Having recently watched the amazingly disappointing Step Brothers with John C. Reilly and Will Farrell, I was not expecting much when I watched Reilly star alongside Seann William Scott in what looked to me like your standard rivalry comedy. But it's my job to watch movies so I was forced to sit through it, and I must say I was certainly pleasantly surprised.

Scott is Doug Stauber, a regular guy with a regular job at a supermarket and he's looking to get a promotion to store manager. He sees a career and a simple but comfortable life with his young wife and their dream of a small home and a happy family. He's a good guy and he works hard, and we want him to get the job.

The simplicity of his character is illustrated in a charming interaction with his wife, where she assures him that things will be okay, she can get a job and help them make money.

Doug: "I wanna be the primary breadwinner, Jen."

Jen: "Female lions do the hunting…"

Doug: "I'm not a lion, I'm a guy…"

But then a Richard Wehlner, a charming Canadian transfer, arrives and they each realize that they are both seeking the same position. Richard has more experience than Richard and is probably more qualified for the job, and he also has his own wife and daughter and is also a great guy. Doug and Richard respect and even like each other, which makes their competition genuinely interesting.

The movie centers on each man's inability to figure out how they are supposed to respond to and treat each other. They both want to be amiable and friendly, but they each realize that they have to destroy the other's hopes in order to achieve their own. The escalation of their competition and the gradual collapse of their formality is far more than I had expected from the movie, and the best way that the movie succeeds is that it makes us want to root for both of them.

I noticed another user said on the IMDb that the movie was like an attempt to "pull a Jim Carrey or Will Farrell." This person has missed the point of the movie so completely and so ridiculously that it's difficult for me to believe that he actually watched it. The Promotion is a smart movie starring two guys best known for doing not very smart comedy. All have made a step forward here and they should be recognized for it. Bravo!

Doug Stauber (Seann William Scott) is a pushover assistant manager of a Chicago supermarket. There is a new store coming and he's a sho-in as the new manager. Richard Wehlner (John C. Reilly) is the new assistant manager transferring from Canada and it's on.

When Seann goes quiet, he loses his energy. He's not as funny and he turns into a weasel. This seems to be a movie looking for the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly pairing. I'm trying to find the humor. It's hard when Doug is so pathetic and so stressed. It boils down to this. I don't like him. I don't even care if bad things happen to him. That's a bad thing for a comedy. I wonder if Reilly should take on the Doug role and SWS should go full evil with the Richard role.

I bought this movie on a whim, finding it by sheer random luck in the store. I saw who was in the movie and I thought this would actually make for a good comedy. So I had my hopes up for the movie.

Having seen it now, I am somewhat disappointed. Now, the story in itself is not a bad one, not at all. There were some nice pointers to the storyline and some great moments. However, for me at least, there weren't all that many laughs in the movie. I was expecting more comedy from the movie.

Seann William Scott (playing Doug Stauber) and John C. Reilly did add their own personal touches to the movie and their characters. However, I just think that Johnn C. Reilly wasn't allowed to really shine through here, because he has some other movies that were far funnier than this, and that made his performance in this movie pale in comparison. Fred Armisen (playing Scott Fargas) was also quite good in this movie, despite having only a supporting role.

"The Promotion" has a good storyline, but it is not really all that rich on comedy, which was a disappointment to me. For me, all in all, this movie was fairly mediocre, and there are better movies out there with both John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott.