While North Korea may be a terrible place (if we believe everything we read) The Interview starring Seth Rogen and James Franco is far worse...
While North Korea may be a terrible place (if we believe everything we read) The Interview starring Seth Rogen and James Franco is far worse. While that statement may be a bit disingenuous to North Koreans, this movie is nothing but disingenuous to cinema going audiences.
After an avalanche of publicity with Sony Pictures getting hacked because of a movie that follows TV talk show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) go to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-Un and assassinate him at the request of the CIA, The Interview finally arrives on this side of the pond.
It’s not that The Interview is bad, it’s brutal. Rogen and Franco are two of the most genuinely talented people out there, both with impeccable comedic skills, timing and personality. How they managed to end up producing this shit heap is incredible. Co-directed by Rogen and long time collaborator Evan Goldberg, The Interview is a prime example of Hollywood gone nuts.
Not nuts in the sense of the movie story, but nuts in the fact that a $44 Million parted hands to get this made. Franco, Goldberg and Rogen blew this money on a bunch of scenes and Sony pictures had to hobble some kind of 112 minute feature from this disaster. The editor who put this together would have been better off in a North Korean gulag.
The story and plot, while a bit daft are perfectly fine. But it’s the disjointed scenes and incredibly brutal dialogue that tear this movie apart. Every scene seems to go on and on and on and on. The Eminem scene at the beginning is a prime example. It just goes on for what seems an eternity with the same joke being burned out within seconds. There is a finger biting scene that drags itself out, repeating the same old schtick so much that you may well lose the will to live. Did anybody on set know how to say CUT?
I’m sure at the time of shooting this all seemed hilarious, but did anybody look at the footage after it was shot? Did anyone think “You know what, this is a big pile of shit?” It’s a steaming pile of self indulgence with Rogen and Franco proving that, at least here, they haven’t got a clue when it comes to comedy, and that’s a shame, as they obviously do, based on past endeavours.
Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) is tolerable and to his credit Randall Park is pretty likeable as Kim Jong-Un. James Franco and Seth Rogen while watchable, are incredibly annoying for the best part as they drag the life out of jokes that have died minutes previous.
Is there anything redeeming about The Interview? The end credits. That’s about it. James Franco and Seth Rogen (and Evan Goldberg) are so much better than this, in fact this kind of junk is beneath them. Taking a shit into a bucket and pouring it over your head will provide you more entertainment than The Interview. Avoid!
