The TV Addict 

THE PROMOTION
THE PROMOTION is a film that on the surface appears to be a Will Ferrell/Ben Stiller style comedy featuring two supermarket assistant managers – Richard (John C. Reilly) and Doug (Sean William Scott) vying for the same promotion, finding themselves engaged in increasingly escalating attempts at sabotaging the other. After about half an hour though you’ll realize you’re watching something different all together, and even a little special. THE PROMOTION is certainly funny, but largely because it’s rooted mostly in awkward familiarity and sadness. Richard and Doug aren’t Stiller-like caricatures, but rather average guys going to outlandish extremes (yet are they so outlandish and unrealistic?) to achieve something instantly recognizable and understandable: struggling to get by and wanting to improve their station in life for both themselves and their loved ones. In other words, they are not unlike a lot of us, which is why the laughter comes so readily in this film. How can we not laugh when recognizing ourselves in these guys struggling in the dog-eat-dog corporate most of us need to get by in? If you aren’t smiling at the movie’s portrayal of retail/corporate culture and politics – not because of its outlandishness, but rather because it’s eerily dead-on – then you’ve probably never been part of that world. For those of us who have, you’ll find an observant film that gives us great relatable characters, but most of all the ability to (temporarily at least) laugh at ourselves a little bit, and the rat race so many of us have to run.
Overall rating: B+

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
From the original review: “FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is the funniest film I’ve seen all year, and yet while I was watching the film my laughter felt strangely hollow. Throughout all the great lines, and performances, and comedic set pieces, it was always there…In the end it’s maybe not that there was anything missing, but that what was there was too tangential, too meandering, and too unfocused. I never got the sense of having had a complete, fulfilling experience. It’s undoubtedly a witty, clever script, just maybe not an accomplished one. Sometimes a comedy being funny is more than enough. Sometimes you need a little more than that.”
Overall rating: B

IRON MAN (stay tuned for a Second Look review later this week)
From the original review: “There’s no shortage of things that work well in IRON MAN…[Most of all though] in the end, I realized it’s rare that I leave a two-hour film, not only feeling like time flew by, but thinking sadly: ‘That’s it? There’s no more?’”
Overall rating: A

KABLUEY
For a while now the Sundance Film Festival has so cultivated a reputation of being the place for movies that are often quirky, odd, off-beat, and angsty, that it’s more or less emerged as a genre onto itself. You could tell a co-worker a movie you just saw was very “Sundance” and in all likelihood they’ll have a decent idea of what you mean. The problem is the success of this pseudo-genre has encouraged imitators who aim to make self-indulgent, quirk for quirks sake movies. KABLUEY is such a film. It flaunts its supposed eccentricity with such obvious desperation that it’s embarrassingly transparent in its attempts to scream at us: isn’t this quirky and hilarious?! Well, it’s neither. Except for a few emotional moments that hit home, the film is boring and plodding, too impressed and self-aware of its attempts at NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE tone. If you want a proper “Sundance” film then go rent JUNEBUG or THE GO-GETTER instead.
Overall rating: C-