Tone and pace are absolutely crucial to comedy. If the tone is wrong or the pace is off - by even a hair - the comedy will shrivel up and die. And that's precisely what happens in The Promotion.
2 Comments
06/14/08
The Promotion (2008)
53
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:74
Fresh:39
Rotten:35
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: With a workplace-related theme worthy of satire, The Promotion features some sharp witticisms but ultimately disappoints.
Theatrical Release:Jun 6, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $362,531
Synopsis: THE PROMOTION is a low-key, deader than deadpan comedy-drama that fans of THE OFFICE should love. The film stars Sean William Scott (AMERICAN PIE) and John C. Reilly (TALLADEGA NIGHTS) as assistant... [More]
Starring: John C. Reilly, Seann William Scott, Jenna Fischer, Lili Taylor
Director: Steve Conrad
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Reviews for The Promotion
Add watching The Promotion to the Geneva Conventions' list of humanitarian abuses.
03/10/08
Top CriticClick to read the article
10/18/08
This notable, Chicago-filmed comedy was inspired by the true events of director Steve Conrad seeing a store employee at a Chicago chain armed only with a yellow courtesy vest break up some unruly loiterers in the parking lot.
06/06/08
As bad as a severe case of the Mondays.
06/13/08
Steve Conrad's wry debut takes place in an urban Chicago grocery store, in which an intimate epic of manhood unfolds.
06/06/08
bills itself as a comedy, and elements of it do fall into that category, but at its core, this is an incisive and often merciless deconstruction of the American Dream
06/15/08
At last, we have a completely and profoundly American movie with all the classical skills of timing, editing and character development that we associate nostalgically with some Hollywood golden age.
06/04/08
Top CriticWhat we get is either a drama that never takes itself seriously -- or a comedy that’s rarely funny.
06/05/08
Click to read the article
04/23/09
Screenwriter Steve Conrad's (The Pursuit of Happyness) directorial debut is too strait-laced for the Knocked Up set and too offensive for the Will Smith crowd.
06/13/08
A confident and clever character study about the commonality of dreams from the boardroom to the bag boy.
06/08/08
The Promotion is generally harmless but boring.
06/27/08
The Promotion tries for the dry, low-key vibe of Election, but its humor is not so much dry as evaporated.
06/13/08
Two regular Joes square off in The Promotion, a sly comedy that finds fresh humor in the workplace.
06/13/08
Muted bits of slapstick and verbal insults arrive with more clunkers than zingers, but the performances are adequate and the tone sincere.
06/02/08
...an odd yet compelling comedy...
10/16/08
Not much here is funny, the Chicago locations are drab, and the characters, as ordinary as they are, never develop into anything more than premise props.
06/05/08
Not that there aren't some great laughs, but this is far from the laugh-a-minute yuck-fest some might expect.
06/04/08
There's still a lot to like here, but ultimately the movie reflects its hapless hero a little too well. While we're constantly rooting for it to succeed, the finish line seems forever out of reach.
06/06/08
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May 25, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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