Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

tomsview I love movies that feature clever scams. The cycle started with "The Sting" where the audience was no longer in the position of observer but was surprised to find that it had also been conned.David Mamet has often visited the genre with the clever "House of Games", the intriguing "Homicide", the interesting "The Spanish Prisoner", and the very ordinary "Heist". Ridley Scott does it justice with "Matchstick Men", but not everyone can pull it off as the derivative and self-satisfied "Confidence" demonstrates."The Prime Gig" is one that gets it right, and it features Vince Vaughan in a role that stands comparison with his Jeremy Grey in "Wedding Crashers".The movie takes a look inside the world of telemarketing. Our worst fears about the industry are realised when many of the techniques are revealed. The ethics of the sales people in this movie seem flexible at best or as one of the characters says, "The problem with telemarketing is that it is fundamentally evil because it is set up on selling some people some bulls*#t they don't need".Pendleton 'Penny' Wise (Vince Vaughan) is a hot telephone sales guy. He shares an apartment with his physically handicapped friend, Joel (Rory Cochrane) who he also supports financially. When his current job ends abruptly, Penny gets the chance to work for Kelly Grant (Ed Harris) - a high end operator who is putting together a sales team, a room, to sell shares in a newly discovered gold mine.Although Penny is not as overawed by Kelly Grant's reputation as his colleagues, he has a slow start. Finally, Penny gets into his stride and outsells everyone on the team, earning a fortune in commission. However, he complicates his life and compromises his relationship with Joel when he falls for Caitlin (Julia Ormond), Kelly Grant's girlfriend. Although Grant seems to accept the situation, we begin to wonder if Penny has dialled the wrong number.Ed Harris is superb as usual and Julia Ormond is suitably enigmatic as Caitlin, but this is Vince Vaughan's movie. He lives and breathes his role as Penny. He brings his familiar screen persona to the table - the big, reassuring guy, quick with a one-liner who is not easily fazed. He's the one others look to when things go pear-shaped. However, Vince Vaughan has built a nicely rounded portrayal on that familiar character. Penny does have a conscience, and draws the line at ripping off vulnerable old ladies. He is also loyal to his friends - especially Joel.The movie ends on a slightly ambiguous note. Although Penny thought he had the answers, he learns some lessons about human nature and human greed including his own."The Prime Gig" is a movie that seems to have got lost in the shuffle but it's a great little discovery, and is full of surprises; it's definitely one call worth answering.

Robert J. Maxwell Ed Harris, freshly out of the slams, hires a bunch of telemarketers to make cold calls and sell a gold mine. Julia Ormond, his girl friend, is his right-hand woman. Vince Vaughn is the most hard-headed and cynical of the hired salesmen. Harris tells Vaughn and the rest that this is not a scam. That he truly believes in this venture, that they will all make a lot of money and will do good while amassing their fortunes. As in much of life, these windy promises with their pellucid purity, turn out to be part of a mega-scam and everyone winds up sucking wind except Harris and Ormond. Vaughn winds up sadder -- and certainly broker -- but not necessarily wiser.This conspectus, I realize, makes the film sound like a poor man's independent production of "Glenngary Glenn Ross," and it is. It could have been written by David Mammon himself. I mean Mamet.Actually this is a good film, nicely done in every respect. The script especially is a winner through and through.Inquiring about a new job, an applicant asks, "Are there benefits?" "Yeah, you get to eat and pay the rent." A caller is being turned down by a potential customer and hollers into the phone, "**** you, you dried-up old bag. I hope the cancer kills you!" "GENE!", his boss shouts in alarm. "Okay, okay," Gene continues reasonably into the phone, "I was just kidding. But listen, suppose the cancer does spread and kill you, and you've never been to Hawaii. How's THAT going to make you feel?" The boss advises another recruit, "It's a bad idea to greet your customer by asking, 'Are you high?'" When Vaughn quizzes Harris about the job, he demands daily cash payments. "Okay," says Harris, "you got it, but instead of 20 percent it's 17 percent because it's a pain in the ass for book keeping." A less thoughtful and realistic script, sticking to the bare conventions, would not have added that final fillip.All the characters are surprisingly well fleshed out, and the direction is functional without being in any way splashy or full of self display.There is no Big Message behind the film, unless you want to get into something too chiliastic for human consumption, but it's well worth watching, amusing and instructive.

dy158 Telemarketeers...just the sound of it makes some of us cringe because not everyone likes those telemarketers to 'harass' us over the phone over something they want to promote on.And when moral questions are being raised about what is right and wrong, it has become a grey area. This is where Penny Wise (Vince Vaughn) has to deal with his own conscience.Scamming people through the phone is what Penny is good at for his job as a telemarketer, and when he was being hired to be part of this million-dollar scam, he was rather being hesitant at first. It's where his conscience starts to collide.Very interesting and quirky look at telemarketers who scam for the sake of money. Vince Vaughn portrayed it that well.Guess I will never see those telemarketers the same way again.

Aargh Do not read these comments past the 2nd paragraph if you haven't seen the movie!So we're walking through Blockbuster right? Through the sea of assembly line movies we come across a Vince Vaughn movie we hadn't seen yet. Amazing. It's like finding the pot of gold. Further examination of the case reveals that it also has Ed Harris & Julia Ormond. Wow! We need to look no further. The cover boasts an unpredictable ending. Sweet! (I never learn)The movie begins and the first few minutes are full of Vince goodness. It was fun seeing George Wendt too! Norm! Ok, I hate telemarketers that call people. It's one thing if you call them but when they call me I long for lightning to hit their phone system and electrocute every last one of them. Vince plays one of these types of bastards and is good at getting people to give up the green.Ok, enough. This is to comment not give a synopsis so let me get to the point. I love a good set up in a movie but 30 minutes is a bit extreme. This movie leaves no surprises. You know every step of the way how it will end and it just doesn't try to make it interesting. The best scene is when Vince is trying to sell the old lady on the investment. The ending left you with the empty feeling that "Penny" was feeling. Wonderful. Still, 2 good things do not make a great movie or even a good movie. They wasted everyone's talent and our time.