I think The Promotion was supposed to be funny… but I’m not entirely sure.  The subject matter hit home rather hard for me.  Having worked at both a supermarket and a casino throughout my permanent career of temporary jobs, I am wholly familiar with the backstabbing, petty-minded squabbling, setbacks, cutbacks, and throwbacks that such places of employment are well saturated in.

As with every Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly film, the main plot point of The Promotion is rivalry.  Doug Stauber (Scott) plays the assistant manager of a grocery store.  His job sucks, plain and simple… and the people that he works with aren’t much better.  When Doug discovers the chain is opening a new and bigger store, he’s convinced that he is a sure shoo-in by his nerdy manager, and looks forward to the day that his life will improve that much more.  Naturally, that’s when John C. Reilly comes in to do the same tired routine we’ve seen in most of his other movies: the guy that is also shooting for the same thing as the main character… only this time his name is Richard, he’s a Canadian, and has daughter with a Scottish wife (Lili Taylor).

OK, Multiple Answer Question time, kids… try and guess what happens in The Promotion?  Is it…
A) Doug and Richard compete for the job, discover that their love for each other is greater than anything else, and move to Jamaica together, where they raise Pomeranians (people, not dogs).
B) Doug and Richard compete for the job, but when Doug finally cracks under pressure, he quits the dead-end job and returns the next day with an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons.
or
C) Doug and Richard compete for the job, discover that the feuding is really not worth the trouble, and become better people in the process.
Yes, the correct answer was “A”.

No, wait… I’m sorry, the correct answer was “C”.  My bad.

It’s hard to believe that The Promotion is the brain-child of the same guy that wrote Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, The Weather Man, and The Pursuit Of Happyness.  All of that spark that made those movies what they are is sorely missing here.  Not even the uncredited cameo by “Arrested Development” star Jason Bateman (no stranger to unfunny rivalry comedies like this) adds anything to this dreadful comedy that comes off like a bad attempt to cash in on the overlooked “10 Items Or Less” and the overrated Yankee version of “The Office”.  The only actors in the film that I could actually stand were Lili Taylor, Gil Bellows, and Bobby Cannavale.

Do yourself a favor and leave it on the video store shelf beside the copy of Jason Bateman’s The Ex.

Presentation
Well, at least it looks decent: the collective heads of knuckle from Weinstein, Dimension, and Genius bring us a rather “oooh”-looking transfer of The Promotion in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen.  The only audio track available is an English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround one, and Subtitles are provided in English (SDH) and Spanish.

Extras
Why does it seem that whenever a movie is complete and utter shit, the studios pile on the Special Features?  It was bad enough suffering through this depressing waste of my (admittedly, non-)valuable time, but I have to look at this shit, too?

OK, here’s the rundown: there’s an Audio Commentary by writer/director Steven Conrad, producers Jessika Borsiczky Goyer and Steven A. Jones; several Deleted Scenes (7:41) that actually make one scene in the movie make a little more sense; a Making The Production (18:34) Featurette with several cast and crew Interviews; The Promotional Webisodes (8:35); a few Outtakes (3:10) which are all from the same scene of the movie; and finally, the Theatrical Trailer (2:32).

Additional Trailers for other disasters (like Superhero Movie and The Ex, appropriately enough) automatically play before the Main Menu comes up on that there screen thing.

The Bottom Line
Yes, I understand that this movie is supposed to contain some sort of social commentary, but for me it didn’t work.