For this week's Trailer Park we're taking a Rube Goldberg approach, with an intricate series of mechanisms (metaphorically speaking) allowing us to careen from one trailer to the next by one connection or other. Ready? Let's start with: X-Files: I Want to Believe Yes, I want to believe too. X-Files became unwatchable for me in its last few years on the air, but prior to that it was one of the best hours of dramatic television ever. I'd love to see the series revived as a successful film franchise, but this trailer isn't doing much for me. We have the reappearance of Fox Muldar (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), as well as the theme from the TV show, but the rest is a muddle of chaotic imagery. This being X-Files, details are being kept to a minimum, but I'm not seeing enough here to get me revved up, which is how I was hoping to feel. Here's Elisabeth's take on it. And speaking of Gillian Anderson...
Just when I thought the day would end without a single bit of funny ... The Promotiontrailer 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 Promotionwhen 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.
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'sThe 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.
As I mention every chance I get, we at Cinematicallooooove Steve Conrad's scrappy little comedy The Promotion. And now we have the official poster (courtesy of those folks over at The Weinstein Co.), which contains the words that are music to our ears: "Coming This June." Of course it's a Weinstein Co. special, so you never know, but this is certainly a good sign. The film recently had a promo screening here in Philadelphia (probably another good sign), and I convinced a few prominent local critics to attend. That means that if they didn't like it, they probably now hate me. But so be it.
According to the Weinstein Co. website, The Promotion -- which remains my favorite film of the year -- has an official release date of June 6th. And if you promise to go see it, I promise I'll shut up about it for a while.
My favorite part of attending a film festival comes when you discover a smaller film that hits you in a way that almost forces you to throw up everything you know about the flick whenever someone asks. They could be, like, "So, how ya feeling today?" And then you can't help but answer, "I'm good ... but you HAVE to see this friggin' film. It's called (insert the title) and it's unbelievable -- easiest the best thing I've seen in the history of best things I've seen ... times a gabillion!"
Okay, maybe you don't flip out like that -- but you get the idea. So far this year I've hit up Sundance, Slamdance and SXSW, with plans to soon visit the Gen Art Film Festival here in New York, as well as Tribeca soon after. Thankfully, I've seen two films that absolutely rocked my world, and if I could use every other post just to write about them -- in the hopes all of you will go see these films, and champion them -- I would. But I can't. So from time to time, I will pop in, mention the titles and hope something sticks. As of right now, these are the two films I am championing this year: The Hottie and the Nottie and ... just kidding. Kidding, people. I'm KIDDING! God! Chill out.
AnyWAY, here are the two films: Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father (Slamdance) and The Promotion(SXSW). The first is a gripping, tear-jerker of a documentary from a very cool dude named Kurt Kuenne. Alex from First Showing went to see Zachary at SXSW on my recommendation and it blew him away. It will blow you away. Fingers crossed a deal comes soon ... and you bet I'll be back telling you all about it.
The Promotion, on the other hand, is all the way on the other end of the spectrum. It's a comedy. A dry comedy ... where Seann William Scott plays the straight man -- go figure. Not sure if the Weinstein Co. know they have a little gem in their basket; hopefully Kirk Honeycutt didn't scare them stupid. This one is set to come out on June 6, so make sure you're there.
Which films are you absolutely nutty about this year -- to the point where you stop random strangers in the street to tell them all about it?
Written and directed by Daniel Stemm, A Necessary Death follows Gilbert Toma, a student working on a film for his final thesis. His intentions are to find a person who is not only suicidal, but has also set a date to go through with ending their life. Gilbert wants to follow them around, learn about their life, their struggles, what have you, right up until the point where they actually commit suicide. Joining Gilbert are his two friends/production buddies, Valerie and Mike, as well as their camera operator, Daniel.
Regarding your quote: "The Promotion must be one of the unfunniest comedies ever."
Subject: Your New Netflix Queue
2001: A Space Travesty, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Amos & Andrew, Are We Done Yet?, Baby Geniuses 2, B*A*P*S, Because I Said So, The Benchwarmers, Big Momma's House 2, Black Knight, Blue Streak, Boat Trip, Bratz, Bringing Down the House, Caddyshack 2, Celtic Pride, Chairman of the Board, Christmas with the Kranks, The Comebacks,Cop and a Half, Daddy Day Camp, Date Movie, Deck the Halls, Delta Farce, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Eight Crazy Nights, Employee of the Month, Evan Almighty, The Ex, Exit to Eden, Dirty Love, Down to Earth, Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, Envy, Epic Movie, For Richer or Poorer, Freddy Got Fingered, Good Luck Chuck, Gold Diggers, Gone Fishin', Grandma's Boy, Head of State, The Hottie and the Nottie, How High, It's Pat!, Jingle All the Way, Jury Duty, Just My Luck, Juwanna Mann, Kazaam, Kickin' It Old Skool, King's Ransom, Krippendorf's Tribe, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Leonard Part 6, Little Nicky, Let's Go to Prison, License to Wed, Little Man, Look Who's Talking Too, Loose Cannons, Love Stinks, The Man, Man of the Year, Mannequin 2: On the Move, Marci X, The Master of Disguise, Meet the Spartans, Meet Wally Sparks, Monster-in-Law, Mr. Woodcock, Must Love Dogs, My Baby's Daddy, My Boss's Daughter, New York Minute, Norbit, Nothing But Trouble, Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow, Ready to Rumble, Ringmaster, Say It Isn't So, Serving Sara, Snow Dogs, Son of the Mask, Soul Plane, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Strange Wilderness, Stroker Ace, Tomcats, Uptown Girls, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, The Wash, Weekend at Bernie's 2, Whipped, Who's Your Caddy, White Chicks, Wild Hogs, Without a Paddle, Witless Protection, You, Me & Dupree
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.)
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SCOOP: Spider-Man 4 and 5 Might be Shot at the Same Time!
Cinematical Seven: Disney's Awesome Live-Action Kid Adventures
