The tag line underneath Lou Lumenick's name should read, "Will provide sh*tty film reviews for fifty cents because that's about as much as my opinion is worth." Lumenick, who writes film reviews for the New York Post, is easily the worst critic of 2008 so far -- and, unlike his reviews, I'm actually going to back up that statement.

Lou reviewed The Promotion on Friday and gave it Zero stars. Look, I'll be the first to tell you The Promotion is in no way the greatest film of all time, but it's charming, humorous, human and has a lot of heart. But this has nothing to do with The Promotion, and everything to do with performing the job assigned to you.

Fine. Zero stars. We'll go with that; perhaps Lou spotted enough flaws to warrant the rating. But then I actually read Lumenick's "review" of The Promotion, which starts out saying the film's tagline should change to read, "No Laughs." Really? Because I've watched this film with two different audiences in two different states, and each time the audience was laughing ... a lot. Did you watch it with an audience, Lou? Probably not. But let's move on ...

(Note: We're re-posting our review of The Promotion from SXSW to coincide with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)

A few years ago, we were treated subjected to a retail farce known as Employee of the Month, a near-witless comedy that pitted Dane Cook and Dax Shepard against each other as moronic clerks who vie for the title of (you guessed it) Employee of the Month. I knew there was a lot of room for successful comedy in this sort of premise, but aside from a stray chuckle or two, EOTM was an entirely stale and completely sitcom-level effort.

Now comes a very small, very funny, and oddly warm-hearted flick in sort of the same vein. It's called The Promotion; it stars Sean William Scott and John C. Reilly; it was written and directed by first-timer Steve Conrad ... and if it comes out in 2008, then it will definitely end up in my top ten of the year. (Conrad is a first-time director; his previous screenplays include Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, The Weather Man, and The Pursuit of Happyness.) This is a fantastic little comedy, filled with all sorts of weird little moments and strange diversions, but at its core, The Promotion is a profanely sweet-natured dual character study that doles out a LOT of laughs while actually celebrating ... small doses of actual humanity! It's a great comedy with an excellent message delivered by a bunch of actors who are clearly savoring the material. (My normal m.o. is to "champion" smaller horror flicks, but a good movie is a good movie, period. If I can turn a dozen people onto The Promotion, then I'm doing my job.)

It's funny to see a film called The Promotion get very little, well, promotion from the folks distributing it to theaters this weekend. Granted, it's only opening in three cities on Friday (NYC, LA and Chicago), but I would've liked to see one commercial ... at least. Oh well. Hopefully when the film expands into other markets (fingers crossed), they'll throw a bit more money at it. Up until now, The Promotion has received mixed reviews. Everyone I saw it with at SXSW absolutely loved it, with the majority of us calling it one of the best comedies of the year. Other folks ... not so much.

I read a review today from someone who totally did not get the humor -- and The Promotion is definitely one of those films where if you don't get the humor, you might miss the punchline. This reviewer wanted to either like or dislike a character; instead, they didn't understand that both main characters (played by Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly) are good guys who have flaws -- some of which don't show until the pressure is on. These guys are awkward, nerdy, human -- The Promotion introduces us to two nice guys who desperately do not want to finish last. Because they've always finished last. But now they have a chance to finish first ... and each will go to great lengths to achieve that.

If you live in NYC, LA or Chicago, I'll ask that you please go see The Promotion this weekend. I have no ties to this film whatsoever, except that I like to plug a small, genuine comedy with a big heart. Check out a few new photos in the gallery below ... and let us know what you think after the movie.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from The Promotion -- which, in case you've been living under a rock, is a film we've been championing ever since it premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this year. The Promotion follows two nice guys, as played by Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly, who just so happen to be going for the same job as manager of the new supermarket opening up across town. Written and directed by Steve Conrad (watch out for this guy; he's a keeper), the film relies more on uncomfortable, quiet humor than it does physical gags, pop culture references or raunchy dialgoue -- but it's still very successful, and definitely the kind of flick you want to see with an audience.

One of the film's greatest running gags is that Richard (Reilly) listens to these self-motivation tapes everywhere he goes. Thing is, the volume is cranked up and other people hear them too. Check out the scene above to see what I'm talking about, and make sure you go see The Promotion when it arrives in theaters on June 6.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive behind the scenes clip from the upcoming comedy The Promotion. How do actors like Seann William Scott prepare for their roles? Do they exercise? Do they scream at random strangers on the street? Or do they watch themselves starring in other movies? In the video above, watch as a cameraman catches Seann William Scott off guard; sitting in his dressing room, on the floor, watching The Rundown. This is one of a few videos that will soon make their way online; all of which, I believe, were put together by writer-director Steve Conrad.

Since we loved The Promotion so much when we caught it at SXSW, there's a good chance you'll see a lot more, well, promotion for The Promotion on Cinematical leading up to its June 6 release. The film stars Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly as two nice guys who both happen to be competing for the same job as manager of a local supermarket. Check out the trailer over here, as well as pictures and the poster in the gallery below.

Just when I thought the day would end without a single bit of funny ... The Promotion trailer has finally arrived! You've probably heard us talk about this movie a good gazillion times already, but if you haven't, listen up: It's really good and stuff. Yes, a bunch of us here at Cinematical saw The Promotion when it premiered at SXSW in March and we absolutely fell in love with its characters, its story, its performances and its charm.

Written and directed by Steve Conrad (writer of The Pursuit of Happyness), The Promotion stars Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly as two guys who REALLY want to land the new managerial job at the supermarket across town. In fact, both will go to great lengths to get that job -- and, while the premise sounds sort of played, silly and uninteresting, the execution is wonderful. This is truly one of my favorite films of the year so far, and we hope you like it too. Moviefone just premiered the new trailer (see above), and they did a pretty good job setting the film up for you, tone and all. As I've said, it's Election set in a supermarket -- so when you watch the trailer, keep that in mind.

The Promotion hits theaters on June 6. Go see it!

God, I love this movie. Cinematical has received two exclusive stills for The Promotion, directed by Steve Conrad (writer of The Pursuit of Happyness and The Weather Man). You can check out larger versions of both photos in the gallery below, but listen up: Go see this flick when it arrives in theaters this June 6. I'll give you the same pitch I've been giving everyone else: Picture Election in a supermarket with older main characters. This isn't some stupid, cheesy broad comedy -- it's intelligent, it's hysterical and it features what is perhaps the best performance from Seann William Scott I've ever seen.

Essentially, The Promotion (read our review here) is about two nice guys who just happen to be going for the same job as manager of a new supermarket opening up across town. Toss in a slew of random characters, a well-written story and witty dialogue, and that's The Promotion. Yes, there are a bunch of other comedies opening up this summer with bigger stars, bigger budgets and bigger marketing campaigns. I'll say this, though: 10 bucks The Promotion turns out better than all of them. Easily my favorite comedy of the year so far.

Now stand up, walk over to your calendar and draw a big red circle around June 6. Underneath, in that little box, scribble in: "Need to see The Promotion." You'll thank us later.

A few years ago, we were treated subjected to a retail farce known as Employee of the Month, a near-witless comedy that pitted Dane Cook and Dax Shepard against each other as moronic clerks who vie for the title of (you guessed it) Employee of the Month. I knew there was a lot of room for successful comedy in this sort of premise, but aside from a stray chuckle or two, EOTM was an entirely stale and completely sitcom-level effort.

Now comes a very small, very funny, and oddly warm-hearted flick in sort of the same vein. It's called The Promotion; it stars Sean William Scott and John C. Reilly; it was written and directed by first-timer Steve Conrad ... and if it comes out in 2008, then it will definitely end up in my top ten of the year. (Conrad is a first-time director; his previous screenplays include Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, The Weather Man, and The Pursuit of Happyness.) This is a fantastic little comedy, filled with all sorts of weird little moments and strange diversions, but at its core, The Promotion is a profanely sweet-natured dual character study that doles out a LOT of laughs while actually celebrating ... small doses of actual humanity! It's a great comedy with an excellent message delivered by a bunch of actors who are clearly savoring the material. (My normal m.o. is to "champion" smaller horror flicks, but a good movie is a good movie, period. If I can turn a dozen people onto The Promotion, then I'm doing my job.)

When Christopher Campbell blogged about the upcoming CG-animated film Planet 51 last November, he suggested 3D and a few actors for the lead. Well, the actors are different, but when the film hits screens next year on July 24, it will travel to the third dimension. As for the cast, Variety reports that the voices taking this space adventure are Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, and Seann William Scott.

The Rock leads the cast of voices as the astronaut Chuck Baker. He lands on Planet 51 and thinks he's the first to step onto the surface. Not so, naive space traveling man. He soon discovers "green people who live in an innocent world right out of the 1950s, complete with the paranoia that they will be overrun by alien invaders." Whoops. There is no word on who the rest of the actors will voice, but I'll go out on a limb and say that planet's various greenies.

Now, when Christopher talked about the flick, he mentioned that the dude looked a little like Buzz Lightyear. He's definitely not far off -- Chuck looks like the typical CG lead. It's too bad they couldn't try to change up the look a bit, instead of continuing the goofy white boy look. I know, it's hard to come up with different looks since we all look alike, but as artists, that's their job! Argh... Maybe the next animated flick will mix things up a bit.

Big Brother was supposed to start production in January of this year, at least, according to early reports when Seann William Scott was cast. But what movie ever sticks to a schedule? When Paul Rudd joined in December, production was pushed back to April. But as of September, McLovin -aka- Christopher Mintz-Plasse signed on and production still hadn't started. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Elizabeth Banks has also signed on, to play Rudd's girlfriend who gets him into the Big Brother program -- and, it's finally into production.

Unfortunately, it's still having name issues. First, it was Big Brother; then, it became Little Big Men, which wasn't so good as it sounds like some sort of orphan drama or something; now, it's currently an "untitled mentor project." I have to admit, I'm pretty psyched about this flick, mainly because it was written by The Ten's David Wain (who is also directing) and Ken Marino, along with Rudd. Between Marino's work as Vinnie Van Lowe, Rudd's involvement, and James Rocchi's great interview with Wain and Marino back in August, you couldn't keep me away from this picture. Now that they've finally begun shooting, maybe we can see this sucker some time in the new year.