It has been a long road for ‘The Interview’. Between Sony being hacked and being pulled from theaters, it has finally arrived for our viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, pleasure is not what you will get from watching this movie. The Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg directed film is full of cheap, racist jokes and is in very poor taste. After seeing the movie, I now see that it is all hype and that it is unfortunate that this movie is now the current face of freedom of speech.
‘The Interview’ is about an interviewer named Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer/friend Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) who go to North Korea after scoring an interview with its dictator, Kim Jong-un (Randall Park). Before flying out to North Korea, Dave and Aaron are approached by CIA Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) with a mission to kill the reclusive dictator. Dave is meant to shake Un’s hand which will deliver a deadly dose of ricin attached to a patch on Dave’s hand.
Once inside Kim Jong-un’s home, Dave is wined and dined by the dictator and reveals that he is an avid fan of margaritas and Katy Perry. Un reveals that his father never approved of him due to his “feminine” traits. Dave, Aaron and Un’s communications director-turned-revolutionary Sook (Diana Bang) use this against him in their interview together. In a plan hatched by the three of them, they try to make Un cry in order to show the North Korean people that their leader isn’t a god and to spur a revolution.
Their plan ends up working out in the end and North Korea becomes a democratic country.
The happy ending does not however change that this comedy is hardly worth seeing for the laughs. Nearly two hours of poop, anal, sex, sexist, racist and gay jokes later, you find yourself quickly wishing the movie would hurry up and be over. The movie just recycles the same jokes used in others and brings nothing new to the table.
I may not endorse anything that the leader of North Korea does, but a fictional film centered around the assassination of any leader is in very poor taste. I can understand how any country would be angry over this movie, it just so happened that the country they picked is irrational enough to support the hack one of Hollywood’s biggest studios and terrorist threats on any theater showing the film.
The only reason why you would see this movie is to endorse freedom of speech. Since the release online and in independent theaters across the country, the film has sold out, making $1 million of Christmas day and shooting to the top of the digital download sites, legal and illegal. I think it is important to endorse seeing this movie just as a way of saying that you can’t silence our art but it is unfortunate that such a dumb movie is the face of freedom of speech.
So, see the movie to support our right to say what we want, but don’t see it to be entertained. Film Mention gives ‘The Interview’ one and a half film reels.
‘The Interview’ was released on December 25, 2014 and stars James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park and Diana Bang. The film is directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
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