The Promotion (2008) - Conrad's under-appreciated supermarket comedy

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+ Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year 

 

A tense stand-off in an office between two famous funny-men make up this poster for Steve Conrad's The Promotion

Doug is told that he is a 'shoe-in' for the open position of store manager of a large, newly opened Donaldson's grocery store, - but then the Canadian wildcard Richard enters the equation...

The Promotion is written and directed by great Floridian filmmaker Steve Conrad (Lawrence Melm (2004)).

Seann William Scott (Mr. Woodcock (2007)) gets totally free of the shadow of his goofy American Pie (1999; 2001; 2003; 2012) stardom here and is brilliant as an insecure, worried boss-to-be, and John C. Reilly (Dark Water (2005)) is incredibly funny as the imbecile Canadian competition with self-help audio in his ears. With a terrific supporting cast, this is a rare workplace comedy that's really good and hilarious. It challenges the power of the promotion for the regular Joe and succeeds handsomely with plenty of laughs at the expense of the often politically incorrect reality.

 

Related posts:

 

Steve Conrad: Wonder (2017) - Remember napkins for Chbosky's heart-warming family drama (co-writer)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) - Stiller's sweet, visually splendid Christmas present (writer) 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) - Two Smiths inspire hearts and minds in true-story drama (writer)

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 8 mil. $

Box office: 457k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.05 times its cost)

[The Promotion premiered 9 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, USA) and runs 86 minutes. Shooting took place around July 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. The film opened #46 to a 30k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #22 and in 81 theaters, grossing 408k $ (89.3 % of the total gross). The film only has two other recorded markets, (it was also released theatrically in Portugal but the result goes unreported.) Germany with 33k $ (7.2 %) and Singapore with 15k $ (3.3 %.) Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Conrad has not returned with a feature as a director since, instead directing some TV and more turning towards writing. Scott returned in Role Models (2008); Reilly in The Simpsons (2008, TV-series) and theatrically in Step Brothers (2008). The Promotion is rotten at 55 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Promotion?

The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) - Lowbrow racing fun in the rowdy South

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+ Best Car Movie of the Year

The blue-skied poster for Jay Chandrasekhar's The Dukes of Hazzard

QUICK REVIEW:

Three cousins and their uncle run a moonshine business in Hazzard County, Georgia, but they are challenged by the local County Commissioner and other obstacles.

This review might be a little overly positively inclined towards Dukes due to the fact that I was pretty hung over when I saw it. Otherwise I would most likely have been a bit harder on it.
- Because real, actual laughs are few and far between in this supposed (action) comedy, based on the CBS TV-series of the same name that ran from 1979-85. It is poorly written, by John O'Brien (Starsky & Hutch (2004)), with Jonathan L. Davis contributing story, and it works the same drill throughout.
But it is also a cozy, charming time with some cool car chases, which last almost the entire film, - and Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights (1997)). Jessica Simpson (Blonde Ambition (2007)) makes her feature acting debut here and successfully 'acts' her way to many male audience members as the Southern sex kitten Daisy Duke.
The film is directed by Chicagoan Jay Chandrasekhar (Super Troopers (2001)).

 

Related post:

 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 111 mil. $
=  Minor flop
[Dukes premiered at #1 in the US and ended up scoring 80.2 mil. $ (72 % of the total gross) there, despite mostly bad reviews. - So its problem mainly was that it wasn't very successful outside America.]

What do you think of The Dukes of Hazzard?
And Chandrasekhar's other films?

Cop Out (2010) or, A Couple of Dicks

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Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are up for some sharp-shooting games in Kevin Smith's Cop Out

QUICK REVIEW:

An unlikely NYPD-partnership gets suspended after a scandalous street debacle, but they then get involved in another hairy situation with some Mexican thugs, as a valuable baseball card, which is to finance the older cop's daughter's marriage, gets stolen.

Tracy Morgan (Top Five (2014)) and Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) have chemistry, and I laughed some to start out with. About 40 minutes into the film, (which is written by brothers Robb and Mark Cullen (Back in the Game (2013), TV-series)), a real, and pretty complicated, plot is attempted to be inserted into the preceding buddy cop tomfooleries, but the audience at that point has no interest in the rehash.
Cop Out has several scenes that are just plain stupid or dysfunctional, and the film grows tedious at some point, despite an atypical, cozy 80s-retro electro-hip-hop score, a throwback to the golden age for the relatively young buddy cop sub-genre, by Harold Faltermeyer (Beverly Hills Cop (1984)).
All in all, Cop Out is a pretty uncool film, clearly an uninvolved left-hand-job from director Kevin Smith (Tusk (2014)), who usually makes small, more or less personal indie flicks. - This was his first hired gig, which he didn't write himself, and it was obviously not a project he felt very enthusiastic about: He has stated that a reason for doing it was that it is the kind of movie his late father would have liked. During shooting, Smith was accused of being uninvolved and far away due to his marijuana-smoking while working. He, on the other hand, badmouthed Willis in a radio program after the production ... Smith was soon back with a much more relevant and dignified film, the great Red State (2011), which I recommend.

 Watch the trailer for the film, which puts it next to some modern classics and then reveals the low quality of Cop Out - ... as a way to get you to see it ... ?

Cost: 37 mil. $
Box office: 55.5 mil. $
= Flop
[Cop Out was first titled A Couple of Dicks, which didn't swing (he-he), then A Couple of Cops, (according to Willis, Cop Suckers was also in play ...), but then Smith thought Cop Out was fun, because it was what the title would be, (a cop out from something sexually suggestive.) You could say the whole film is a cop out. Especially the funny Morgan deserves better as a rising comedy star. The vulgarity was retained somewhat on the film's posters with the tagline ('Rock out with you Glock out'). Cop Out premiered #2 behind Shutter Island (2010) and made 44.8 mil. $ (81 % of its total gross) in the US.]

What do you think of Smith's Cop Out?
Other examples of original filmmakers stepping in it to get to that golden studio paycheck/recognition?

American Pie (1999) or, Losing It Before Prom

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+ Best High School Movie of the Year + Best Sex Comedy of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year 

The over-night major stars of Chris and Paul Weitz's American Pie exude youthful energy on the poster

Four friends make a pact to have sex before their high school prom. And by using such auxiliaries as apple pie, laxatives, Stifler's mother, a webcam and good, pure intentions, they eventually succeed.

American Pie, written by Adam Herz (Go Fish (2001, TV-series)) and directed by brothers Chris (About a Boy (2002)) and Paul Weitz (Grandma (2015)), is a generational hit and a modern classic in the youth sex-comedy genre. It's a sweet and funny high school-set comedy with a lot of laughs and a charming cast: 
Especially Jason Biggs (All at Once (2016)) and Eugene Levy (Serendipity (2001)) as father and son work very well. The music is very contemporary for its time, and therefore, for me at least, feels very nostalgic today. Though it seems simple, the film succeeds in catching lightning in a bottle, and no wonder that American Pie was a giant, worldwide hit and spawned many sequels and rip-offs.

Related posts:

Chris Weitz:  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) or, Ginny's Fate: A Star Wars Calculation (co-writer) 

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Paul Weitz: Admission (2013) - Despite messy script, Fey is hilarious in Weitz's romcom  (director)

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 235.4 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 21.4 times the cost)
[American Pie premiered 7 July (Los Angeles, California) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 1998 in California, including Los Angeles. Universal Pictures were not convinced of the film's promise and stupidly sold off the foreign rights in order to recoup their investment as fast as possible. The film opened #1 to an 18.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#3) and grossed 102.5 mil. $ (43.5 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. The film also made in excess of 109.5 mil. $ in global home video sales, further underlining its monster success. Chris and Paul Weitz returned with Down to Earth (2001). Biggs returned with an uncredited appearance in Detroit Rock City (1999) and in a real part in Boys and Girls (2000). The Weitz brothers were out, but the film spurred a franchise that continued with American Pie 2 (2001), American Wedding (2003) and American Reunion (2012) as well as 4 direct-to-video spin-offs. American Pie is fresh at 61 % with a 5.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
 
What do you think of American Pie?