The trailer for “The Promotion” made me want to avoid it like a new VH1 reality show.

But, trooper that I am, I saw it anyway and rediscovered how deceiving trailers can be. Check out my review over at my other film site Movies in Toto.

One intriguing element I didn’t have room to discuss in my review are scenes in which black hooligans make life tough for Seann William Scott’s character. Would audiences find these sequences offensive? Accurate? Both?

Here’s writer/director Steven Conrad tackling the matter at Ain’t It Cool News (hat tip: Sonny Bunch):

I’ve noticed that some of our content [in THE PROMOTION] that concerns African-Americans, Latinos, some people are made a little uncomfortable by it. And, I don’t know what to say about that except that no one gets off under my consideration. I am as hard on depicting the white board members as being narrow-minded and insufficient as I am in depicting this gang of 19-year-olds as being unsavory and unpleasant in the way their day-to-day language makes the customers feel, which is…It’s all I’m doing. And, if I didn’t bump into it in life, I wouldn’t write about it.

The movie likely won’t be seen by enough people for these depictions to cause a stir. But if they do, it could be good publicity for a film that really could use some extra attention.

Writer/director Mike Reilly and producer Jonathon Kitchen teamed up to create “Road to Victory,” an independent feature about a college quarterback (Reilly) struggling with sexual dysfunction. But their film also tackled the world of collegiate sports, the expectations that come along with it, even steroids. Here, I talk to the creative team about their film and future plans.

WWTW: Tell me about the inspiration behind “Road to Victory.”

Mike Reilly: The inspiration for the film can really be boiled down to two things - an original and fascinating subject matter and the opportunity to explore the human condition in an extremely intimate matter. I think that it could be argued that these two elements have been at the heart of what has drawn man to the storyteller ever since we first started doing it.

Jonathon Kitchen: The initial concept for the script was related to Mike while he was in college, and the story was shared with him personally by an acquaintance he played football with. Mike was completing his pre-med degree at that time, and saw a lot of correlation between his friend’s plight, and some of the nagging doubts he himself had about the medical profession he was about to enter.

While the story originated in the world of college sports, we never set out to make a sports movie. We always felt that the issues presented in the film related to everyone, and not just athletes. Football was always meant to be just a backdrop, so we could have the character of an athlete; someone with an innate drive that an audience could understand had something important at stake. [click to continue...]

I can hear the “Get Smart” theme in so clearly in my head as Don Adams marches past a series of impenetrable sliding metal doors.

The new comedy “Get Smart” tries to honor that spirit, but it forgets to faithfully bring the old Maxwell Smart along with it.

My Washington Times review explains just where the film adaptation got it right. I couldn’t pick a better Maxwell Smart than Steve Carell, but his interpretation of the character misses that certain something that Adams so effortlessly brought to the series.

Road pictures seemed the exclusive domain of the male movie star - until a little flick called “Thelma & Louise” came along.

I often find myself going to great lengths to defend Adam Carolla.

Movie fans can see that side of him in “The Hammer,” his new movie out now on DVD. The film skipped most theaters, but it’s a funny, sweet “Rocky” story that shouldn’t be missed.

Mike Myers can’t say the public didn’t know about his latest comic character, “The Love Guru.”

The comedian trotted him out on the “American Idol” season finale, for cryin’ out loud. As soapboxes go, it doesn’t get much bigger than that. And that’s in addition to the usual marketing frenzy surrounding a big-budget picture like “The Love Guru.”

Still, his film tanked by summer movie standards. My Washington Times breakdown explores just why Guru Pitka won’t be joining Austin Powers in Myers’ franchise collection.

I’m a sucker for killer ventroliquist dummy movies. Can’t help myself. As a boy I was scared silly just by the ads for “Magic,” the Anthony Hopkins thriller about a ventriloquist dummy with an evil glint in his eye. Still creeps me out.

They hit some bumps along the way - namely the litter of bodies they leave in their wake.

It’s all meant to be tongue-in-cheek nastiness, but it ends up more nasty than funny. Dummy is a creepy doll, all right, but he’s on screen so much his horrific impact is muted.

“Triloquist” has little to recommend it, but so help me if it’s on cable one night I bet I’ll stick around for a few scenes. For Dummy’s sake, of course.

What Would Toto Watch 2.0 is here … or at least until the next technical glitch hits.

My apologies for a very rough blogging weekend, but I will be back on schedule as of Monday July 7. The site will still be changing in the days and weeks to come, so please bear with me.

I’ll be reposting much of my old blog content - primarily my film and DVD reviews. They’ll have their own page soon.

Again, my apologies for the break in the action. There might be a couple more hiccups along the way, but I’ll keep them as brief as possible.

I’m glad I have a thick skin …

I’m one of the few critics listed at Rotten Tomatoes who gave “WALL*E” a less than stellar review - call us the 4 Percenters (the film got a 96 percent “Fresh” rating). And I got slammed - hard - in the comments section of the site. So did the few others who gave it a less than glowing review.

What gives? None of my other reviews have inspired this sort of vitriol.

From my initial head scratching I can point to two reasons for the assault on me - and some of the comments are pretty ugly.

• It’s the politics, stupid. The film has a pro-environment, anti-consumer subtext (well, it’s more like text, really). As a critic I’m paid to look past that, and frankly if I were to thumb my nose at every left-leaning film I’d be exhausted. I don’t work that way, but at the same time I have to mention those elements in my reviews.
• There’s a huge group of Pixar lovers, and they won’t tolerate their beloved studio getting criticized. Heck, I’m a Pixar lover … unabashedly so. This one just let me down.