The Promotion tries for the dry, low-key vibe of Election, but its humor is not so much dry as evaporated.
Comment
06/13/08
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
The directorial debut of Pursuit of Happyness writer Steve Conrad, The Promotion carries a deadpan corporate-absurd whiff of Office Space but never quite scans.
06/13/08
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
The strangely paced drama/comedy never finds much of a groove. Elements of conventional madcap comedy butt against more indie-ready scenes of relationship dysfunction, and the end result is more frustrating than interesting.
06/13/08
Reilly and Scott richly mine their characters, alternately confiding in and undermining each other. Their vulnerability and yearning for the good life is a quiet but powerful statement that will stay with you long after the closing credits.
06/13/08
The Promotion has more work-life truth in it than a month of The Office or Dilbert.
06/13/08
[Director] Conrad seems to have used whatever clout he got from The Pursuit of Happyness to fund something personal and sincere -- a story that's ultimately about victories of character and suppressing your worst impulses.
06/13/08
As bad as a severe case of the Mondays.
06/13/08
The acting, not Steve Conrad's bland writing and uneven pacing, drives this low-key, mildly amusing, occasionally insightful workplace satire.
06/13/08
Total and forgettable and unforgivable blandness.
06/13/08
The Promotion skates out onto that thin ice of comedic subtlety. Like its characters, it's not terribly successful, but it's an admirable effort all the same.
06/13/08
A nasty-hearted little film, and in absolutely the worst way for a film to be nasty: it is absolutely convinced of its own warm spirit.
06/12/08
The Promotion uses the structure of a workplace comedy to pose gentle moral and ethical questions about treating people right (or wrong), about honor and ambition, truth-telling and back-stabbing.
06/12/08
The portrayal of employment in America is too close for comfort. Or comedy...Not the stuff of lighthearted summer comedy.
06/12/08
Top CriticDirector Steve Conrad probably counts on the natural likability of Scott and Reilly to make this comedy go down a little easier, but it doesn't always do the trick.
06/12/08
As a subtle expression of masculine angst, it's the timid flipside of Fight Club. As a gentle critique of the American dream's descent into empty consumerism, it's a less cutesy, less feminist Little Miss Sunshine.
06/12/08
Top CriticSo laid-back that it barely registers, despite starring two guys who haven't exactly been shrinking violets in previous outings.
06/11/08
better than the usual in so many ways
06/09/08
"The Promotion" needs some career counseling to figure out just what it really wants to be.
06/09/08
A confident and clever character study about the commonality of dreams from the boardroom to the bag boy.
06/08/08
Latest News for The Promotion
May 25, 2008:
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