The Interview

What a waste of time, the publicity surrounding this movie cannot be bought, it was priceless, and so I had to watch it, stayed in Christmas eve expecting rubbish, and sure enough Sony delivered ..

I enjoyed "world police" so I gave this a try because when I looked on IMDb they recommended this movie as well, everyone has to watch it of course. So thank you Sony for creating difficult international relations and wasting millions of viewing hours on trash like this.

The scripts coming out of Hollywood are getting paper thin, this was "rice paper thin" absolutely dreadful, but again, you have to see it don't you

I enjoyed much of the humor when it came to Kim Jung Un and his love of Katy Perry. The actor there did a great job of making Kim Jung Un kinda both adorable and psychopathic.

Whether it was necessary though that they had to portray a real dictator is another matter. I personally feel like it was a smart, ballsy choice, that paid off in terms of the buzz it generated. But unfortunately, the overall end product was a pretty generic and pre-packaged "Hangover" style comedy in terms of plot, character, acting, dialogue, editing, and so forth.

In terms of entertainment, there is certainly some, but the Korean actors who sound like they can't really speak Korean, and the characters who have the same word choices and speech patterns even though they live countries apart, and the casting of Seth Rogen who doesn't really have a new role to play, was just a lot of poor direction and casting.

Still, has some moments of good humor, and higher potential than was ultimately realized by artistic, technical and popular standards.

"The Interview" (2014 release; 112 min.) brings the story of how an entertainment reporter Dave Skylark (played by James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapoport (played by Seth Rogen) get an opportunity to interview Kim Jong-un. the "Supreme Leader" of North Korea. As the movie opens, we see a young girl (maybe 7 or 8) sing a patriotic song for North Korean officials. The song turns hilariously into an anti-America rant. Soon thereafter, we see Skylark interview Eminem (another hilarious scene). When Skylark and Rapoport find out that Jng-un is a big fan of the show, they manage an invite to North Korea. The CIA then pays a visit and convinces the guys that they need to "take out" Jong-un. At this point we're barely 20 min. into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience.

Couple of comments: at this point as much needs to be said about the events surrounding the limited release of the movie as about the movie itself. Let's start with the movie itself: first and foremost, I had heard and read mixed things about the movie, so when my (grown) kids and I went to see it on Christmas day, I had pretty low expectations. Turns out the movie is actually not nearly as bad as I had been led the believe. Yes, there is stupid "potty" humor and yes, it's all very much over the top. But there are zingers left and right that will have you smile if not laugh out loud. One of the many, many examples: when Jong-un and Skylark are taking a tour of Jong-un's place, at some point they come across a huge tank. Comments Jong-un: "That was a gift to my grandfather by Stalin". Replies Skylark: "in our country, we pronounce that Stallone", ha! And on and on. Randall Park as Kim Jong-un is outstanding. Kudos also to Set Rogen, who also co-rwote and co-directed the movie.

As to the limited release, I at first was horrified that Sony gave in to the threats, but felt better when the limited Christmas day release was announced. The movie played on one screen at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and it's a good thin I had bought tickets on-line beforehand, as the matinée screening was sold out (as were all other screenings, apparently). The crowd was really into it, laughing and hollering and whooping it up. When the end titles started rolling, the crowd even gave an applause. In all, this truly was a "movie event", and all three of us were very happy we were part of it. "The Interview" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Honestly, I wasn't impressed with the trailer and thought this movie was going to be stupid. But this movie is hilarious! I found myself laughing out loud at least every few minutes or so. If you don't like Seth Rogen's brand of humor or raunchy comedies then you won't like this movie. However, if you loved Pineapple Express or This Is The End, then you will probably love this movie too. Most people who hate this movie went in expecting the wrong thing because of all the hype. The Interview hits all of marks you would expect a Seth Rogen comedy to. Crazy action scenes? Check. Ridiculous characters? Check. Funny jokes with an occasional heartfelt serious moment? Check.

Sure there are some moments that are too over the top or that go on for too long but all in all really funny. James Franco as the idiot is really good. Reminded me of South Park with their take on a dictator. How do you make fun of them? Turn them into everything they hate.

Of course this movie isn't Wag the Dog or some smart political commentary or satire movie because it was never intended to be. It's a comedy from Seth Rogan. That miserable SOB Kim Jon Un just turned it into that. As he should be offended since his country doesn't have freedom of speech and I'm sure he's never been criticized in his entire life. I only wish that they made fun of how fat that pathetic little man is, because that's such an easy target and beyond the hair adds to his goofy unthreatening, ungodly appearance. Really a missed opportunity, the fact that he says that he doesn't pee or poop and that he is a God and that he is really fat is too funny. you wonder if because he doesn't have to go to the bathroom that it's still inside of him and that's why he's such a fat piece of crap.