The Prime Gig (2001)

Awesome Movie

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Imagine eating an Oreo cookie with the cream filling removed or a jelly donut with the jelly sucked out of it. The cookie sides of the Oreo and the donut itself would still be tasty, but you wouldn't be getting what you wanted or expected out of either. The experience would not be unpleasant, just unsatisfying. The Prime Gig is a film where most of the conflict has been extracted. There are still things to enjoy while watching it, but it's a fundamentally boring story.Penny (Vince Vaughn) is a salesman, currently selling travel packages of dubious legality in a bottom-of-the-barrel telemarketing firm. He's the most successful one in the storefront office, which is a little like being the thinnest fat person at Weight Watchers. The rest of the crew are either desperate losers or bitter malcontents.When that job goes up in smoke, Penny is recruited to work for Kelly Grant (Ed Harris), a legendary figure of somewhat questionable business practices. Grant claims to have a gold mine worth $30 million and needs Penny and a warehouse full of other phone salespeople to get $2.5 million worth of investors to sign on to the project. Penny thinks it's a scam, even after Grant goes to extravagant lengths to prove otherwise, but doesn't care as long as he gets paid immediately for every sale he makes. The tempting presence of Grant's beautiful associate, Caitlin (Julia Ormond), is also on Penny's mind and other, more southern parts of his anatomy.While all that's going on, Penny is also trying to help a childhood friend named Joel (Rory Cochrane). Joel is crippled, lazy, pretentious and self-destructive. Why Joel is all of those things and why Penny makes extraordinary efforts to help him is never explained or even hinted at.After a rough start, Penny begins to rack up sales and boink the hell out of Caitlin. That just goes on for a while, giving Vince Vaughn and Julia Ormond a few decent scenes together and then the story simply swirls down the drain. There's a twist at the end that is pulled off in the most backasswards way imaginable and Penny is left to walk down the sidewalk as the closing credits roll.As I mentioned earlier, there are some good things in The Prime Gig. Vaughn and Ormond are very engaging. She also shows off a breast, which is greatly appreciated. The crew at the storefront, including Wallace Shawn, George Wendt and Stephen Tobolowsky, are very entertaining in their misery. It's also fun to listen to Penny and the rest of Grant's team try to manipulate people into investing in the supposed gold mine.All of that is undermined by the tedious lack of conflict in this movie. Some exists at the beginning, where everyone at the storefront is angry with each other and fearful of losing their jobs. It all disappears when Penny joins up with Grant. There's no meaningful conflict between Penny and Grant, Penny and Caitlin, Grant and Caitlin, Penny and the salesman competing with him to be number one, Penny and Joel, Caitlin and Joel or really any other combination of characters. There's a silly attempt late in the film at inner conflict with Penny, but it's so contrived that no one could take it seriously.The bottom line of The Prime Gig is that you spend the last two-thirds of the movie waiting for anything to happen and nothing does, until something happens at the very end that you knew was going to happen from the first second Kelly Grant was mentioned. This film has a few moments of interest breaking up the dullness, like driving through Nebraska and seeing topless hitchhiker every 150 miles, but unless you've got really long attention span, this movie isn't worth your time.

It's no mistake that the main character's name is "Penny Wise" because in the end he turns out to be "pound foolish".Here is a man who is a professional telemarketer (I suppose there are those things) who is wise in the ways of the game. He knows how to work a call and what to say to close the deal, which feeds his competitive spirit.But he's not as smart as he thinks he is, because he gets hooked by the wrong people, who are charismatic and charming and convincing, believing their story about a mine that will make them all rich, if only they can get to the riches. He is skeptical at first, but eventually decides it's all legit and signs on. Not only does he eventually get scammed the way he has been scamming the people he phones, but he falls for one of the scammers -- the oldest trick in the book -- men are so easy -- and gets hurt, not only in the wallet, but in his heart.Penny Wise is someone we want to dislike because of his job, but he is shown taking care of his alcoholic, homeless friend, so in spite of his greed and manipulative ways we're supposed to say, "Aww, he must have a heart of gold because he's nice to the crippled guy," but it didn't work for me. A scam-artist is still a scam-artist as far as I'm concerned, so I really didn't have much compassion for him and was glad he finally knew what it felt like to be on the other end of the scam.As far as his telemarketing "skills" went, if he spoke to me the way he spoke to cold-call clients I don't think I'd be having a very long conversation with him. He cussed a blue streak at them, insulted them, and berated them when they hesitated, and they still gave him their trust and money. I found this to be rather contradictory and completely unrealistic.The ending is just plain stupid, because no bank in the world will let just anyone walk in and withdraw money from somebody else's account, whether the balance is eighty thousand dollars or eight bucks, on the strength of only a letter and a marriage certificate.But even though the ending was stupid and the characters were unlikeable because of what they did for a living, I thought the movie as a whole was good. It was nice to see Vince Vaughn in a calmer and more dramatic role than he usually takes, and Ed Harris was perfect as the prime gig mastermind. Julia Ormond was the exception, though, in that she seemed too wishy-washy and didn't come off as strong or as devious as her character should have been.

Having worked in telemarketing - did some night work at a room very similar to the place at the start of this movie - I feel this film does an perfect job of capturing that atmosphere - it was spot on, the pitches, the types of characters that work in these type rooms to a tee. It captured they types of people - like the Indian guy - had all the right things to say on the wall - he spent so much time putting it up, he probably didn't make many calls - or had call reluctance, the lifers like Gene, etc., the desperation, the call reluctance - that Penny had when not selling for Kelly Gran. Some things I didn't like was where Penny, while working for Kelly Grant and breaks out of his call reluctance, he yells "Chang, go get your FxxxN checkbook and write me an Fxxxn Check NOW!" - I wish they would have been a bit more accurate - no one buys if you try to bully them that way - never works - but if Penny would have been firm but suave, that would have been better. Also, the ending left something to be desired - but overall, this is the absolute best, most accurate depiction of telemarketing out there, very entertaining, good acting. I wish there was a prime gig 2! Anyone out there that knows of any other movie that even comes close (yes, I've seen Boiler Room, Glengarry, Wall Street, Tin Men, Bonfire of the Vanities) - is there one out there? LOVE THIS MOVIE>

Prime Gig, The (2000)A Conversation with the DevilThis film has EVERYTHING to recommend it, and is one of the most thought-provoking films I've seen in a long time.With a careful viewing and attention to the dialogue, much can be learned here. In fact, I will need to watch it a number of times, as there is so much there... just "skimming the surface" or bubbling beneath. I wish I could read the dialogue in script form, as it has so much power. Obviously, much attention was paid to the writing of it.This film is truly "A Conversation with the Devil," with an angel at hand... There are so many pointers, yet they are easy to miss... He knows just what your weaknesses are, and plays only to that. Does he succeed in the end?One on-screen example that comes to mind, is something to the effect of (paraphrasing here), spoken by Ed Harris, as the Top Dog:"I watch TV, not for the shows, but for the ads: the ads are the Truth. I know what you feel, watching all those things you don't have (the fancy watch, the expensive car) and I know how worthless it makes you feel... And I never knew how easy it is to find Peace.Remember Christmas, what was the thing that gave you the most pleasure? Not the bike you got for Christmas or for Hanukah; not the gifts you received, but the Frisbee you bought for your brother and the look on his face when he opened it. That's what you remember."Another scene has our scammer asking for `The Truth,' and in response he is told:`She trusts you. Don't disappoint her' and leaves the final decision and `fact-finding mission' up to him. What does he do? Does he trust his `instinct' that he stated at the start? This determines the outcome to our fallen hero, does it not?The Devil never lies to anyone; he just twists or leaves out all of the truth. This is an amazing display for which everyone involved falls for, just like we all do in real life. Yet would `love' make a difference in this world we see on the screen, which is a reflection of the world that we create. We don't know what difference an `expression of real love' would have made, but are left to wonder and perhaps to `try again next time.'How to trust, what to trust, who to trust? What is Real and What is False, and What Difference Does It Make in the End? These are the BIg Questions here.The Devil gives many, many examples of "trust" when he falls off the back hoe into the telemarketers arms; he has "set the stage" perfectly for the things to come, where nothing is as it seems to be. Just how the Devil operates here. And all are tested; how far will they go in their treatment of others, and this determines their own "reward" or their own fate, it seems.We start out with a scammer, who ultimately gets scammed. This scammer has a good side (as do we all?) in that he takes care of a childhood friend who is crippled, and we see the loneliness and heartbreak he goes through as he 'enables" and "cares for" this physically helpless friend. But does his friend take advantage of him; does he take advantage of others, does he ever feel "love" for anyone else?He wants the gorgeous girl (played by one of my favorite actresses, Julia Ormond), but when he "has her," what does he do? Would she have acted the way she did, in the end, if he had acted differently?Smashing performance from Ed Harris, as the resident "Big Dog" devil. I'll watch anything with Harris in it; in his "later years" he is becoming the Clark Gable / Cary Grant of our generation, able to play good guys and bad.Vince Vaughn plays this character perfectly, and my estimation of him has also risen many notches. Will be looking for more work from him.The rest of the cast were perfect (especially the "lead salesman" who says "this is MY house!") as was the dialogue and direction of this `low -life - low-key" REAL LIFE film. No "blockbuster easy-ending" here; we wander through the world on this incredible journey, looking for love, looking for love, looking for security; we wander through the maze and get blown away at the end. Just like in our own lives, at the end of the days.