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Powerful

Great Film overall

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The Promotion feels like the crossroads where mainstream comedy meets indie comedy and the result is a bit all over the place. Some of the jokes in The Promotion (IE: "black apples" and the foreigner who gets violent over a box of Teddy Grahams) seem geared more for mainstream comedy films, while the observations the film makes about male masculinity along with the nine-to-five hell of the workplace make the film a more low-key comedy with abrupt situational humor.A strange hybrid this is, placing two talented actors at its core - the inherently likable Seann William Scott and the exuberant character actor John C. Reilly. Scott plays Doug Stauber, the assistant manager at Donaldson's, a supermarket chain based in Chicago. Day in and day out, Doug has to deal with poor and often abhorrent cards left in the parking lot dropbox for shoppers to state their shopping experience, a gang of loitering black teenagers in the parking lot, and just the drudgery of working for a little bit above minimum wage.Doug feels this is about to change, as he presumes he's a dead lock for the manager position at a new Donaldson's, which is opening very soon. Yet, there's another man eyeing the position, as well, named Richard Wehlner (John C. Reilly), an unusually nice man who has just moved from Quebec with a squeaky-clean record that just may grant him the desired position. For now, though, he works alongside Doug as assistant manager at the current Donaldson's.Just from that premise alone, I got anxious with The Promotion. I love films set in supermarkets, big-box stores, malls, or some other consumption-driven place. They often allow for humor more observant on human behavior to take place rather than your usual band of gags and can usually be levied by the thrills and unexpected happenings of a common setting. I was also hoping that The Promotion would rely quite a bit on humor driven by Donaldson's eclectic bunch of customers, similar to Kevin Smith's Clerks, a film I wouldn't hesitate to call one of my favorite comedy films.The Promotion doesn't get too heavy with the blatant or observant comedy, however, and instead tries to provide a face and maybe some relatable instances to the dead-end job of a grocery store. The issue is that The Promotion doesn't have a real identity here. Sometimes it wants to be satirical (when it's showing Doug do all the jobs at the store), sometimes it desires to be observant (when Doug is reading the customer feedback cards), sometimes it wants to be flat-out hilarious and fish for laughs (returning to the "black apples" example along with the team-building activities the employees at Donaldson's take part in), and, at others, it wants to show the male mindset of wanting to advance and strive higher in the workplace (Doug's mentality throughout).With all this on its mind, and a mere eighty-one minute runtime, The Promotion doesn't get a lot of this accomplished but shows us this is what it wants to do in the long run. What I can admire, however, is that everything it wants to do is fairly interesting and that the film itself finds ways to take dryer subjects and ideas and make them funny or at least watchable. The blatant comedy actually works more often than not, and the ideas it throws in about male masculinity and striving for the top position work, even if they're only given a surface explanation and depiction in the film.Scott and Reilly also nicely and subtly personify the conflict between younger, more adaptable blood and older, more traditionalist blood. Doug is a younger soul who could easily adapt to the technological innovations of the workplace, as well as pressure coming from multiple different angles. We get the feeling Richard can, at times, but we feel he would do it in a rougher, more over-the-top way (given what we see when he tires to build a ship-in-a-bottle). Not to mention, Richard seems sloppier and more of a roly-poly than Doug, and to add to that, even in his Sunday best Richard still seems a bit unkempt. With this in mind, the film details this kind of present generation gap that is hardly detailed or spoken about in society.The film has one core insight that I adore so much I may use it on a regular basis. The piece of wisdom comes from Richard who tells Doug, "we're all just here trying to get some food. Sometimes we bump into each other." This is a beautiful insight, almost as intriguing as Clerks' piece of insight about clerks ("just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you"). The quote basically sums up that we're all just looking for one simple goal and have one simple task, but sometimes we collide with someone who makes us a better person, gives us close companionship, or has absolutely no effect on us.The Promotion, in short, is kind of a damning movie. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's dry. Sometimes it's observant, sometimes it's passive. Sometimes it wants to focus on its characters' masculinity, sometimes it just wants to have awkward silences. Very often it feels like a teenager who occasionally wants to be insightful and sometimes just wants to be lazy.Starring: Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly. Directed by: Steven Conrad.

Saw a poster up in a shop a while ago and thought this looked OK. Slightly concerned I'd never heard of it and pretty sure it was "straight to DVD", but with the premise and these guys, surely it was a "can't miss".... or was it? "The Promotion" stars Seann William Scott (in his most challenging role since "Dude, where's my car") and John C Reilly (in his best work since "Never Been Kissed") as two rival assistant managers at a grocery store. The two are hoping to land a manager's job at the new store across town and start undermining each other to make themselves the best candidate. This is where it gets weird. I was hoping for non-stop pranks and capers, yet the film didn't go there and just placed Reilly's character, Richard, in a few awkward moments where he was made to look stupid. You'd expect some non-stop shenanigans and then it turns out neither gets the job, but the film plays out quite like how it would in real life. Neither actor is given much of a leash and is played reasonably straight.The film was OK (wifey actually really liked it), but I guess didn't turn out how I expected. I felt like a night of silly jokes but the film didn't deliver, although I kind of respect what the writer/director (Steve Conrad, who wrote "The Pursuit of Happiness") tried to do. The film tried to be a slightly more realistic of how one of the situations might play out and din't try too much to go for wacky, unrealistic pranks or to go the other way and pull to hard on the heart strings. Just OK, dragged a fair bit at times and didn't deliver what it could have.

This movie was absolutely awful...I can't even think of an articulate way to describe this movie; which could detract credibility from my remarks. This movie isn't worthy of a thoughtful summary. It's a pile of trash. Apologies to those who find that judgement too harsh, you're wrong, there is no silver lining in this black cloud. Here's why: After viewing "Mr. Woodcock," it became abundantly clear to me that Seann William Scott will doesn't read scripts, he just accepts the work. He's not steve stiffler anymore, as bad as he want to be. To appeal to a greater demographic (than that of American pie) he seriously needs to find roles where he actually does some acting. His character in this movie is terribly frustrating to watch. The dialog he has with everyone else in the movie feels awkward and forced at best. Mr. John C Reiley has made a name for himself through such drama filled gems as "walk hard" and "talladega knights." It's good to see The Promotion allow him to evolve and branch out into such a complex character. A marijuana addicted French Canadian with a daughter and a Scottish wife....ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? What a horrible character. That whole scene about "cracking the cheese" just about caused me to throw a large stone through my beautiful, large television. I like stupid movies, Harold and Kumar (both of them) are two of my favorite movies of all time. I can appreciate a good stoner character. God forbid the actors/actresses in this movie make the slightest effort to provide any humanistic qualities or emotions in their roles, and actually make you identify and relate to them.acting was god-awful, writing was even worse, there is no cinematography to speak of, etc.P.S. Lili Taylor (she's amazing in 'six feet under') with an F-ING Scottish ACCENT?!?!?!? WHY!?!?! Just employ a freaking Scottish actress!! Why oh Why do production companies greenlight projects like these? The story is nothing but childish feuding, and would best be served as a failed pilot for a NBC sitcom...

and by too nice I mean, instead of playing dirty tricks to try to win the manager job at the new store, they are basically nice to each other. Only toward the end do they do some slight dishonest things.This movie is about 2 grocery store workers who both want the manager position at the new store opening up. One, Doug, has been at that store for a while and told he's a shoe in. The new guy from Canada, Richard, is older and seems to be working the management. He gets more in store shifts, while Doug is left working the parking lot. Basically, he is suppose to chase off gangster looking, cussing kids, but even if they buy a candy bar, he's supposed to look the other way if they are being a nuisance. There are always negative comments in the comments box; those were funny.Both Richard and Doug are pretty nice to each other; the only negative things are Richard acts like he was hurt after Doug throws a tator tot at him and Doug hides some of the negative comments. But, Richard's mouth and his recreation drug use are what does him in.Sean William Scott is better than this. I thought he was really going to be big after American Pie. He really needs to be taking better roles than this. He can be really funny with the right film.FINAL VERDICT: Not a lot was laugh out loud funny. It was amusing but nothing great. I'd only recommend watching this if there is nothing else that seems good on.