Demoted

Though it boasts a fairly promising setup, Demoted ultimately establishes itself as a hopelessly unfunny and thoroughly tedious comedy that grows more and more tedious as it progresses and squanders the efforts of its talented cast. The movie follows a couple of unlikable tire salesmen (Sean Astin’s Mike and Michael Vartan’s Rodney) as they’re demoted to secretaries after their nemesis (David Cross’ Ken Castro) becomes their boss, with the narrative, for the most part, detailing the pair’s efforts at adjusting to their new responsibilities. (It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Mike and Rodney eventually, and perhaps inevitably, begin a steady campaign of revenge against Cross’ mean-spirited character.) It’s clear immediately that Demoted‘s biggest problem is the obnoxiousness that’s been hard-wired into the two central protagonists, as both Mike and Rodney come off as vulgar, misogynistic jerks with little in the way of redeeming or even sympathetic qualities – which effectively does prevent the viewer from working up any interest in or enthusiasm for the duo’s ongoing exploits. Compounding matters is the decidedly (and palpably) conventional bent of Dan Callahan’s screenplay, as the scripter places a consistent emphasis on plot developments of a hopelessly familiar and hackneyed nature – including such stale tropes as the fake break-up and the character-mistakes-their-boss-for-an-underling device. Far more problematic is the film’s surfeit of disastrously unfunny jokes and gags (eg Rodney is forced to stare at his intimidating father-in-law’s penis during a verbal dressing down), with the pervasive lack of laughs ultimately cementing Demoted‘s place as a pointless and seriously misguided piece of work.

*1/2 out of ****