Anyone with more than a passing interest in Judd Apatow's career will note how there's a curious call-back to one of Apatow's earlier works in this most recent of his productions, with the credits for Step Brothers in the exact same scrawled, stretched-out font as his comedy Freaks and Geeks. Freaks and Geeks, though, featured teens who often spoke and acted like adults; Step Brothers features adults who constantly speak and act like children.

The credit-font's evocation of an earlier Apatow work is an omen for the rest of Step Brothers, in fact, with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly recycling and amplifying their rivalry from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (also directed by Step Brothers helmer Adam McKay) but without that film's plot structure, surreal wit or inspired mockery (and celebration) of NASCAR culture; instead, Step Brothers seems constructed -- or, rather, contrived -- solely to create a circumstance where Ferrell and Reilly can act like idiot man-children and riff to their great amusement. That, however, is not the same thing as riffing to the amusement of the audience. ...

It's finally time for Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly to bunk together in Step Brothers, which means it is time for another edition of Moviefone's Unscripted -- questions from the readers and questions off the top of their heads all mixed into one! Above you can check out an exclusive clip, which you won't see in the Moviefone segment, where Ferrell discusses Anchorman 2. After that, head over to Moviefone and spend a few minutes with the funny men. They chide Moviefone for the title of this series, and then they discuss focusing the hate, little baby ham hands, and one heck of an awesome shot-by-shot remake idea they had. When you hear what it is, remember the movie's shower scene and imagine the possible sexiness.

Step Brothers opens this Friday.

Way back in November, John C. Reilly signed on to play Larten Crepsley in the adaptation of Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak. Since then, we've gotten a sneak peek at Salma Hayek's bearded lady, but nothing of the sharp-toothed Crepsley -- until now! Empire has posted a first look at Reilly's character, which you can see cropped on the right. (It's a little bigger over at Empire, but unfortunately, not much.)

The film focuses on a 14-year-old kid, Darren Shan (Chris Kelly), who visits an illegal freak show, sneaks in after hours, and gets thrust into a life of freak shows and vampiric servitude. The photo shows Shan and Crepsley, so maybe this is when the poor kid getting pulled into the freakish life. Although really, I think Crepsley's outfit is the most freakish thing. That, and the darkly rouged cheeks.

The flick should hit US shores in 2008, before the scheduled UK release in February of 2009.

*Note: Both the real Darren Shan and the kid who plays the fictional Darren Shan use two names. To clear up confusion between the Empire report, here, and IMDb: The young actor goes by Chris Kelly and Chris Massoglia, while Darren Shan is also known as Darren O'Shaughnessy.

Today YouTube launched a new section of its site titled The YouTube Screening Room, which it calls a "platform for films from around the world to find the audiences they deserve." Here, they will showcase four short films every two weeks and will even offer an occasional feature. Some of the films have been previously screened at film festivals and some have been nominated for or have won an Academy Award. But others will be premiering on the site. Apparently, the filmmakers will be paid a percentage of YouTube's ad revenue based on views and each film will also feature a "Buy Now" button so that you can purchase that film or other films.

Today's debuts include Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?, a 2005 short written by Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know), directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl) and starring John C. Reilly, Mike White and July. I've embedded it above for your viewing pleasure. The other three are The Danish Poet, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 2007, Love and War, which is a stop motion opera from Sweden, and Our Time is Up, which was nominated for Best Live Action Short in 2006 and which stars Kevin Pollak.

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.

The first trailer for Step Brothers was pretty sweet, but if you want a healthy dose of unsuitable language with your trailer, you can check out the new red band version above. It contains many of the same scenes, plus a planet of bulls**t in a galaxy of ... well, you have to watch the trailer to find out. My only complaint: I think that this is the perfect example of why that disembodied voice is really overused, and not necessary. The regular trailer used some on-screen scribbling and was all sorts of great, but the voiceover in the red band really takes away from the whole thing.

Nevertheless, this is looking like a kickass movie. I wasn't sure when I first heard about it, but I've been convinced. The comedy follows Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as two grown men who won't leave home, and become step brothers when their parents marry. After a rough start, they realize that they're a lot alike and become best friends in adult slackerdom. We've included the trailer after the jump since it's R-rated and full of foul language. Definitely NSFW, so watch at your own risk.

The film will hit theaters on July 25.

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.