Demoted (2011)

Directed by: JB Rogers | 90 minutes | comedy | Actors: Michael Vartan, David Cross, Sean Astin, Celia Weston, Sara Foster, Ron White, Constance Zimmer, Patrick St. Esprit, Cleo King, Jill Bartlett, Cathy Shim, Jay Johnston, George Back, Robert Klein, Billy West, Arcadiy Golubovich, Theo Williamson, Ruth Crawford, Jim Ochs, Greg Trzaskoma, Rich Marentette, Jennifer Soop, Kerry Birmingham

What happens when the two clumsy men from the sales department suddenly have to do the work of secretaries? Or maybe we should start at the beginning: What happens when the office piss pole suddenly becomes everyone’s boss? Right, then he’ll get revenge on the biggest bullies. The department’s two best salespeople and coincidentally best friends get ‘demoted’; the opposite of promoted. The tough men are now suddenly secretaries and have to work with the womenfolk they have treated so badly all this time. Now they actually learn how hard the work of the secretariat is, and of course they don’t do anything at all.

The two buddies, Mike (Sean Astin) and Rodney (Michael Vartan), are suddenly the ‘coffee bitches’ and have to endure the jokes and bullying that the other secretaries have to endure. Of course they don’t just let this pass them by and take it up for themselves and the women. However, the men also have their personal problems, Rodney has an annoying father-in-law and does not dare to tell his fiancé about his “demotion”. Mike still lives with his parents.

Director James B. Rogers is best known for his collaboration on the ‘American Pie’ film series, and has directed the second of it. ‘Demoted’ has quite funny moments, less bland than in the aforementioned films, but never really hilarious. The characters are given little depth, the viewer even gets so little information from the betrothed that it is difficult to empathize with the relationship problems.

While ‘Demoted’ is certainly entertaining, the story is very clichéd. Not only the structure is not very original – the men are taught a lesson in humility and from now on behave like angels – the division of roles is also quite stereotypical. The men against the women, the popular boys compete for the pathetic women against the frustrated nerd, whereby they also become a bit more feminine themselves. This should not spoil the fun, because it is still quite a funny film with nice roles for Sean Astin (played hobbit Sam from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ among others) and Michael Vartan (lesser known, but can be seen in TV series “Alias”). The duo works well together and comes across as very convincing as adolescent but sweet men with a small heart.