow, glacier-like pace and an extremely unfunny Tori Spelling and you have a painfully dull movie. And as for the film's gross out humor, if you think irritable bowel syndrome is hysterically funny then maybe Sol Goode is for you. It's certainly not for me.
